Wings of Destiny

The bestselling author of Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile returns with another sweeping tale centered on the courage and irrepressible spirit of its protagonist heroine.

Wings of Destiny is the story of Jefferson Duke, a man completely motivated by his indomitable belief in his ancestor's dream that his destiny is to build the golden city of San Francisco. However, in order to fulfill his ancestral destiny, Jefferson must sacrifice the most precious of life's gifts: his heart.

From the moment he sets foot on the shore of the trading post Yuerba Buena, Jefferson creates and perpetuates the lie that leads to his own inevitable destruction. Here the personal and the historical coincide, as the author deftly interweaves Jefferson's downfall with the infamous San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Jefferson's destruction reveals the evil, greed, lust and family revenge between the House of Duke and the House of Chen. Theirs is the timeless struggle between good and evil, and it is a struggle that must be exposed.

Only Jefferson's granddaughter Barbara, a journalist for The Call, can root out the facts about the city's graft and corruption, as well as the white slavery that still exists on the Barbary Coast. However, in order to expose these evils and eliminate them, Barbara must betray Jefferson and, ultimately, learn the truth about herself and her own secret past.

If you lean toward the metaphysical and love an adventurous romance novel every once in awhile, Lanigan's latest may tickle your fancy. The bestselling author of Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile stretches her wings into the Book Industry Study Group's newly designated genre of "visionary fiction" with Wings of Destiny. Five generations follow a predestined path starting when the sole member of the fifth generation visits a member of the first in a shimmering vision to let her know what to do so that the fifth can be born to achieve an important goal! Each generation communicates with the following one from the great beyond, leading them to fulfill appointed destinies. From the 18th century to the 20th, in Jamaica, North Carolina, San Francisco, and Peking, the plot twists and turns in a sinister and steamy saga of self-discovery laced with New Age aphorisms. --P. Randall Cohan