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Love Me to Death
True love can transcend time and death, but can it survive revenge? Don't miss this fan-favorite novella from New York Times bestselling author Maggie Shayne, available as a standalone ebook for the first time!
Five years ago, a burning house forever changed the lives of five teens… and ended a sixth. Years later, summoned to a gravely injured friend's bedside, David Nichols must face the town he fled. Tormented by dreams of the dead girl he'd once loved, he's become a firefighter in a futile attempt to save enough lives to balance out the one he took. Until he sees a woman who should've been dead… and his friends start collapsing, one by one.
Sara Jensen's life flips upside down when she's suddenly plagued by fire-ravaged nightmares and a dream man who seems to touch her very soul. When a friend recalls a local tragedy from her childhood, Sara visits the town to make sense of the mysterious events. But her arrival sets off an eerie chain of events she must solve, especially if she wants to save the flesh-and-blood version of the man she thought only existed in her dreams…
First published in 2010
Five years ago, a burning house forever changed the lives of five teens… and ended a sixth. Years later, summoned to a gravely injured friend's bedside, David Nichols must face the town he fled. Tormented by dreams of the dead girl he'd once loved, he's become a firefighter in a futile attempt to save enough lives to balance out the one he took. Until he sees a woman who should've been dead… and his friends start collapsing, one by one.
Sara Jensen's life flips upside down when she's suddenly plagued by fire-ravaged nightmares and a dream man who seems to touch her very soul. When a friend recalls a local tragedy from her childhood, Sara visits the town to make sense of the mysterious events. But her arrival sets off an eerie chain of events she must solve, especially if she wants to save the flesh-and-blood version of the man she thought only existed in her dreams…
First published in 2010
- GenresRomantic Suspense
97 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2010
24 people are currently reading
40 people want to read
About the author
Maggie Shayne
265 books2,584 followersI live in the teeny, tiny town of Taylor, NY, (Alliteration Alert!) though my mailing address is Cincinnatus, my telephone exchange is Truxton and I pay taxes and vote in Cuyler. All of these are at least in the same rural county in the southern hills of New York State; Cortland County. There are more cattle than people here. The nearest “big” cities are Syracuse and Binghamton and they are an hour away, in different directions, and not really all that big by most standards, though they both seem humongous to me. I look out my window to see rolling, green, thickly forested hills, wildflower laden meadows and wide open blue, blue skies. My road is barely paved. The nearest neighboring place is a 700 acre dairy farm.
My house is a big, century old farmhouse. I moved in here after my divorce in 2006. Just a little over a year later, the house, which I had named, SERENITY, burned. It was 99% gutted, and I lost my two dogs, Sally, an 11-year-old great Dane, and Wrinkles, my 14-year-old, blind bulldog. This was the culmination of my Dark Night of the soul, which had seemed to hit me all at once in 2006-2007. My mother died that year, after a 14 month battle with pancreatic cancer. She was only 60. The youngest of my five daughters had left home that same year, and while that’s not a tragedy at all, it felt like one to me. Then came the divorce. And finally there was the fire--it seemed my darkest night wasn’t quite finished with me after all. I had lost almost everything before that point, and as I poked through the wet ashes and soot the next day, I realized that I had now been stripped all the way to the bone.
No better time to start over. (And no, I didn’t come to that realization that day--there were a few days of wallowing in pity first, particularly the day after the fire, when I hit a deer and smashed up my car, which I was practically living in!)
That’s when I started to laugh. Just sat on the side of the road as the deer bounded, uninjured and carefree, out of sight, and laughed. It was just too ridiculous at that point, to do anything else!
And from there, I picked myself up, and brushed myself off, and said, okay, there’s only one way to go from here. Forward. And that’s what I did. There I was at the age of harrurmphemmph, living in my one, mostly undamaged remaining room, with a dorm-sized mini-fridge, a futon, a TV, my cat (nine lives!) and a laptop. And not much else. (Though thank goodness the room that survived the fire, was a room that had its own attached bathroom!)
