A contemporary romance in which virtual life intertwines with real life

Sheridan King has a lot to feel aggrieved about. Not only did the man she loved dump her, but with as little ceremony he also destroyed the PR Company they'd painstakingly built up together. It seemed logical to her to retreat from the debris of her life into Second Life©, where, as Callista Hancroft, she reinvents herself as a virtual journalist.

But the real world still makes its demands – and to meet these Sheridan has to find a job. Her BFF, Kay, suggests she apply to an advertising agency she's had dealings with. One of the owners of that firm, Luke Ashton, is not particularly impressed with Sheridan, but bows to his fellow partner.

Luke is an enigma. He's gorgeous, utterly competent and, bewilderingly, seems to have taken against Sheridan. More importantly, and also unbeknownst to Sheridan, Luke is very active in Second Life. It is, in fact where he pursues a private passion, creating and showing the artworks of which his father so disapproved.

In SL, Luke Ashton is reborn as Josh Magic, photographer, and artist extraordinaire.

Sheridan quickly establishes herself as a valuable asset to Luke's firm. She manages, for the most part, to avoid the distractions caused by her boss's magnetic presence. She tells herself that she wouldn't have been willing to wade into another relationship even had he been interested, which he apparently isn't.

But there's someone else who has her eye on the delectable Luke, and that is Amber Bakerly, a fiery red-headed siren and modelling SLebrity. Everybody in SL wants Amber – but she is very, very picky about who she wants. Lucky Luke. For a while, he had, indeed, dallied with her – but then ended the relationship. Amber proves to be living proof of the adage that hell hath no fury as a woman scorned.

But in the meantime, when Sheridan despairs of ever making sense of the erratic Luke, she escapes into the cool embrace of Second Life where one of her journalistic assignments leads her to interview a certain highly regarded artist – in short, one Josh Magic. She feels instant and overwhelming attraction. To her delight, he reciprocates her feelings and the relationship, in the anything-goes world of Second Life, proceeds rapidly until they are making wild and passionate love on the beach below his SL villa.

And yet a dark cloud hangs over their love – and that is the vengeful Amber who stalks Luke (Josh) through the labyrinth of SL – and, as Pauline, into the equally complicated real world where her thirst for revenge takes a dark and dangerous turn. She takes a job in Luke's mother's guest house in Cape Town to keep a close eye on him and fend off any competitors.

Because Luke is overcoming his initial aversion to Sheridan, he finds himself confused: in Second Life, he's in a passionate relationship with Callista – while in Real Life, he feels increasingly guilty as his relationship with Sheridan grows.

Sheridan discovers evidence which suggests that the man she has grown to love in SL is, in fact, the man she is growing to love in RL. Before she can confront him, Luke goes on sabbatical to London. There he meets up with an old girlfriend, a woman called Zara. Amber, hot-footing it after him, concludes that Luke's passion for Zara has been rekindled and kidnaps her. Sheridan, with the help of a Second Life PI, tracks the hapless Luke down and gives Amber her comeuppance.

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