Paragon
By Eileen Watkins
AmberQuill Press
Horror
Paperback or electronic
315 pgs., 2005
Setting: New York and California
ISBN: 1-59279-405-X (Electronic)
ISBN: 1-59279-779-2 (Paperback)
While on her way to the train station in lower Manhattan, Louise (Lu) Bauer heard two men commenting on how ugly someone was and immediately flashed back to when she's was 15 and being teased because of the damage done from a car accident when she was a child. When she looks around, she sees two gang members tormenting an old bag lady in the alley. As she watches, they bring out a lighter and start to catch the old woman's clothes on fire. Lu pulls an alarm from her purse and turns it on. The attention the siren draws discourages the gang members and they run off. As they are running, Lu notices that both members are dressed in leather and have an emblem of a blood dripping knife. Lu rushes to the bag lady to help put out the fire that was starting to burn her clothes. When Lu looks at the old woman, she can see why the gang members were tormenting her about her looks. In Lu's opinion she looks like a crone straight out of a Grimm Brother's fairy tale.
The old woman tells Lu that her name is Desma and that she will be rewarded for saving her life. Desma knows that Lu was in an accident as a child and left severely scarred even though the accident was 22 years ago and operations have helped to heal the damage. She also tells Lu that her greatest desire is to have a man love her for who she is and asks Lu if she can picture her perfect man. Lu admits that when she was in art school she sculpted a statue out of plaster of what her ideal man would be. Desma takes a small gold heart out of her bag and tells Lu to make a hole in the statue and put the heart in it, then she is to wrap it up and put it where no one else will see or touch it and in a few days the man of her dreams will appear in her life. He will love her for who she is and bring a lot of money into her life, but Lu must never question where he comes from or anything else about her good fortune or she will lose it. Lu is totally baffled by the encounter and keeps reaching into her bag and touching the small heart on her way home. By the time Lu gets home she has put some distance between herself and the events and figures it is all hogwash, but decides to do what Desma told her to do. The day after the attack on Desma, Lu is passing by the same way and in the same alley the two gang members are discovered mutilated to death, which leaves Lu wondering whether or not Desma had something to do with it.
Two weeks after the incident as Lu is leaving for lunch she runs into a man at the elevators that is the exact resemblance to the sculpture of her ideal man. He is looking for Studio D where they are holding auditions for a commercial and Lu sends him in the right direction and gives him a few pointers on what the company doing the commercial is looking for. Instead of continuing on to lunch, Lu's curiosity gets the better of her and she heads down to Studio D and chats with a friend to get information on the man. She finds out his name is Eric Troy and the name of the agency that sent him over for the commercial. That afternoon, Eric stops by to ask her out to dinner because he got the part and believes part of the reason is the information Lu gave him.
Eric proceeds to sweep Lu off her feet, but while Lu is infatuated with Eric she still has questions when he won't tell her anything about his past. She gets his acting resume from his agent, Herb, and starts to dig a little. She finds out that nothing is as it seems with Eric and questions him. When she does, Eric tells her that she has broken the agreement and that things are going to be different now.
Shortly after the declaration from Eric, Lu begins to put things together and realizes that what she thought was impossible isn't and that Eric isn't a human at all, but something far more dangerous. Lu cuts off her relationship, but stays close to Eric acting as his manager to try to figure out a way to stop whatever plans Eric has in store for humanity.
Eileen Watkins has written an engrossing story that gives a new twist to ancient mythology and warns us that we need to be careful what we wish for and what we will do to get it. The grammar and spelling are impeccable. The characters are engaging and the heroine, Lu, draws you into the story and keeps you turning the pages.
4.5 out of 5 Gold Hearts
--Reviewed by Michelle Thomas, gottawritenetwork.com
November 5, 2005
