Maggi Sanger-Stuart has been kidnapped! Along with her baby daughter, Kestrel, and several other women and children, members of the Marians. Maggi is a Grail Keeper, well versed in ancient Goddess mythology, who is known for her expertise on artifacts, particularly Goddess Grails. This time however, her knowledge is required for a different purpose. The patriarch of the Adriano family is desperate. He needs her to dismantle a magical mosaic of the Black Madonna so he can use her power to destroy Europe and seize control in the dawn of the New Age of Aquarius.

If Maggi does not do as the Duke Adriano demands, her daughter, and the other hostages will be slaughtered. If she does bring him the mosaic, they are all dead. Neither one is a favorable option. She must now enlist the aid of the Marians and her own powerful husband, Lex, if they hope to find any kind of satisfactory resolution. The power struggle that culminates is bound to be as strong as the forces of Mother Earth herself as she unleashes everything she has at the will of the hated Adrianos. Together, Maggi, Lex, and the Marians have mere days to find a solution, save their families, and save the world, in that order.

Holy Mother!! The Madonna Key concludes with a bang in The Seventh Key by Evelyn Vaughn. Everything in the preceding books leads up to this final confrontation between good and evil. All the missing pieces finally fall into place as the mosaic is completed and we learn alongside of Maggi and the Marians, just what the love of the Mother can do. All of the major players, including a few unexpected ones, from each book in the series come together in the final moments of death defying power. Even the mysterious Myrddin’s plan is finally, fully, revealed. Though readers may not exactly be surprised at whom the Mother of all Marians turns out to be, it is still emotionally overwhelming to have confirmation of our conclusions drawn.

The Seventh Key has it all! There is thrilling fast-paced action full of enough twists and turns to put the wildest roller coaster to shame. We experience an extensive range of emotions between the covers. We’ll laugh, cry, hate, and love. We’ll thrill at finally seeing the true face of evil get its comeuppance… how fitting that it should happen the way it did. Most importantly, we’ll be filled with peace in the end, knowing how wonderful of a place this world could be if only we’d give it the chance to heal. A person would have to be as cold as Duke Simon Adriano himself to not be moved beyond words at the emotion filling every page.

The Madonna Key continuity series is easily the best I have ever read. Evelyn Vaughn heads up, and brings to a close, a full circle that could not have been even remotely as incredible without the sheer talent of each author in the series. This is a series I will be drawn back to time and again to experience its powerful magic.

© Kelley A. Hartsell, December 2006. All rights reserved.