2022 urban fantasy romance, second of a trilogy. Llewellyn ("Wells")
Jones goes back to Graves Glen, as much to get away from his static
life in Wales as to start something new. Certainly he won't be getting
involved with Gwyn Jones. Not only is she the ancestral enemy (even if
his brother married her cousin), she's the magic-shop competition…
So book one was a second chance romance, and this one is enemies
to lovers. But Sterling doesn't take the easy options. There's a first
kiss, but it's under the influence of a love spell… even if love
spells don't actually seem to be a thing. And the second kiss is just
for cover when caught sneaking around someone's house. Like the first
book, this one has serious stuff to be done, and if the protagonists
find that it works better if they do it together, well, fair enough.
There are two separate problems here, which perhaps takes away some
of the force compared with the first book's single threat. An old
schoolmate of Gwyn's shows up in town: over-keen to please, or
actually a problem? And Gwyn's magical power is dropping out, for no
obvious reason. Maybe these will turn out to be related, but as things
stand neither of them seems to be the huge threat to the entire town
that the first book's problems were… until the showdown near the end,
of course.
Again there are little niggles, a couple of places where things were
clearly set up for a big reveal but the reveal never got written or
was lost in revisions, but the mood remains light and frothy even when
serious things are happening, and I enjoy spending time in this world.