Lucky

Title: Lucky
Author: K. M. Mahoney
Cover Art: Trace Edward Zaber
Publisher: Amber Quill Press
Amazon: Buy Link Lucky
Genre: Contemporary M/M Romance,  Fantasy/Shapeshifter
Length: 53,000 words
Rating: 3.75 out of 5 rating stars

A Guest Review by Raine

Summary Review: Very pleasant romance between irritated fairy and handsome, wholesome, spectacled bear shifter.

Blurb: Allegro Romani is a fairy. Literally. Disowned by his family because of his sexual orientation, he’s left the Fae realm for Earth. He’s done all right for himself, establishing a small store in a paranormal-friendly town. He’s even made a few friends, despite his awkward social skills. But one day a week, everything goes to hell.

Alli is a Fayte, and they don’t tend to fare very well out of the magic-laden air of their home world. Once a week, their body rebels. And the result? A day full of the worst luck imaginable. For Alli, that day is always Friday. He’s come to dread them and would, in fact, spend every Friday tucked up in bed with the covers over his head if he could. But he’s found out from past experience that it doesn’t help, so now he just grits his teeth and tries to get through Friday without killing himself. Or someone else.

Then one particular Friday, his bad luck results in something surprisingly good. He meets a gorgeous bear-shifter named Michael Lakkis. And despite seeing Alli at his worst, Michael isn’t running the opposite direction. In fact, he’s chasing down Alli with resolve and determination.

Now Alli just has to find a way to keep his bear-shifter, get rid of the trouble plaguing him, and figure out who wants him out of Putman County for good. It’s enough to make any sane fairy run for the hills. Fortunately, Alli has never been accused of being particularly sane. And with his new bear at his side? Alli is determined to hang onto his new life. Bad luck or no bad luck…

Review:

Before I discovered the wonderful world of M/M I was addicted to murder and suspense thrillers, and I stumbled into a cul-de-sac of cosy mysteries. These were often set in small town America, involved the sheriff’s office and a book shop/tearoom/newspaper. They dealt in domestic detail; family, friends, neighbours, gossip, romance and differing levels of murder and had, by the time I left this particular genre, started offering a selection of cookie recipes. When I read Lucky, although it is not strictly speaking categorised as a mystery, it reminded me of this rather pleasant easy going world.

However, Putnam County of northern Wisconsin is part of a paranormal society involving witches, weres, shifters and others. K. M. Mahoney evokes her background fantasy world gently without heavy weight genealogies, line-drawn maps, or lists of characters. Whatever is happening in the rest of this world, Putnam County is known for its significant magical community. Alli is a refugee from his home fae world, cast away for being gay. He owns a florist shop, which deals with ornamental and magical/medicinal plants, but not cut flowers. His affinity for horticulture helps focus his wayward magic. He is a well-developed character, not quite the usual ingenue, but rather grumpy, a little prickly, still cute but shy and epically unlucky on Fridays. The book starts with the ups and downs of Alli’s magically induced klutziness and the collision with his soon to be romantic interest.

I found Michael a great addition to my personal collection of were or shifter characters. This delightful spectacle bear shifter—emphatically not a werebear—adopted for some undisclosed reason into a close family of black bear shifters, is fascinated by Alli’s mixture of sexy irritability and particularly those beautiful but vestigial wings. Michael has his own quirks, including naming the bear who shares his body, Bruce. His single-minded pursuit of the fairy is both comfortably romantic and mildly heroic; moreover, once his family get involved it is irretrievably domestic.

Other significant cast members included Chris, a rather enigmatic but very protective local deputy. I rather liked that we never met the actual sheriff of Putnam County, another little touch of uncertainty that somehow combined to increase the realism of the fantasy.

I found the light mystery element to the story added just enough in the way of plot development to the romance, without stealing too much from the main interest of getting Michael and Alli together for hot and preferably uninterrupted sex.

I don’t particularly enjoy pratfall comedy and Alli’s arse-over-tip misfortune’s didn’t distract from what was a pleasant read, set within a paranormal society that was well-realised without irritating over written explanations.