TSUNAMI BLUE

Author: Gayle Ann Williams ISBN: 9780505528216 4/2010 PARANORMAL Publisher: DORCHESTER

NO SAFE HARBOR With her badass rain boots, her faithful dog, and the ability to predict the monster tsunamis that have reduced the US to a series of islands, Kathryn O’Malley isn’t afraid of much. Cut off from all society, she takes to the airwaves as Tsunami Blue, hoping to save something of humanity as the world around her crumbles. But Blue should be afraid—because her message reaches the wrong ears. Now she’s the target of ruthless pirates known as Runners who want to use her special talents for their own profiteering—as soon as they can find her. Blue’s only shot at survival lies with the naked stranger who washes up on her rocky beach. A man who might just be working for Runners himself. Torn between suspicion and attraction, the two will have to navigate a surging tide of danger and deceit if they hope to stay alive.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Gayle Ann Williams sets her paranormal romance TSUNAMI BLUE in 2023 in the Pacific Northwest, at a time when the world has been turned by wicked tsunamis into a series of islands. In this waterworld, a voice cries out in the wilderness—Tsunami Blue is a young woman who talks to the sea and the sea talks back, telling her where and when the next tsunami will strike. She broadcasts over a shortwave radio, and pirates known as runners want her for their very own weather channel. If they know what Blue knows, they can plan their raids. Fortunately for Blue, she has a guardian angel by the name of Gabriel Black. At least she hopes he is when he washes up on her beach. He’s the most handsome man she’s seen in years, but then he’s the only man she’s seen in years.

Williams has an amazing imagination to take the area and cover it with flood waters and then decide how the features appear that remain. I’m not sure how I feel about it, but it kinda scares me to think of my hometown under enough water that the top of the Space Needle is accessible by boat. Maybe we should get some of the flood insurance they’ve been selling on late night television. With all of the recent earthquakes and tsunamis, I’m inclined to think that Williams is really Tsunami Blue. Blue and Gabriel live in this apocalyptic version of the San Juan Islands, Vancouver, British Columbia, and Seattle, where lawlessness has taken over. It’s a world where a pirate who gets injured on board a boat will be tossed overboard rather than saved. It’s a world where children are gambled away for food. It’s a world where having a packet of Starbucks coffee beans is premium trade material. It’s a scenario that I can easily relate to, and the fear and isolation Blue feels is immense. When she finds that there are a lot more people still alive than her pirate uncle led her to believe, I felt just as betrayed.

TSUNAMI BLUE is an apocalypse that I can easily imagine, but one I do not look forward to. The romance between Black and Blue is steamy enough to dry up some of the water around New Seattle, and the sweetness of this guardian angel is a special story in itself. I look forward to reading more of Williams’ work.

Susan Barton