A stunning dancer and choreographer, Anyaskaya d’Borovik, was born thirty-five years ago into the driving, churning energy of New York City. Her mother was a high strata, adventurous White Russian exile now long departed and her father, departed also, had carried on the Russian tradition of mysticism practiced by the venerable d’Borovic family. And Anya, though thoroughly American, lucidly embodies these clashing treats in a unique but believable characterization. And she’s known as someone distinct in New York’s high society and heralded artistic circles, both for her raven-haired beauty and striking talent. In her battle to secure financing to bring to the stage the most fateful dance performance of her life, she encounters Henri Mellington, heir to an international banking fortune. And that’s soon launching a dire and gripping chain of complications.
Despite Anya’s struggle to avoid it, she meets someone else, Salvatore ‘Sonny Boy’ Aiello, not as privileged nor rich but more notorious and unforgettable. Mellington — stung and smarting in his rejection — turn in revenge to his family’s vast political connections and a march toward disaster’s set in motion. Sonny Boy, always intriguing, often funny and potentially lethal, began his rise among the borgatas, restless gangs of tough, young Italians marauding the back streets of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. leading ultimately to prominence, luxury and power in the demimonde of lower Manhattan. Though Sonny’s life is a colorful one filled with mordant humor and teasing playfulness, he’s described most of all as having “…the hardness of someone tested brilliantly in raging flames — unyielding, enhanced, ineffably rare. And Anya, though mortified, is totally enraptured unable to resist it. And now their love races on sometimes touching, sometimes perilous, always exciting. This surging tension keeps rising relentlessly through the whole book. In the end, though, , the power and privilege of the Mellingtons prevails and our “star crossed lovers” taste in pity and sorrow the full bitter consequences.