James and Olivia Forster have been happily married for many years. A harmless kink here or there spices up their love life, but they can’t imagine the kinks they’ll encounter while sneaking off to their beach house for a long hot weekend.
Anso Vitul has ruled the wereseals for one short month. He hardly needs his authority questioned because he’s going crazy from mating heat. Anso’s best friend and male lover Ty offers to help him find the human mate his genes are seeking. To Ty’s amazement, Anso’s quest leads him claim not one partner but a pair. Ty would object, except he too finds the Forsters hopelessly attractive . . .
Anso Vitul has ruled the wereseals for one short month. He hardly needs his authority questioned because he’s going crazy from mating heat. Anso’s best friend and male lover Ty offers to help him find the human mate his genes are seeking. To Ty’s amazement, Anso’s quest leads him claim not one partner but a pair. Ty would object, except he too finds the Forsters hopelessly attractive . . .
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After thinking about this review for a while I get the feeling it's my own squeamishness that's making me enjoy this Emma Holly story less than the others I've read. I liked the ending, ultimately I think Holly brings the characters together well and each person seems to be getting what they need (emotionally and physically) but I just couldn't over the beginning!
James and Olivia are happy in their marriage. They have a child, a full sex life, lots of love - really the whole package. But then Anso, because of a 'blood bond', comes onto shore and kidnaps her to be his bride! And when he sees that she's married he takes James too! Plus the whole 'silencing James with the aphrodisiac laden kiss' didn't work for me; instead of finding it titillating I couldn't get over thinking of it as force. Not to put too fine a point on things, force for real and not for fun doesn't work for me.
The story gets better, and more believable, when they get back to Anso's underwater kingdom. There Olivia and James show a reluctance to just accept this 'new life' that Anso dumps on them, even if there's cool magic and political intrigue. And yes, once everyone starts sleeping with everyone else Holly does a good job writing in the emotional turmoil. No one feels perfectly in love and connected with everyone else, which causes stress and hurt feelings. I'm not saying at all that this isn't a well written story; Holly does a wonderful job keeping each character unique and separate and you never think during a sex scene that someone's hand got confused with someone else's foot. Ultimately I just couldn't get over my initial feeling that while things work out for everyone in the end, I didn't like Olivia and James being shook up in the first place.
Overall Feeling - Eh.
Series - None (?)
**Title requested from author for review**
