Read of Shayne's novels instead: (2010-01-29) 
***Review containers spoilers***

This is a novella, which centres on Puabi - a dark Immortal High Witch. She throws herself into the sea after her husband leaves her to burn in their house, as he runs off with his mistress. Matthew rescues her from the sea. Puabi could be the twin of his dead wife, Gabrielle.
The story is about redemption and love and has an unbelievable happy ending.
It was a compelling read but not a satisfying one - even though I knew I was going to get a predictable romance before I started reading. I don't usually mind that - so I guess I must have found other elements of the story unsatisfying and that is probably down to the length - not enough time for characters to be drawn properly and events to unfold at a natural pace.

Short and unsatisfying fourth story in Immortal High Witch series: (2007-12-28) 
This is the fourth story in the Immortal High Witch series which includes "Infinity", "Eternity" and "Destiny", all much longer than this short story. Rather surprisingly, "Immortality" has as its heroine the evil murderess Puabi of the previous book, "Destiny". When Puabi escapes from the burning house of her husband Nathan she casts herself into the sea and expects, eventually, to use up all her lives and to drown. However she is fished out of the sea by a man who takes her to his island to care for her. Matthew Fairchild is taking some time out from his work to deal with the consequences of the death of his fiance and unborn child; when he meets Puabi he is shocked by her physical similarity to his dead fiance Gabriella, although their natures could not be more different. The two talk, spar and eventually uncover their secrets, although Matthew doesn't of course believe Puabi is really a Sumerian Queen who's over four thousand years old. When Matthew's Personal Assistant tries to kill them they both discover a shocking secret and Puabi is given another chance to atone for her sins.

This story started off reasonably enough and I was interested to see how the author would deal with the fact that her heroine is incredibly anti-heroic, having killed lots of people, including two in the previous story. However I was rather disappointed that this aspect of Puabi's nature wasn't really discussed, just that Puabi was having a fresh start. The events towards the end of this story were too far fetched to enable this reader to really go along with it and I felt it was all rather a cop-out.

Great short story: (2007-10-11) 
As I didn't pay attention to the number of pages, I was shocked at how small the book was. It says 96 pages, but is actually only 84 in reading. But, short story or not, it was a great read! I thought it might be too far fetched, too sci-fi to be a romance as well, but Shayne made the characters very believable. Can't wait to read more of her books!

okay: (2006-07-20) 
This is the first book I've read from Shayne's witch series. I wasn't expecting it to be a short story. It's actually 84 pages long. Needless to say I finished it in one evening. It was sweet and sappy like most romances are. What I didn't like about it was the fact that they fell in love with each other almost immediately. Reguardless of the fact that she was a total B***H to him. It was just sooooooo over the top. And then when she admitted to killing (and I don't mean just one-I'm talking lots) he seemed okay with that because he felt he murdered his wife because he didn't pay enough attention to her. Oh, boohoo!

Sorry, but I think weakness is lame.

Great short story - reissued from an anthology: (2006-02-25) 
IMMORTALITY originally released as a short story in the OUT OF THIS WORLD anthology in 2001.

When her beloved husband betrays Puabi to be with his mistress, it was all she could do to pull herself from her burning home and crawl to the cliffs near her house where she falls into the ocean. Badly burned and suffering from smoke inhalation, she still hopes to survive, but if she doesn't at least she has the satisfaction of knowing her husband won't find her body.

An unknown amount of time later, Matthew Fairchild is out boating and sees the body of a woman drifting in the ocean. Pulling her into his boat, he quickly discovers that she is still alive and much to his surprise she the vision of his deceased wife!

Maggie Shayne is an author who never fails to impress me with her writing ability and this is actually the first of her witch stories I've read. IMMORTALITY has inspired me to go and read more of her witch novels.

Puabi is an Immortal High Witch and has given up her soul by killing numerous "light ones" to maintain her life and youth. By tossing herself into the ocean, she dies a thousand deaths, each time restoring herself with a life she had previously stolen. She is a bitter woman, a Queen in her own right and while weak in body strong in will. She desperately needs to be loved, and loved in return. While she comes across as very hard, I actually thought she also came across as very noble, so I liked her as a character.

Matthew lost his wife and unborn child because he was too devoted to his work and very neglectful of his needy wife. Even though he had married her out of duty, Matthew blaims himself for her death and cannot come to terms with her loss. Finding Puabi, he realizes that while she is and was not his wife, she is the type of woman he could very easily love.

This story is very touching and the end was a little bit of a surprise for me. I hadn't read IMMORTALITY in the anthology, and with the current trend of publishing the individual short stories, thought I would give this one a shot. Great story!