Five Years in Her World: Secrets and Darkness

About The Book Dark passions, family secrets, twisted love, polyamory, betrayal, and pansexuality weave their way into a new novel by Canadian-American author Douglas Roff in his new novel Five Years in Her World: Secrets and Darkness. Following the tragic deaths of his parents in a fire which destroyed the family home and business, James McKenzie returns to the happiest place he knew as a boy growing up that wasn't located in Canada. After graduating from UBC with a degree in English Literature, he embarks ambitiously on a career as a novelist, moving to Merida, Mexico from his home in rural British Columbia. There he buys the very home his parents used to rent for the family, reconnecting with his Mexican neighbors and friends and settling into life as an expat, living quietly and perfecting his craft. Barely two weeks after arriving, while still settling in and renovating his new home, he receives an email asking him to visit the beach city of Progreso on the Yucatan coast to meet up with a college friend and fellow writer. There, while girl-watching at the beach waiting for the cruise ship to dock, he witnesses a violent attack on a young woman at a photo shoot, intervening after no one else comes to her aid. This leads to a chain of events in which James meets the wealthy and powerful Castellano family led by patriarch Diego and matriarch Luna. He begins his budding relationship with the two Castellano daughters, Maria, the international fashion model, and Conchita, the cunning and brilliant younger sister. His relationship with each of them is different as is his blossoming love affair with Maribella "Mari" Montoya who has had a long and tangled relationship with the two Castellano sisters and the wealthy and powerful Castellano matriarch. James is young and never seems to clearly understand all there is to unravel about the family, especially the looming darkness, his and theirs, that is rapidly descending on them all. Enter Shawna Fraser, an Canadian actress filming in Merida who crosses paths with James fortuitously, but who quickly connects with the Castellano sisters and Mari disrupting their otherwise quiet if not happy lives. The chance meetings of James and his women have resulted in the exposure of many dark secrets and personal agendas, but revealing few of his own. This first book of a three novel series opens the story and lights the fuse on explosive events that will soon change the lives of everyone in Merida, Mexico and in Madrid, Spain. Theirs is an exotic and erotic world of passion, betrayal, lust and pansexuality open to some, closed to all others. Darkness becomes the norm as deeply held secrets are revealed, woven into the final dramatic moments Five Years In Her World: Secrets and Darkness.