Since then I have rebuilt my beloved home, which really has become my haven, my “Serenity.” I share it now with my fiancé, Lance, and we have accumulated quite the little family together. “Little” being a relative term. We have a pair of English Mastiffs, Dozer and Daisy, who weigh 203 pounds and 208 pounds respectively, and a little pudgy English Bulldog named Niblet, who is bigger than both of them, inside her mind. We also have the aforementioned cat, Glorificus (“Glory” for short,) who adores her canine pups and keeps them firmly in line. And we've acquired a pair of stray cats as well, a mother and son, Luna (Lulu for short) and Butters aka Buddy. Lulu showed up pregnant during a lunar eclipse, had a litter, and vanished again. We found homes for all the kittens except one. Butters. We got him fixed and kept him. A few months later, Lulu returned, again expecting. This litter was born on the "Monster Moon." Again, all the kittens were spayed and neutered and placed in homes, and this time we got Lulu to the vet in time to spay her before the cycle could repeat.
Glory is not amused.
She has a story of her own, my old Glory cat, having been with me before the Dark Times descended, she went through it all with me, moved with me, survived the fire, and remains with me still. She's tolerating the newcomers. Barely.
My partner is an artist, a mechanic, a welder and an inventor, and the rumors are true, he is much younger than I
My house is a big, century old farmhouse. I moved in here after my divorce in 2006. Just a little over a year later, the house, which I had named, SERENITY, burned. It was 99% gutted, and I lost my two dogs, Sally, an 11-year-old great Dane, and Wrinkles, my 14-year-old, blind bulldog. This was the culmination of my Dark Night of the soul, which had seemed to hit me all at once in 2006-2007. My mother died that year, after a 14 month battle with pancreatic cancer. She was only 60. The youngest of my five daughters had left home that same year, and while that’s not a tragedy at all, it felt like one to me. Then came the divorce. And finally there was the fire--it seemed my darkest night wasn’t quite finished with me after all. I had lost almost everything before that point, and as I poked through the wet ashes and soot the next day, I realized that I had now been stripped all the way to the bone.
No better time to start over. (And no, I didn’t come to that realization that day--there were a few days of wallowing in pity first, particularly the day after the fire, when I hit a deer and smashed up my car, which I was practically living in!)
That’s when I started to laugh. Just sat on the side of the road as the deer bounded, uninjured and carefree, out of sight, and laughed. It was just too ridiculous at that point, to do anything else!
And from there, I picked myself up, and brushed myself off, and said, okay, there’s only one way to go from here. Forward. And that’s what I did. There I was at the age of harrurmphemmph, living in my one, mostly undamaged remaining room, with a dorm-sized mini-fridge, a futon, a TV, my cat (nine lives!) and a laptop. And not much else. (Though thank goodness the room that survived the fire, was a room that had its own attached bathroom!)
Since then I have rebuilt my beloved home, which really has become my haven, my “Serenity.” I share it now with my fiancé, Lance, and we have accumulated quite the little family together. “Little” being a relative term. We have a pair of English Mastiffs, Dozer and Daisy, who weigh 203 pounds and 208 pounds respectively, and a little pudgy English Bulldog named Niblet, who is bigger than both of them, inside her mind. We also have the aforementioned cat, Glorificus (“Glory” for short,) who adores her canine pups and keeps them firmly in line. And we've acquired a pair of stray cats as well, a mother and son, Luna (Lulu for short) and Butters aka Buddy. Lulu showed up pregnant during a lunar eclipse, had a litter, and vanished again. We found homes for all the kittens except one. Butters. We got him fixed and kept him. A few months later, Lulu returned, again expecting. This litter was born on the "Monster Moon." Again, all the kittens were spayed and neutered and placed in homes, and this time we got Lulu to the vet in time to spay her before the cycle could repeat.
Glory is not amused.
She has a story of her own, my old Glory cat, having been with me before the Dark Times descended, she went through it all with me, moved with me, survived the fire, and remains with me still. She's tolerating the newcomers. Barely.
