Veena’s review of Charmed by His Love (Spellbound Falls, Book 2) by Janet Chapman
Paranormal Romance published by Jove 29 May 2012
Maximilian (Mac) Oceanus shook the earth and moved mountains to create a bottomless lake with a saltwater channel to the ocean to prove his love to Olivia Baldwin in Spellbound Falls. Now that Mac and Olivia are happily married and starting on their new life together, Janet Chapman turns our attention to Olivia’s best friend Peg Thomson in her next installment of the Spellbound series, Charmed by His Love.
Lonely Peg lives for her children. She turns her back on love and romance, believing that the women in her family are cursed by a black widow curse that takes the lives of any men they marry. To prove her point, both her mother and grandmother are also widows having tried their luck at least twice already. She meets Duncan Mackeage in a storm of kicks and slaps as she attacks him for frightening her son.
Duncan of the Mackeage and MacBain highlander clans of Tarstone Mountain has been hired by Mac to build the road from Spellbound to the mountain resort that he is building his wife as a wedding present. Needing the gravel that Peg owns in order to get his road built, Duncan reaches out to Peg only to find her illegally hunting deer to feed her children. Prickly Peg and crusty-on-the-outside Duncan are able to move past their unfortunate beginning, having negotiated a fair price for the gravel, to find mutually admirable characteristics.
So starts a tentative acceptance and friendship. Duncan quickly forges a relationship with Peg’s children, who view him as their missing father figure. Between Duncan, his cousin Rory MacBain, and nephew Alex, the family is protected from scary and unpleasant events in their quiet community. Duncan is the only non-magical person in his family of time-traveling, shapeshifting druids and wizards. But Peg and now Duncan are under the protection of the uber wizard Mac himself. Duncan slowly and patiently works on Peg’s heart to free his very powerful magic that is just waiting for love to free it.
This is a charming family story with precocious children helped by a whale named Levithian, who subtly nudge their mother toward a romance that will free her to live a full life. I look forward to Carolina’s story next so I can revisit with all the characters we’ve met in these two books. The crowning glory of the book is the first day of school for Peg’s twins and Mac’s son Henry. Somewhat unusual in today’s romance novels, this one is a good clean read.
Summary:
All Duncan MacKeage wants is to keep his crew building roads and bridges up the mountain to the fancy resort overlooking Spellbound Falls’ new inland sea. He doesn’t want anything to do with his own family magic or with the beautiful widow, Peg Thompson, and her tribe of little heathens. But when Duncan is tasked with keeping an eye on the widow Thompson, trouble starts.
Because of a family curse, Peg fears that giving in to her desires will mean killing off another lover. But Duncan—the strong, handsome man buying her gravel—is unbelievably tempting and determined to take care of her. Torn between her head and her heart, will Peg find the strength to break free of her black-widow curse? Or will pursuing their attraction put these lovers in harm’s way?
No excerpt available.
Other books in this series:
