TOGETHER IN STARLIGHT (STARLIGHT #2) by Susan MacNicol_Review

Review of Together in Starlight by Susan MacNicol (Starlight Series #2)

5 stars

When I read a novel by Susan MacNicol, there are several aspects that stick with me, long after I’ve read the book (for example, I still remember fondly what I so enjoyed of the first book in this series, “Cassandra by Starlight,” which I read more than six months earlier). Ms. MacNicol is such an excellent writer that each novel seems to fly past, and I’m finished almost before I realize I’ve reached the last page. That’s one aspect I remember! Then there’s the intriguingly complex plotting, a second aspect not-to-forget. But above all, I remember and love Ms. MacNicol’s incredible ability with characters. Not for her the standard two-dimensional male lead, whose only requirements are good looks, sexiness, and sensual appeal to the female lead; nor the two-dimensional female lead—flirty, attractive, a fine figure (according to whatever male lead’s ideals are), and appealing to the male lead, who simply must possess her. Yes, Ms. MacNicol has attractive, sexy, sensually appealing protagonists; but that’s NOT ALL. Ms. MacNicol, who must possess both a wonderful imagination and an analytic discernment of character and of interpersonal interactions, gives us the most incredibly fully-fleshed-out, well-rounded, three-dimensional characters. She gets in close and personal, digs in deep, till we know these folks better than we know ourselves; and because we know them, we can love them, admire them, grieve-joy-laugh with them; and we carry them with us long after that final page is turned.