My partner is an artist, a mechanic, a welder and an inventor, and the rumors are true, he is much younger than I
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 31, 2021
A very quick, simple novella which is mostly romance with a bit of action / suspense.
3.5 stars rounded down as the story was quite shallow and Shayne missed a nimrod opportunities to add some much needed depth.
3.5 stars rounded down as the story was quite shallow and Shayne missed a nimrod opportunities to add some much needed depth.
December 3, 2020
This was a quick read but had a very good story line. It had some twists that I wasn’t expecting with an enjoyable ending.
August 22, 2021
Very unsatisfying. Can’t tell you why, but it felt insubstantial.
June 16, 2018
Entertaining But Not Outstanding. Recommended for Those Who Like Novellas.
This was a short story/novella, so it is not fleshed out as well as a longer novel would be. However, the author did a good job within the parameters of a novella. The protagonists were likeable and the villain was a sad excuse for a man. He didn’t seem evil, as much as a self-centred bully.
The plot had a lot of potential as a novel, but I think it was wasted on the shorter format. What was written was entertaining but it never really pulled the reader into the story. There were a number of instances where the reader was told about strong emotions the characters experienced, but the emotions never seemed to translate to the page. There were instances where tensions should have been extremely high, but the reader felt only the mildest tension. Maybe it was just me and not the writing, but I thought the story had a bit of a flat and remote feel at times.
I don’t remember any swearing, for those who care about that. There were a couple of very mild sex scenes, enough to put off those who want a perfectly clean read and not enough to please readers who only want “hot” romances. Personally, I would have no problem giving this book to my teenaged granddaughter.
I recommend this novella. Maggie Shayne always writes well and this was an entertaining story. It was perfect for when a short read is wanted and there were no grammatical, spelling or punctuation mistakes to detract from the reading experience. My review may seem critical, but I enjoyed the story for what it was. My expectations for novellas are not as exacting as those for longer works, because the shorter format constrains the writer. Readers who like short stories and novellas will probably enjoy this story. Those readers who normally dislike the shorter format are not likely to enjoy this one.
This was a short story/novella, so it is not fleshed out as well as a longer novel would be. However, the author did a good job within the parameters of a novella. The protagonists were likeable and the villain was a sad excuse for a man. He didn’t seem evil, as much as a self-centred bully.
The plot had a lot of potential as a novel, but I think it was wasted on the shorter format. What was written was entertaining but it never really pulled the reader into the story. There were a number of instances where the reader was told about strong emotions the characters experienced, but the emotions never seemed to translate to the page. There were instances where tensions should have been extremely high, but the reader felt only the mildest tension. Maybe it was just me and not the writing, but I thought the story had a bit of a flat and remote feel at times.
I don’t remember any swearing, for those who care about that. There were a couple of very mild sex scenes, enough to put off those who want a perfectly clean read and not enough to please readers who only want “hot” romances. Personally, I would have no problem giving this book to my teenaged granddaughter.
I recommend this novella. Maggie Shayne always writes well and this was an entertaining story. It was perfect for when a short read is wanted and there were no grammatical, spelling or punctuation mistakes to detract from the reading experience. My review may seem critical, but I enjoyed the story for what it was. My expectations for novellas are not as exacting as those for longer works, because the shorter format constrains the writer. Readers who like short stories and novellas will probably enjoy this story. Those readers who normally dislike the shorter format are not likely to enjoy this one.
January 15, 2018
Possible reincarnation or....
Possible reincarnation or connection through shared nightmares? Maybe some of both. "Why nine more words required to complete this review?"
Possible reincarnation or connection through shared nightmares? Maybe some of both. "Why nine more words required to complete this review?"
January 4, 2019
Great story
Always read her books. They are addictive as you can get and so relatable. This story is just one of the memorable ones she has written
Always read her books. They are addictive as you can get and so relatable. This story is just one of the memorable ones she has written
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January 25, 2021published in the anthology "heart of darkness"
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews