Thursday, May 23, 2024

Once Enchanted Evening by Trish LeBaron

 Thea Halliwell has made a good life for herself on Moonrise Cove. She lives with her mother and grandmother and helps them run the quaint bookshop in town.  One of her biggest disappointments is that, on an island where many of the natives have magical powers, her magical ability has not yet manifested. She decides to enroll in a class that promises to help magical abilities to manifest, even though the class is run by one of her least favorite people on the island.  Then on the first day of class, the teacher's son, Thea's old flame who has lived off of the island since the miscarriage of their love child 10 years ago, shows up and takes over the class.  Mason Tuttle is the last person on earth that Thea wants to see on a regular basis, but she decides, after having saved up for the expensive class, to continue.  Over the 10 weeks of the class they discover that the sparks that were between them as teens have not entirely extinguished.  Can Thea bring herself to forgive Mason for abandoning her after their baby's death, and give herself over to the attraction they still feel for each other?

This is one of the Moonrise Cove books self-published by my friend's writer's group. Despite the very serious element of the miscarriage of their baby, the story is mostly a light and fluffy romance with a sprinkling of relational sizzle and some pretty random magical events. There is no real depth to any of the characters or in their relationship.  LeBaron mostly discusses the "tingling at their touch" and "tightening of her gut" whenever they are together, but not much is said about what they like about each other's personalities. In addition to the romance, there was a bunch of magical occurrences that don't really match the magic system established in the other books. Still, after reading the super depressing Covenant of Water, I was ready for some cotton candy, and I boldly admit I enjoyed reading it very much. (316 p. 2024)

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