After hundreds of years of oppression under the rule of the blond-haired usurpers, the black-haired court has finally regained its rightful place.  Mai has been chosen to head her own house out of the thirteen in service to the new empress.  Withdrawn and aloof, it is difficult for Mai to make friends.  Her female peers regard her with respect, yet she finds relations between men and women abhorrent.  As a result, Mai remains emotionally distant from all males save one, Lt. General Rosuke.

Rosuke is irresistible to women, and has earned his status in the court due to his strong martial and magical skills.  The only woman that keeps him at arm’s length is Mai.  In her he sees everything he’s ever wanted in a woman.  Having lived for over 300 years, Rosuke has not endured and overcome a terrible curse by being a fool.  Although he and Mai must face countless challenges and dangers to defend and uphold the empress’s newly resurrected court, the biggest obstacle he must overcome will be to win her for his own.

Oblivion continues the fantastically picturesque saga that started in Caught in the Devil’s Hand and can be read as a stand-alone.   Ruby Duvall’s visually rich language and exquisite imagination make for a decadently wonderful novel bursting with thrills, exotic pageantry, assertive, capable women and chivalrous, courageous men.  I experienced a timeless beauty and unique vibrancy in reading Ms. Duvall’s work.  Her clear yet lyrical and poetic narrative is perfect in chronicling Mai and Rosuke’s passionate love affair in a setting of erotic and mystical splendor where the forces of good must stand against the taint of unmitigated evil.