Dance with the Devil

by Merabeth James

It seemed to Mersea Jones that everyone she ever cared about abandoned her from an early age starting with her mother when she was just eight years old. To protect herself, she began to build a wall around her heart…brick by brick…year by year hoping it would protect her from the pain of loss. It was the death of her best friend that laid the final one. She had seen her through all the rough patches she’d experienced growing up in a bizarre household populated by cats and her Aunt Merabelle with her many eccentricities. Honoring her request to have her ashes scattered off the lighthouse on Lingermere Island, she packs up and heads that way. Soon after she arrives, she is warned that the new owner of the ruined lighthouse is dangerous, but is determined to keep her promise at all cost. All would have gone smoothly if she hadn’t bumped into the very one she’d been told to avoid….the tall, darkly handsome recluse the locals called the Devil of Black Rock Point and with good reason as she would soon find out.

384 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

I began my actual writing career as a journalist and then a TV scriptwriter, but loved putting words together to form images/thoughts/feelings almost as soon as I could grasp a pencil.
There are six things important to me...well, most important to me: To love unconditionally, to always keep a sense of 'wonder', to always be kind, to find joy in simple things, to never take myself too seriously, and to make sure I don't leave this earth with a list of "if only I hads" trailing behind me.
I've taken many 'leaps of faith' in my time and, so far, have landed on my feet or, in one case, on a dilapitated houseboat with my dog, and a lot of enthusiasm. I named her 'Sanctuary Annie' and hoped for the best. I knew nothing about boats, couldn't swim and wondered how long she would stay afloat.
In the middle of the night, when my dog jumped up to join me on the antique Victorian bed I had moved on board, I would check to see if he was wet, knowing, if so, we were both in big trouble. But Sanctuary Annie hung in there, even surviving a hurricane, when others around her were not so fortunate.
Living in the small marina, with the sea as my back yard, I found a profound sense of peace..and the love of my life....my Jim, captain of 'Wings', a beautiful racing sloop that flies across the water, when the wind fills her sails.
I often think how much I would have missed out on, if I hadn't taken that leap of faith and followed my heart. Life is meant to be lived and I intend to keep on doing just that.

Reviews

[Amber Cross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished this book. Loved it. As you read you can almost smell the sprays of sea water!. The character are very well developed. Such bewitching characters you can almost immerse yourself in their sea world. Have read this authors work before and once again have not been disappointed. Hope there is a follow up book. Good plot which had you wanting to know what would happen next.

[Kelly Graban · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome

Merabeth James never let's me down. Her range of characters in her novels are so refreshing as is her style. Keep writing and I will keep reading.

[SherrieB · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book details the Civil War from the point of view of four college students from Tennessee who enlist in the Confederate Army at the beginning of the war. Some will survive the war, some will not. Along the way, they and the reader will endure a journey that is horrific, sad, funny and poignant that changes everyone involved. An excellent read.