Stevie‘s review of Tempest by Cari Z
Gay Paranormal Romance published by Samhain Publishing 05 Apr 16
I’m no great fan of shifter stories, although I’m prepared to make an exception where merfolk or selkies are the main attraction. This book provides not just the merman advertised in the blurb, but also a selkie in an important supporting role. Plus the background to the story features some fabulous world-building that the author has obviously given a lot of thought to planning out.
Colm is a fisherman, whose father moved inland from the coast with him when he was a baby. Now, however, Colm’s father has died, and while his stepfamily care very much for him, other locals are more hostile to what they see as Colm’s heretical ways – especially his ability to ‘read’ the waters by touch and predict where fish are most likely to be found. So Colm sets out to find his father’s original home in the hope of a friendlier reception. Along the way, he is befriended by a group of travelling merchants, some of whom hide equally strange magical blessings or curses, and on arrival at the home of his stepmother’s relatives it seems that Colm has found a place where he’ll be accepted.
Colm becomes particularly friendly with a lad of his own age – Nichol, who is anxious to join the navy along with his longer-standing friends – and also meets Nichol’s grandfather: a half-selkie who returned to the sea and his seal form when his human form began to grow old and weak. Colm becomes popular for the fish he can catch, but then the secret behind his abilities is revealed and the locals once more turn against him.
Colm and Nichol face a range of threats as they try to escape those who want to enforce their country’s laws and religion, but also find a few more friends as they search for a new place that will accept them.
I enjoyed a lot of aspects of this story, although I did find Colm and Nichol a little exasperating at times – fairly understandable given their youth and impetuousness, but perhaps a more mature pairing within the same setting would have been more to my tastes. Having said that, I’d love it if we got to see more of this world – featuring either some of the same characters or a new group with new challenges to face.
Grade: B
Summary:
Love can change a soul. But can it save one life?
Colm Weathercliff is a simple fisherman with an uncanny—some might say preternatural—knack for his trade. He thought leaving his small village to take his father’s ashes to the capital city of Caithmor for a proper burial would be the grandest adventure of his life.
At first, all his hopes seem to be fulfilled. He finds a home where he’s accepted without question, the freedom to use his talent to its fullest effect, and love with Nichol, a man with a longing for the sea as powerful as Colm’s.
But Caithmor holds as many dangers as it does attractions. Colm’s greatest secret turns out to be a dark revelation that gets him and his family shunned—and changes everything he thought he knew about himself.
The truth—about his parentage, his gift, even his physical form—could poison his chance for love. And doom both him and Nichol to a gruesome, inescapable fate.
Warning: Contains graphic violence, explicit sex, and scenes of torture that may not be for the faint of heart. These mermen bear no resemblance to those you might have seen in a certain animated film.
Read an excerpt.
