Barbara Metzger breaks away from her usual style and has written a uniquely beautiful sensual paranormal regency romance. Visiting hell as Ar Death, minion of the Grim Reaper, Sir Coryn recalls a time when he was the knight Sir Coryn of Ardsley, who lived a life of battles and sins during the time of the Crusades. He is sick of death. He plays a game of chance with the devil. If he wins, he can return to the world of the living and prove he can do better. He has six months to find a symbol of himself. He returns at the very end of the battle of Waterloo as Sir Coryn, Earl of Ardeth, with his side-kick gremlin friend, turned crow, Olive. Olive is to aid in his attempt to find his symbol. Thinking it is an hourglass, a symbol of the sands of time, a tool used as Ar of Death, they take off searching the battlefield for the hourglass. While searching Coryn comes across the newly widowed, pregnant Imogene Macklin. Genie is no longer welcome amongst the officer wives and a family scandal years ago has estranged her from her family. Alone, pregnant and poor, Coryn is taken in by her beauty and need. He marries her and they return with Olive to England to set up their home and take up aiding displaced people and doing good works. Genie is afraid to take a chance with Coryn at first, as so newly widowed she is stunned and suspicious of his generosity. Coryn is taken by her beauty, but more so with her inner strength. He begins to fall in love and struggles with his feelings of desire and passion. He feels he will be returning to death in six months and the thought of loving and then leaving would be too painful. Genie takes up keeping his home and life organized, logging in the many hourglasses that arrive from all over the world. The one special hourglass continues to elude them. As Coryn works to help others, he feels he must do more for Genie than marriage and accepting her child as his heir. He also helps her mend the rift in her family relationships. Little does Coryn realize that the symbol of his humanity is not the hourglass, but the love he and Genie have for each other and the goodness that is created from this deep undying love. Will Coryn discover his symbol of humanity before it is too late? The Hourglass is a delightfully fresh, beautiful story that is witty, sensual, absorbing and heartwarming, proving that true love can cross all boundaries and time.

Publisher: Signet Eclipse (March 2007)