Yokai Magic Paranormal Romance-Vampires
The Wild Rose Press, Inc
January 7, 2019
100
When Val unearths a Japanese scroll and a cat figurine inherited from her grandfather, magic invades her world. The statuette, actually a cat spirit named Yuki—a yokai—enchanted into that form for her own protection, comes to life. Over a century ago, an evil magician cast a curse on her, and a wolf-like demon conjured by the curse still hunts her. Because Val is the one who broke the protective spell, that dark magic endangers her, too. She must turn for help to the last person she wants to get involved with, her former high-school boyfriend, now an officer in the Navy. Together they search for a way to vanquish the threat from the spirit realm, while facing the attraction they thought they'd long since put behind them.
Reviewed by Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
After the death of her mother, Valerie Sherman (Val) is in the process of preparing the family home for sale. Unfortunately, before she can put it up for sale she has to do some repairs, first and foremost the roof. She searches through her grandfather’s mementos from Korea hoping to find something of value and proof of ownership of two ivory figurines. What she finds are a scroll and a porcelain figurine of a Japanese good luck cat. In the process of cutting open the box, she cut herself and bled onto the scroll, releasing magic that is about to take over her home.
The cat is now living and breathing and can shift to human. She was saved by the one she loved when he painted the scroll and bound her to it. She was in danger and he hoped to one day free her and destroy the evil that is after her. Unfortunately, once the magic was released so was the Okami, the demon pursuing her. Now Val finds herself with a house with moving furniture, figurines that come to life, and a creature that appears in her bathroom and cleans it. That one she happily accepts in her life.
After finally convincing herself she is not crazy, she has to figure out a way to remove the magic, and the demon that appears each night trying to gain access to the house. Help arrives in the form of her high school sweetheart. She hasn’t seen or spoken to him in thirteen years, since the day she walked away from him because he was accepted to the Naval Academy. She felt he betrayed her, and she didn’t want to be a Navy wife. Now Thad is back and wants to start over. She’s willing to take his offer of help, but still won’t commit to anything else.
I did not like Val, a girl who could walk away from the boy she loved because of his career choice, and who refused over the years to even speak to him. The story was short but enjoyable. Other than my feelings or lack of feelings for Val, I thought it was a worthwhile read.