Her Dear & Loving Husband

To escape the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles and a bad divorce, Sarah Alexander moves to Salem, Massachusetts, known for the infamous Salem Witch Trials held in the 1600s. Within days of arriving, Sarah meets the man of her dreams, literally. Handsome English professor James Wentworth is the man she sees herself with every night in a reoccurring dream. James’ first impression of Sarah is that he has just seen his dead wife’s ghost. James is not about to tell Sarah, because his wife died hundreds of years ago during the hysteria of the witch trials. Author Meredith Allard weaves a fascinating story in Her Dear and Loving Husband, book one of The Loving Husband Trilogy.

Readers learn early on that James is a vampire. He has lived without his beloved wife for decades and cannot seem to move on. Sarah has secrets of her own. She has always suffered from nightmares that leave her shaken when she wakes up. In Salem, they get worse and she begins to experience dreams about the witch trials filled with arrests, hangings, death, and despair. Are Sarah and James connected? Can James dodge a snoopy reporter set on revealing what he is? The title of the book refers to a poem by a woman declaring her eternal love to her husband.

Allard combines historical fiction, romance, and paranormal fantasy. She does a nice job of setting the scene and readers feel like they are walking through the shaded streets of Salem along with the characters. It is clear that she has done her research about Salem and the witch trials. Allard tackles themes of reincarnation, eternal love, second chances, and redemption. It is a very ambitious project, and the author succeeds in tying everything together to create a unique, mysterious, memorable story. Allard’s second book comes out in Spring 2012.