AustLit

'Destiny: 'The predetermined or inevitable path a person must follow.'

'When nineteen year-old Lili McIntyre decides to trade her California summer for a mid-winter visit to Australia, it's in hope of finding inspiration and direction in the country where her father was born. She's nervous about her first overseas trip, yet excited about spending time with her aunt and embarking on what her mother insists is "an opportunity of a lifetime".

'But when Lili arrives in Melbourne the first thing she finds is the last thing she's looking for–a brooding man who makes her heart race every time she sees him.

'Enticed by his dark, seductive eyes Lili ignores her better judgement and finds herself drawn into a relationship that will test her very beliefs about life, reality and fantasy–and things that she thought only existed in nightmares.

'Will Lili succumb to the allurement of this dark and sensuous stranger?'

'Sacrifice: ‘A surrender of something of value as a means of gaining something more desirable or of preventing some evil.'

'Lili is in love with Sam. Or is she? Has he simply cast some sort of spell on her? Can vampires do that? Indecision and self-doubt nearly cripple Lili as she contemplates returning to Australia to be with Sam—after all, what does a nineteen year-old California girl know about living with vampires and ghosts?

'There are many challenges ahead of her, and each time she meets one Lili discovers she is stronger than she thought. But even so, is she prepared to make the hardest decision of her young life, and learn the true meaning of sacrifice?

'In this second instalment of The Absent Shadows Trilogy Lili’s journey continues, across wide expanses of sea and land, as she seeks to confirm true love and fulfill her destiny.' (Publication Summary)

'Deception: ‘The act of using trickery to mislead by deliberate misrepresentation or lies.’

'When Lili has just about given up hope of ever seeing Sam again, unexpected events turn her world upside down, and she finds herself headed back to Australia. But years have gone by—will Sam even want to see her again?

'And what’s with this new addition to their group? How can a strange woman, who claims to be a dhampira from Spain, arrive unannounced and be accepted so readily? Has jealousy blurred Lili’s vision, or is she the only one that can see clearly?

'In this final instalment of The Absent Shadows Trilogy, Lili must fight for the life she feels she is destined to live, and for those she calls family, even when a new evil threatens to destroy their world. '