Blurb:

Nick Berringer’s life is turned upside down when a very sexy angel stumbles into his life – and his bed – to make this the most memorable Christmas of his life.

Angelique has been alone for one hundred and fifty years. The closest to heaven she has ever been is in Nick’s arms. How can she sacrifice Nick’s happiness – and his life – for her own freedom?

Excerpt

”Angelique. I want to help you.”

The words startled Angelique.

She stared into the darkness, trying to breach the fog surrounding her memories. Her body felt cold and stiff. With alarm, she realized she couldn’t move her arms or legs.

Green branches spread out below her. Panic welled up inside her as she began to remember things. Tremors started inside her.

She glanced at the large picture window, the blinds opened wide, the lit tree reflected in the glass. There, on top, sat a blond glittering angel dressed in white. An angel who could neither move, nor smile.

Tears prickled Angelique’s eyes. Tears she could not shed. She was that angel. No one knew the pain that angel felt. The suffering she’d endured over two centuries.

”Who are you?” Angelique asked the voice.

A wispy, shapeless form floated toward her.

“I am an angel.”

Angel? The thought sent shudders through Angelique. It was one thing to know, by personal experience, that the supernatural existed. It was quite another to come face to face with it.

“Do you remember Bertrand?” a voice asked her.

Memories lurched through her mind like stones in a landslide, one over another, violent in their momentum.

Long ago, she had been in love with a man named Bertrand. She remembered the loving look in his eye and the gentle touch of his hand on hers when he had proposed to her. She had accepted joyously and melted into his arms.

When Bertrand had slipped the ring on Angelique’s finger, panic had gripped her. A strong sense of foreboding filled her, and she felt cold, as if the life were being sucked out of her. Instinctively, she’d known that putting the ring on would steal her happiness and destroy her life. Before it reached her knuckle, she had jerked away, shaking her head.

“I was with you then,” the angel said. “I warned you.”

The wispy shape moved closer, then hovered in front of her.

“You see, the Berringer men are cursed. An engagement ring carries the curse from generation to generation. Every time a Berringer male finds the woman he was meant to love and slips the ring on her finger, his love flickers out and dies. Like a candle snuffed out by the wind. I did not want that sad existence for you, Angelique. Unfortunately, I didn’t know the horrible fate that would be thrust upon you when you refused the ring.”

Angelique remembered all too clearly what happened after she rejected the ring. She had been slammed in the gut by a powerful force, crushing the air from her lungs. She had felt herself shrink. Her whole body had turned rigid until she could not move at all. She could not draw in a breathe. Panic had overwhelmed her as she’d tried to breath, knowing if she didn’t she would suffocate.

But she didn’t suffocate. Mercilessly, the despicable magic of the ring had stolen her life without letting her die. She had been transformed into a tree-top angel, cursed to sit atop a Christmas tree every Christmas season, with a lifeless body, but all the emotions and consciousness of a real person.

“As soon as you became a tree-top angel, the ring erased you from Bertrand’s memory, thus protecting him from the rejection of love. You became a family heirloom, passed through the generations.”

Angelique glanced around the masculine apartment laid out below her, filled with the sparkle of Christmas. The style was eclectic, accommodating contemporary pieces alongside antiques she recognized from generations of Berringer homes. Many she hadn’t seen since the divorce of George Berringer and his wife, Elise. They’d had two boys. Peter, the younger, a toddler at the time, had gone with his mother, as had Angelique. The older boy had gone with his father.

After his mother’s death two years ago, Peter had made plans to move to Australia. She recognized the grandfather clock in the corner and a few other items from Peter’s small country cottage. He must have passed her on to his brother in Canada when he’d sent on these other things.

Nick. That was the other boy’s name. He’d be a man now, but she remembered the wide-eyed, curious boy who used to read books by the fire and who would laugh and play games with his younger brother, Peter. He’d had such patience with his younger sibling. His adoration for his brother had been very clear. Angelique had been saddened to see them parted.

“Why are you helping me now?” Angelique asked.

“Because now the time is right,” the angel answered vaguely.

Hope swelled in Angelique’s heart.

“Will you break this dreadful curse and turn me back to human form?”

“It’s not quite that simple.”

Angelique sighed. Of course not.

“The curse can’t simply be broken, but it can be shifted. I will return you to human form, temporarily, to accomplish this.”

Elation glittered through her. The thought of being human once again pulsed through her! The angel’s words, however, troubled her.

“Shifted? You mean, another person would take my place as an angel?”

“If the eldest Berringer male takes your place,” the angel explained, “the ring, and its magic, will go with him, never to harm another soul. There are only two Berringers left, but if the ring – and its curse – are gone, the family will heal and grow again. Isn’t one man’s fate worth the future of an entire family?”

A queasy feeling stirred in her belly at the thought of condemning anyone to the fate she’d suffered so long, but the angel’s logic was persuasive. For a century and a half, she’d seen the pain in the eyes of the Berringer men and their wives. If she could stop that pain, she had to do it.

“What must I do?”

“When you refused the ring generations ago, the curse entrapped you. To reverse the curse now, you must accept the ring from Nicholas Berringer.”

“Why would Nicholas Berringer offer me the ring? He doesn’t even know me.”

“You must make him fall in love with you. When he proposes and slips the ring on your finger, he will turn into a Christmas angel. You have until midnight on Christmas day.”

“Two days! How will I make him fall in love with me in only two days?”

Silence hung between them like a thick layer of fog.

“Remember, Angelique. If you fail, you will return to your current form and this generation of the Berringer family will be the last.”

Angelique’s brain seemed to flood with fog and the last words she heard the angel say were, “Brace yourself. It’ll take some time to adapt to being human again.”

Extreme disorientation gripped her and her mind blanked.

About the Author:

Opal writes everything from short stories to full-length novels and in several different subgenres of romance. But all her stories are hot! In addition to her work for Sinful Moments Press, Opal writes three books a year for St. Martin’s Press. She has been a finalist for several awards, including the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, the HOLT Medallion, the Laurel Wreath Award, and the Passionate Plume Award. She was also named "Fresh Face of Erotic Fiction" by H.B. Fenn (the largest Canadian distributor of books). Many of her earlier works were published under the name Elizabeth Batten-Carew.

Opal earned a degree in Mathematics from the University of Waterloo, and spent 15 years as a software analyst before turning to her passions as a writer. She lives in Ontario, Canada, with her husband and two sons. Her oldest is just beginning his adventures in university

To learn more about Opal, visit her website at www.OpalCarew.com, or contact her at OpalCarew@BestRomanceAuthors.com.

17 Mar 2010

The passion between these two characters as they fall in love is wonderful. The story is very sexy and the emotion will make you laugh and cry. It is tightly written and a very enjoyable way to spend the afternoon.

This tale invokes just the right cross of Holiday Paranormal with a very sexy love story and makes you want to read more. I will definitely be looking for more stories from this author.

4 Whipped Cream! Read the entire review at The Long and the Short of It: http://whippedcream2.blogspot.com/2010/03/christmas-angel-by-opal-carew.html