Daniel is a to-die-for handsome, twenty-something rock star who fears crowds - an unusual hangup for someone who, in the opening scenes of this lyrical tale of lavish love, finds himself in the pulsing heart of Los Angeles, a city not known for its introversion. Only his faithful bodyguard, Reggie, stands between him and hordes of idolizing young fans.

He is battling the machinations of a supposedly friendly relative who has been siphoning his considerable wealth. In day one of The Road to Aradell, Daniel gets stuck in a elevator. With a woman. For a long time. The woman is Anna, a white-haired, well-dressed, thirty-something professional. He realizes that time spent with Anna will not take the usual course of his encounters with girls; she is a woman who sees past his persona to the brave, kind person he is destined to become.

Elevator time with Anna excites Daniel, and the two agree to meet that evening; oddly, Anna stipulates, it’s to be just for one night. But what a night. Daniel didn’t know there was an art to physical intimacy, and Anna becomes his willing art teacher.

The romantic spell between them can’t die after that one night; the flame has been lit too bright. Confronted with his knowledge of her personal history (his minders do a background check on anyone who comes too near to Daniel’s money and fame), Anna becomes irrationally hostile; later we see that her pattern is actually rational. She believes that she caused the many tragedies that have dogged her tracks. Everybody likes Anna, except maybe…Anna. For his part Daniel, for reasons of his own – abuse by his father, coldness from his mother, and the isolation of stardom – has avoided falling in love. It’s a standoff worthy of Shakespeare.

Daniel must deal with ghosts from his own past, must find a real father figure, must acknowledge his ability to be warm and compassionate, an ability that Anna saw and drew out of him. He has been attacked, he is embattled, and only Reggie (now his friend as well as his protector) is near him as he tries to nurse his wounds alone in a seaside castle called Aradell. Anna has to realize that just because disaster has followed her, she is not a jinx, and she can only be fulfilled by reuniting with the one man she has met who is not afraid of her ghosts.

You’ll feel so comfortable inside this book that you may imagine you have read other books by this author. Felicia Rose Levitt is the granddaughter, daughter and stepdaughter of well-known screen/TV/comedy writers John Farrow, Jack Rose and Gene Levitt. Her talents, whether inherited or sui generis, are undeniable. But – this is her first novel.

The Road to Aradell will leave you crying, “More!”