Berkley Sensation, $7.99, ISBN 978-0-425-22297-3
Paranormal Romance, 2008
Sea Fever has the same strengths and flaws as the previous book in this series, Sea Witch, so my reaction to this one is the same as my reaction to the previous book. In fact, I’m tempted to cut and paste my review of the previous book here, heh.
I’m hoping that Dylan Hunter, who is half-human, will be less inscrutable than the selkie heroine of the previous book, Margred, but he is still a pretty distant hero. Of course, with gender stereotyping being what it is in this genre, Dylan gets to do his protective macho sex machine thing here while Margred in the last book pretty much stood by to be protected and boinked. The story here is a spillover from that in the previous book, so you may want to read the review of the previous book to catch up with things. Here, Dylan is sent to protect his brother’s family from any fallout that may happen after the events in the previous book. At the same time, he has a quick but naturally earth shattering shag fest with our heroine Regina Barone at his brother’s wedding so later on they will meet again and make merry. Regina is the familiar harried single mother with trust issues where men are concerned and a permanent scowl on her face that will temporarily go away only when Dylan is boinking her.
Dylan, like his fellow selkie sex machines, live for boinking. It’s in their biology, no doubt imprinted in their genes that they have to copulate as much as possible so that the world becomes a much happier place. He also doesn’t feel the typical emotions that you and I feel. Therefore, it is very hard for me to buy that Dylan is in love with Regina when his reaction towards her seems more like instinctive randy horndog behavior rather than affection. That is, unless you buy the concept that the sex is so, so great that the participants behave as if they are struck by lightning and start seeing the light or something, that is, which I don’t. Just like the hero in the previous book, Regina in this story is claiming to be falling in love with Dylan when he hasn’t really done anything that would warrant something as drastic as going head over heels over. Okay, so the guy knows how to give good whoopee, but does that mean that one has to marry him?
As for Regina, she is straight out of the Harlequin series central casting. There is nothing memorable about her, I find, because she’s so familiar in every way that counts.
I find the subplot much more interesting than the unbelievable romance, although with this story being what it is, there are the usual claptrap about destiny, magic babies, fecund heroines, and bizarre, I don’t know, urban fantasy version of safe sex or something (the heroine says that the hero can’t catch anything from her, but it never seems to occur to her in the first – unsafe – sex scene that she may catch something from him).
Sea Fever, like Sea Witch, ends up a potentially interesting paranormal suspense story with a romance that is dry and unbelievable. Less sex and more emotions would have made the romance more convincing in this case.
Oh, and what is with the deformed head on the cover art?
