Crystal Wilson-Harris

BET/Arabesque

1-58314-285-1

April 2002

(4) Leslie Cannon

Contemporary Romance

PLOT SYNOPSIS: 

The first book in Wilson-Harris's Women of Destiny series finds Savannah Raven-Dailey betrayed by her husband who has disappeared with the money in their bank accounts. Detroit P.I. Anthony Martin has to admit his feelings for his new client has taken him by surprise. When Savannah's husband is found murdered, he knows he'll risk everything to clear her name.

REVIEW: 

In LOVE’S DESTINY, Crystal Wilson-Harris tells a very drama-filled tale of a heroine who awakens to discover that life, as she once knew it, is completely over.  Heroine Savannah Raven Dailey is beyond devastated when she discovers her husband, Dwayne, has cleared out all their bank accounts, removed the majority of his clothes and deserted her and their two teenage children.

In LOVE’S DESTINY, Ms. Wilson-Harris does it all. She provides readers with humor, action and suspense.  Add the sweet romance that develops between Savannah and Anthony Martin, the private detective hired to find her wayward husband, and you have a book that will have readers clearing space in the Favorites Section of their personal libraries. 

Ms. Wilson-Harris’s has a knack for placing just the right amount of humor at strategic points throughout her novel.  A perfect example of this occurs when Savannah discovers that her husband has only taken the best of his undergarments; a fact that Savannah boils at and brings up a few times when talking with others.  When her sister, Paris, informs their sister, Sydney, that Savannah’s husband has left and taken everything, Savannah quickly interjects into the conversation, “Except his raggedy underwear…Don’t forget that part.  He left his raggedy underwear and work clothes.”  This scene is just one of the few which had me chuckling out loud.

Set in the city of Detroit, LOVE’S DESTINY has a nice evenly-paced flow from start to finish.  Wilson-Harris’s story is about women who possess a great deal of strength and character.  The reader is allowed to witness a very hurt Savannah still press forward to comfort her children, save the family business and open her heart to the possibilities of love again.  When Dwayne is found murdered and Savannah is accused of the crime, Wilson-Harris then allows us to see the power of familial love and romantic love, as Savannah’s sisters rally together to encourage, while her new love fights to prove her innocence.

Though possessing fewer pages than what I’ve come to expect of BET/ARABESQUE novels, Wilson-Harris’s creative abilities shines through on every single page.  In short, power-packed, would be a most adequate summation of this novel.  It’s been a while since I read a story that was capable of making me laugh one chapter, yet cry the next.  It is that type of novel that Wilson-Harris has delivered with LOVE’S DESTINY, a novel more than capable of eliciting a vast range of emotions from readers, and a novel that I highly recommend.

By the novel’s end, I felt the sadness of saying good-bye to old friends after having shared a good time together.  However, I was comforted when the author’s notes informed that this book was in fact the first in the series on the Raven sisters.  I look forward to seeing my friends again soon.  If LOVE’S DESTINY is any indication of what is to follow, I know I won’t be disappointed.

leslie@romanceincolor.net (31st March 2002)