Ellen Fisher, $0.99
Paranormal Romance, 2011
Katherine Parrish and Darren “Dare” Greene know each other since high school. As you can predict, she was the geek while he was the football hero. Today, the playing field is more even as she’s all grown up into her babelicious self while he has the grace not to go bald or grow fat over the years. Even better, he needs her now. You see, Dare has managed to expand his homegrown lawn mowing business into a pretty successful lawn care company, and he wants a website. And naturally, Katherine, now a website designer, is going to give it to him good. What will she say and do should she realize that Dare used his need of a website as an excuse to get close to her? They have both been infatuated with each other for years now, only, they were intimidated by the other person all those years ago to actually do anything.
This is a really cute story. I know, the word “cute” has icky connotations that are usually dangerous to people with low tolerance for schmaltz, but Seeing Spots is fluffy, comical, and adorable. Yes, there is a leopard on the cover, but the hero in this one is pretty adorable. He’s a jock with pecs and flat washboard stomach, but he’s also awkward and tongue-tied around Katherine in such an endearing manner. Both he and Katherine are likable people who get along like fish to water.
I’m just not sure about the paranormal element. If I weren’t warned about it from the cover art and official synopsis, I would be taken aback by its late inclusion. This is one story that would have done just fine as a light-hearted contemporary short story. I don’t know, the paranormal elements feel tacked on as a concession to what is selling out there at the moment. Still, they don’t take too much away from the essence of this story – a fun short story. It could use a bit more substance, but for a story of its length, this one is a pretty entertaining light read to spend some time with.
