SEA WITCH

Author: Virginia Kantra ISBN: 9780425221990 7/2008 PARANORMAL Publisher: BERKLEY SENSATION

Her spell cannot be broken... From the water... For years, Margred has gone without the touch of another. Now, her need has driven her beyond her own world. For she is a selkie—a legendary being of the sea, able to shape-shift into seductive human form. Finally, she has found the one she wants... From the land... A burned-out veteran of the big-city streets, Caleb Hunter was only too happy to take the job as police chief on the peaceful Maine island of World's End. Nothing ever happens in this tiny community surrounded by the sea—until he meets a woman who's everything he's ever I dreamed of. And more... To each other... Their passion is undeniable. Irresistible. But when a murderer begins targeting women in World's End, Caleb must face the terrible possibility that the killings are somehow connected to the mysterious Margred—and that the power of their love may change the fate of humankind...

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Virginia Kantra sets her paranormal romance, SEA WITCH, on one of Maine's islands where police chief, Caleb Hunter, is seduced on the beach by Margred, a 700 year old shape-shifting Selkie. His lonely years on the battlefields of Iraq and then in rehab, working out the kinks of being put back together with stainless steel pins and screws, never prepared him for being swept off his feet by this beautiful woman/seal.

Kantra creates the perfect romance where first Margred—or Maggie, as Caleb calls her—saves him from his lonely life and then disappears like any mermaid would, leaving them both full of lust and questions. Why, after all these years, has she suddenly developed a craving for humans? Will he ever find his fantasy woman again? When she decides to return three weeks later (against the wishes of the Sea Prince), Maggie is attacked by a human possessed by a fire demon. Caleb witnesses the attack on the dark nighttime beach, and when he goes to her aid, she clams up. How can she tell him the truth of what she is or who her attacker is? And are either of them ready to discover that Caleb's long dead mother and missing brother are Selkies?

Despite all the complications of interspecies relationships, Caleb and Magred are head-over-flippers in love and willing at various points to die for each other. And isn't that a test for true love?

I recommend SEA WITCH to any reader who loves equal doses of intimate romance and the paranormal. I'm just glad this is the beginning of a trilogy, because I didn't get enough with this one story and look forward to more.

Susan Barton