2021 urban fantasy romance, first of a trilogy. Nine years ago
Vivienne had a summer thing with Rhys, youngest son of the Welsh
family that founded the small and magical Georgia town of Grave Glen.
It ended badly in vodka and cursing. Now Rhys is coming back for the
Founder's Day festivities, and it seems that the curse may have had
some effect…
And much of this is what one might expect of second chance
romance: neither of them ever really got over the other, they fall
back into insta-lust, they've both grown up a bit, and so on. But at
the same time it's a magical second chance romance, so Vivienne's
curse escapes and is affecting the whole town, right in the middle of
their most profitable tourist season. (The run-up to Halloween of
course. To be fair, closing the beaches isn't really an option given
that even many of the residents don't know that magic is a thing.) I'm
very much in favour of this model, hero and heroine having to do
things together, to overcome a problem that is not innately tied up
with the impossibility of their having a lasting relationship.
At the same time there were a few things that just felt a bit off.
Neither of them ever explicitly apologises for the way they both
mishandled the break-up, and I feel that this should be what at least
one of them does when they first meet again. When Rhys is
contemplating how little he uses magic, he considers that when
watching rugby "his favorite team always won", which may be a
throwaway line but oh boy you haven't read My Friend Mr Leakey or
thought about the implications of power, have you? And there's this
weird thing that shows up in a lot of modern urban fantasy that a
witch is something different from a mundane human, a supernatural
creature like a vampire or a werewolf, not a human who happens to have
some extra powers and learning.
That said, it was fun, the magic made some sort of sense, and I plan
to continue the series. (And, unusually for an American author, the
Wales is not blatantly wrong.)