Spotlight Tour: Twice Upon a Time by Hope Irving
Once upon a time, I was Morgann, a 9th
century Irish calligrapher-monk.
Deirdre was my assignment, my forbidden
love, a witch with whom I wrote a coveted book.
Unfortunately, our story didn't get a
chance to become a fairy tale, it turned out as a famous urban
legend referred as The Black Angel Book.
In order to protect the book from
getting in to the wrong hands, Deirdre cast a spell. One where I
remember and she forgets. Under her spell, our souls travel from body
to body until we find each other again. Eventually.
My quest is to find Deirdre, in
whatever body her soul inhabits and trigger her memory. Only, the
woman I find 1200 years later is not what I was expecting.
Rose is not my type but my soul yearns
for her. Every sign tells me that she is my Deirdre. How do I
convince this broken, quiet and unbelieving woman that she is my
twice upon a time?
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Centuries ago I was Morgann. Albeit I
am neither immortal nor a supernatural creature of any kind, I am now
an urban legend. For I am something else.
I am a soul that gained awareness of
its existence; a wandering soul inhabiting various bodies throughout
their mortal life.
A soul longing to be reunited with its
soulmate.
Like the fairytale, you know, “Once
upon a time…” And the rest of the story unfolds, sometimes with
torments, but always with a happy ending. Only that is not how it
turned out for us.
So maybe we should try another story
line that would end better this time. Let’s say, “Twice upon a
time,” maybe?
Anyway. This is what I am.
Centuries later, this soul eventually
ended up in my body. Now I feel I can speak on Morgann’s behalf,
for I’m him and he’s me. We’re one.
Fearless and hopeful, when Morgann’s
body died, his soul began its journey. His body was no longer of use
but his soul had lived on, intact, searching for her frantically.
Her? Well, that would be Deirdre, a powerful medicine woman accused
of being a witch.
Some witnessed my encounter with
Deirdre and what followed, back when I was still Morgann. I, Morgann,
a monk working on the now infamous Book of Kells. Witch or
medicine woman, I couldn’t care less because right from the start I
had that gut feeling she was the one for me, even as I had simply
stared at the river of shiny black hair falling down to her back. It
was meant to be.
Kismet.
Yes, we were undeniably soulmates.
Twist of fate? I have no idea but that was how connected our souls
were and still are, somehow. What was Deirdre doing there
that day in the monastery? I didn’t dare ask. After that, I was
already too involved to search for more explanation. My fate was
sealed and so was hers. When we were introduced, we grasped at once
that we were made for one another as long as we lived. Too bad we
hadn’t foreseen our time together would be shortened by greedy
people. Hopefully she was resourceful and found a way to escape our
fate.
Let me tell you about us.
What did we do wrong?
Well, when you’re a monk, there is no
such thing as falling in love and breaking the vows of celibacy but I
did. When you’re a medicine woman, there is no such thing as
engaging in a passionate relationship with a man, and not just any
man but a monk.
So the medicine woman was accused of
being a witch for her medicine involved plants, charms and casting
spells as well. Truth be told, she was a witch. There was no doubt
about it.
Morgann was born in Ireland in the
8th century. When exactly? Not sure. Nobody was good at keeping
track around that time. For some reason, though, centuries later I
had a dream about the encounter that changed everything; it happened
in the year 813.
Shameless, Deirdre and I broke all the
rules. Deirdre had been paid to write what she knew about strong
medicine and spells. I was one of the chosen script monks who wrote
the book in calligraphy with her, for years.
That meaningful book didn’t belong to
us. It was theirs. So meaningful they ended up referring to it as
poisonous when I’d rather call it visionary. Who were they? The
sleeping partners; narrow-minded judgmental people who started to get
scared of her. Of us. They needed to destroy us. Deirdre didn’t
realize their attempt until it was almost too late.
But we had to stop them once we had
apprehended their genuine intentions. Their goal was plain and
simple, yet we were too blinded by our love to see it right from the
start. They were seeking eternal life. But it didn’t work that way.
None of them ever figured out how to cast the right spell at the
right time on the chosen person.
When it got out of hand, people’s
imagination was already at work. At once, word-of-mouth spread the
tale that soon became legendary. Why? Well…who could believe in our
true fate? A soul that lived on until reunited with its soulmate,
come on!
Soon enough, our legend started. Our
peculiar story and the supposedly poisonous book were referred to as
the Black Angel Book.
First of all, don't get me wrong... the book is good. But it's not for me. The way the story started is good but at some point I find it... I don't know.... but there's something missing in it. Anyway, the story and the characters are ok but it's just that this book i not for me. I find the two main characters' relationship interesting yet weird. I sometimes want to smack Virgil/Morgann on some/most of the time in the book...grrr..
Overall, the book is ok but it's not for me. Well, even though I did not enjoy it much but I'm looking forward to see what will happen next to the characters.
Hope Irving is the proud mother of a
lovely and witty young lady, and the lucky wife of a loving and
supportive husband. She's a debut indie author who lived in Paris,
France, most of her life and also in the US, where she graduated with
a master degree.
She loves Nutella and Camembert cheese
(not together), carrot cake and cinnamon Altoids.
Her favorite fictional characters are
Eric Northman (Sookie Stackhouse series, Charlaine Harris) and Sean
Bateman (The Rules of Attraction, Bret Easton Ellis).
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