The Shucker's Booktique Lobster Cove
Fantasy/Paranormal
The Wild Rose Press, Inc
October 15, 2014
88
After her fiancé dumps her and her beloved Aunt Jenny goes missing, Willa Eklund travels to Lobster Cove with a broken heart to search for Jenny while running her bookstore. When a mysterious man visits the Shucker's Booktique on a stormy night drenched in rain and covered in mud, Willa's heart melts under his stormy gaze. She wants Lon and the answers he may have, but he also has a secret. Can Willa trust him?
Lon Devlin is a Tempest, a water sprite who can only take a human form during stormy nights. He rides the waves, lives by the tides, and nothing can hold him down, not even a beautiful woman. When he visits his mortal friend, he discovers she's missing and her intriguing niece has taken her place. He wants Willa, but he also wants answers. What happened to Jenny?
Review by: Patty McKenna Van Hulle
Reviewer for the Paranormal Romance Guild
Lon is a Tempest aka Water Sprite. He soaks up his life energy from the endless ocean. His days and nights are filled with playful wave rides with his pack of brothers. Lon does the God of the Sea’s bidding, but when the sky opens open with a fierce thunderstorm filled with booming thunder and crackling lightening, he can take on his human form and visit his human friend, Jenny.
Willa Eklund has always been treated as her family’s doormat and then graduated to being her cheating fiancé’s doormat. Then he dumped her. Willa has always done everything with a smile n her face, all while her spirit was being slowly crushed by her so called loved ones. Her family tasks Willa with finding her missing Aunt Jenny, keeping the bookstore opened, and totaling all the sales, just in case her greedy mom inherits the place. The police are no help finding her missing aunt. In their search for clues, they made a hurricane mess. It has been five long weeks and still no word.Willa takes each day as a gift of no insults or family treating her poorly.
During a huge thunderstorm, Lon and Willa’s world collide from an innocent knock at the bookstore’s door. Willa answers the door and stares into the thunderstorm gray eyes of her fantasy man, Lon looks into the purple and golden aura that is swirling around this gorgeous beauty, who is a younger version of Jenny. When he asks for Jenny, she freaks out and slams the door. He sticks his foot in, the door meets Willa’s head, and down she goes. Not a greatest first impression for Lon or Willa. When he tries to revive her with a cool rag, she begins to come to. When they touch skin to skin, Willa feels compelled to jump his bones and Lon want to wrap himself with her dazzling aura and stay forever. They both fight their instincts and decide to chat over some tea (because tea is always so helpful). He learns Jenny is missing, and Lon sees Willa’s smothered spirit begin to come to the surface. All too soon the storm calms down and he must leave or die. He says goodbye and hopes to see her again.
So we have Willa’s nasty mom reaching out with feet wiping via the phone, still no clues about Aunt Jenny, and no one in town knows anything about Lon. Another storm whips in, and he is able to visit her again. Willa is happy when she hears the knock again and welcomes her fantasy man into the shop. They search for clues in Aunt Jenny’s study. Willa slips on her BIG GIRL PANTS and takes her man with an undies scorching kiss. As soon as they get hot and heavy, she trips on a book about Mythical Creatures and Lon’s world begins to dissolve. Can a Tempest love a human forever without dying? Will Willa fight for her man? Does Lon have to give up everything he knows to keep Willa forever? Can she roll up her family’s doormat permanently? What happen to, Aunt Jenny? Does she reappear?
This is my first Ms. McKenzie romance. She delighted me with her playful and fun writing style. Willa was a heroine who landed in my heart and never left. She was such an 1800s wallflower, who did anything to make her family happy, and was crushed under their cruel heels. Lon was a unique hero and my first Tempest (Yes, I did Google Tempest). He may have been from the Otherworldly realm, but he was all things good and had a heart of gold. In romances, I need steam and sizzle. Ms. McKenzie didn’t disappoint me, with her toe curling kisses, wet shivers and quivers and a tsunami (I couldn’t resist the weather pun) of passions EXPLODING! I love the mythical legend Ms. McKenzie folded into her romance and made her h/h work for their happily ever after ending. My only complaint is that I wish it was longer, but I had a blast with Ms. McKenzie’s hilarious tale filled with sizzling sparks, a quirky cast of characters, mysterious legends and a fight for true love romance. She EARNED my score of 4 stars!