Sitting in the close, warm cockpit with my instructor, I went through my checklist with single-minded determination and then powered my little plane up. I wasn’t nervous; I was humming with anticipation.
Being in a single-engine prop is a sensory experience. The engine buzzes so loud that you need headphones to hear your instructor. The cockpit vibrates, and you feel each and every bump through the seat of your pants as you taxi right to the runway.
It only takes about sixty miles per hour to achieve liftoff, but the sensation of suddenly going weightless put my heart in my throat. I let out a giddy laugh as the ground dropped away and the sky rushed to meet me. It was one of the best experiences of my life.
And all because I read a book.
Now that I am an author, I think of the power in my hands, to transport readers to another life and perhaps inspire someone to try something new. And while Mary and Jack do not take off in a plane—they live in 1885, after all—there might be a dirigible in their future.
From the desk of Anna Sullivan
Dear Reader,
I grew up in a big family—eight brothers and sisters—so you can imagine how crowded and noisy, quarrelsome and fun it was. We all have different distinct personalities, of course, and it made for some interesting moments. Add in a couple of dogs, friends in and out, and, well, you get the picture.
I was the shy kid taking it all in, not watching from the sidelines, but often content to sit on them with a good book in my hands. Sometimes I’d climb a big old elm tree behind our house, cradle safely in the branches, and lose myself in another world while the wind rustled in the leaves and the tree creaked and swayed.
Looking back, it’s no wonder how I ended up a writer, and it’s not hard to understand why my stories seem to need a village to come to life. For me, the journey always starts with the voices of the hero and heroine talking incessantly in my head, but what fun would they have without a whole cast of characters to light up their world?
The people of Windfall Island are a big, extended family, one where all the relatives are eccentric and none of them are kept out of sight. No, they bring the crazy right out and put it on display. They’re gossip-obsessed, contentious, and just as apt to pick your pocket as save your life—always with a wink and a smile.
Maggie Solomon didn’t grow up there, but the Wind-fallers took her in, gave her a home, made her part of their large, boisterous family when her own parents turned their backs on her. So when Dex Keegan shows up, trying to enlist her help without revealing his secrets, she’s not about to pitch in just because she finds him… tempting. Being as suspicious and standoffish as the rest of the Windfallers, Maggie won’t cooperate until she knows why Dex is there, and what he wants.
What he wants, Dex realizes almost immediately, is Maggie Solomon. Sure, she’s hard-headed, sharp-tongued, and infuriatingly resistant to his charms, but she appeals to him on every level. There must be something perverse, he decides, about a man who keeps coming back for more when a woman rejects him. He enjoys their verbal sparring, though, and one kiss is all it takes for him to know he won’t stop until she surrenders.
But Maggie can’t give in until he tells her the truth, and it’s even more incredible—and potentially explosive to the Windfall community—than she ever could have imagined.
There’s an eighty-year-old mystery to solve, a huge inheritance at stake, and a villain who’s willing to kill to keep the secret, and the money, from ever seeing the light of day.
The Windfallers would love for you to join them as they watch Dex and Maggie fall in love—despite themselves—and begin the journey to find a truth that’s been waiting decades for those with enough heart and courage to reveal.
I really had a great time telling Dex and Maggie’s story, and I hope you enjoy reading about them, and all the characters of my first Windfall Island novel.
Happy reading,
www.AnnaSulivanBooks.com
Twitter @ASullivanBooks
Facebook.com/AnnaSullivanBooks
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Contents
Cover
Title Page
Welcome
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Epilogue
Also by Kristen Callihan
Praise for the Darkest London Series
A Preview of Firelight
The Dish
Newsletters
Copyright
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2013 by Kristen Callihan
Excerpt from Firelight copyright © 2012 by Kristen Callihan
Cover design by Christine Foltzer
Cover art by Gene Mollica
Custom lettering by Ron Zinn
Cover copyright © 2013 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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First ebook edition: December 2013
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ISBN 978-1-4555-2082-4
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Shadowdance: The Darkest London Series: Book 4 Page 38