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The Amber
Thousands of years ago, a man sold his soul for a woman he found in Lithuania.
She carried the energy of Austeja, the Lithuanian bee goddess, and he refused to hear her songs. His choice to try and control her cost him his life and his soul, and he’s been trying to get both back ever since then.
But there’s only two ways he can accomplish his goal: Either trade in her soul for his own, or undo his original wrong.
Now, in contemporary times, he’s found her again, re-embodied as a young woman who works in marketing, and has no memory of her previous lives. She doesn’t recognize him. She only knows he's rich, and might be a good contact for her career track. Then he hints that he might be able to get back a priceless family violin called the Amber, which her brother lost in a bad poker game.
As he encourages her to explore her artistic talent and her ancestral roots, she finds she's more attracted to him than she wants to be. She must decide how much that’s worth to her, and he must decide if he’ll use her to achieve his own ends.
The rich history of Lithuania, with its sacred trees and placid bees, is the backdrop for their drama, as they both face their ancestral past, and the imperative of their current choices.
She carried the energy of Austeja, the Lithuanian bee goddess, and he refused to hear her songs. His choice to try and control her cost him his life and his soul, and he’s been trying to get both back ever since then.
But there’s only two ways he can accomplish his goal: Either trade in her soul for his own, or undo his original wrong.
Now, in contemporary times, he’s found her again, re-embodied as a young woman who works in marketing, and has no memory of her previous lives. She doesn’t recognize him. She only knows he's rich, and might be a good contact for her career track. Then he hints that he might be able to get back a priceless family violin called the Amber, which her brother lost in a bad poker game.
As he encourages her to explore her artistic talent and her ancestral roots, she finds she's more attracted to him than she wants to be. She must decide how much that’s worth to her, and he must decide if he’ll use her to achieve his own ends.
The rich history of Lithuania, with its sacred trees and placid bees, is the backdrop for their drama, as they both face their ancestral past, and the imperative of their current choices.
251 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 31, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 3, 2023
A beautiful story. Some books have a soul, and this is one of them; The Amber has a soul that comes through generations of ancestors and stories to settle in the modern belly like a cup of warm tea-with generous amounts of honey, of course.
January 5, 2016
This is a marvelous story of cultural heritage and the strength of females in the family.
In upstate New York silver-eyed Stacy Vitautis's Lithuanian grandmother taught her about the sacred trees and the bees, always advising her she would know what to do when the time came. She meets Nick Vecchio in a dive bar and her life becomes complicated. Bees build massive nests in her office walls, she can't stop singing or her urge to draw, her down-and-out brother loses the heirloom amber violin in a high stakes poker game. She would like to get it back to her family and Nick seems knowledgeable about ways to get it back. His talk of selling her soul for the Amber makes her wary, but she is nonetheless attracted to him, accepting his offer to help find the family violin. He takes her to Lithuania and her family memory comes crashing back with the discovery her songs have power over the bees and forces of evil linked to Nick. Stacy is the contemporary Austeja, the silver-eyed Lithuanian goddess of bees. Nick has been attempting to own and control Austeja since the first millennium. Austeja prefers death to being controlled. Stacy realizes her grandmother's advice implies she has more choices than death or being controlled. To save herself, her brother and Nick, Stacy has to find the solution she prefers and quickly.
In upstate New York silver-eyed Stacy Vitautis's Lithuanian grandmother taught her about the sacred trees and the bees, always advising her she would know what to do when the time came. She meets Nick Vecchio in a dive bar and her life becomes complicated. Bees build massive nests in her office walls, she can't stop singing or her urge to draw, her down-and-out brother loses the heirloom amber violin in a high stakes poker game. She would like to get it back to her family and Nick seems knowledgeable about ways to get it back. His talk of selling her soul for the Amber makes her wary, but she is nonetheless attracted to him, accepting his offer to help find the family violin. He takes her to Lithuania and her family memory comes crashing back with the discovery her songs have power over the bees and forces of evil linked to Nick. Stacy is the contemporary Austeja, the silver-eyed Lithuanian goddess of bees. Nick has been attempting to own and control Austeja since the first millennium. Austeja prefers death to being controlled. Stacy realizes her grandmother's advice implies she has more choices than death or being controlled. To save herself, her brother and Nick, Stacy has to find the solution she prefers and quickly.
August 29, 2017
An excellent thriller of a love story that surprises more and more as it sucks you in. So refreshing to find a book that is set in Lithuania because it reflects unexplored and unique folklore, musical traditions, history, and culture. This book defies genre -- is it a mystery, a romance, a supernatural thriller, or a historical novel? The answer is all four, which makes this little novel a truly great read. Recommend!
April 29, 2024
I really enjoyed this story.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews