Published: Aug. 20, 2011
Words: 55,825 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781466117624

Short description

Love and danger collide on idyllic Sardinia. Martina has retired from the ballet after a career ending injury. Kane is volunteering at a free medical clinic deep in the island's poverty ravaged interior. They meet, and together they try to resolve her pain, and his. Hers, over the loss of her career, her husband, and her twin girls. His, over the loss of his long-suffering wife.

Extended description

Dorgali
Martina looked back over her shoulder to savor the valley, the clay tiled roofs in the Sardinian town, and the mountains beyond. Its beauty washed over her, and for one moment she was at peace. Tranquility. Where had it gone? Had it vanished forever on that windswept beach? Or did it simply lay dormant, waiting, for a time like this, for a place like this, and for a man she could love. If she could ever love again.
Martina turned back to the rock, chalked her strong hands, and started up. Her blue gray Nordic eyes explored, discovered, then caressed pockets, edges, and other imperfections in the near perfect limestone. Her hands and feet glided ever upwards in a vertical dance, reminiscent of her days on the stage, filled with grace and power. Sometimes the movements took her back to when her long lost daughters had danced alongside her in their gossamer gowns as Tchaikovsky soared and filled the theater and set souls free. But today the rhythm took her el.. (Read more) Dorgali
Martina looked back over her shoulder to savor the valley, the clay tiled roofs in the Sardinian town, and the mountains beyond. Its beauty washed over her, and for one moment she was at peace. Tranquility. Where had it gone? Had it vanished forever on that windswept beach? Or did it simply lay dormant, waiting, for a time like this, for a place like this, and for a man she could love. If she could ever love again.
Martina turned back to the rock, chalked her strong hands, and started up. Her blue gray Nordic eyes explored, discovered, then caressed pockets, edges, and other imperfections in the near perfect limestone. Her hands and feet glided ever upwards in a vertical dance, reminiscent of her days on the stage, filled with grace and power. Sometimes the movements took her back to when her long lost daughters had danced alongside her in their gossamer gowns as Tchaikovsky soared and filled the theater and set souls free. But today the rhythm took her elsewhere, nowhere near those memories, but rather up and up, over the roofs, over the valley, over the limestone cliff to the heights above.
Kane watched her as she ascended. His back against an ancient pine that had been twisted by the wind, his pack lay at his feet. He'd seen her here before, a few days ago, and had returned each day hoping to see her again, thinking this time the spell would be broken, his words would be freed, and he could speak again. Kane climbed too. But not like Martina. He understood her mastery, knew on some level that only a few could do what she did, and maybe none better. That first day, after she'd gone, he'd tried the routes she'd climbed. Impossible to him. Couldn't make the first moves. And she'd climbed them alone, no partner, no rope, no bonds.
At his hotel he'd Googled her, because he thought he'd recognized her. Not as a climber, but as a dancer. A dancer he thought he'd met, or at least seen before. He was almost certain he'd found her, learned who she was. Her face was unique. High Russian cheekbones draped with deep Argentinean skin. But it was those graceful ballet like steps that gave the most important clue, even though her right leg moved differently than her left. Article after article on page after page detailed her long career, her ascension to the Bolshoi, her mastery of the art, her romances with Baryshnikov, and others. Her crippling injury and forced retirement. And then the story ended almost completely just three years earlier. More searching, hours unending, and Kane finally found an article, an obituary, in a Buenos Aries newspaper, and then Kane understood why the pages ended, why she had withdrawn from the spotlight, from the worldwide forum that she had ruled, both on and off the stage.
"La Regina" the articles had called her. But no more. In his emergency room, "the emerge", his refuge, he'd witnessed firsthand the carnage wrought on those left behind, and he had used it remorselessly in his writing, without conscience. The second story, or was it the first, or tenth? They had made him rich, and for a while, not so much famous as notorious. But no more. There had been no words in many years.
He watched her finish the climb, then he stood and walked towards her at a pace he hoped would put him at the base of the cliff at the precise moment that she would arrive back in the horizontal domain. His heart beat faster, his mouth went dry, and he realized he had no idea what to say, or how to say it. He was, quite simply, at a loss for words. He recognized that this was both an ironic and, lately, chronic state.
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Tags

romance, italy, sardinia, rock climbing

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Videos

Mina's Eyes Video
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Reviews

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Review by: parsonsg on Oct. 15, 2011 :
Now this was right up my ally. A pure romance novel where boy (actually man) meets girl (actually woman) and they try to figure it out. Lots of twists and turns and beautiful scenery. Nice.
(reviewed within a month of purchase)

Review by: smashgirl35 on Oct. 08, 2011 :
A beautiful love story set in Sardinia. I could taste the wine and feel the warm breezes. And I could feel their hearts breaking.
(reviewed within a month of purchase)

Review by: steve hunter on Oct. 08, 2011 :
Yes I agree with Fred, I don't usually read boy meets girl books but our reading group was doing this book so I read it and I was glad I did. It's not the typical boy meets girl romance, it's more 50 year old man meets 40 year old woman and their both famous and there's a lot of complications. I felt like I was in Italy at times while reading this.
(reviewed within a month of purchase)

Review by: fred denton on Oct. 07, 2011 :
I don't usually like boy meets girl stories but I liked this one. The scenery was very lifelike and the story had some twists and turns you don't usually find in a boy meets girl. I think the author is a pretty good poet too. There are two poems in the book.
(reviewed within a month of purchase)

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