"Sea Lord," Virginia Kantra

Pros: Fast-paced, tense, sizzling & romantic!
Cons: None
Rating: 5 out of 5

Review book (uncorrected proof) courtesy of Penguin Group.
Visit Virginia Kantra’s website.

In the war between man and the children of fire, the children of the sea have always remained neutral. Demons hate humans, but to selkies humans don’t matter enough to hate. They live off of human wreckage, take human lovers for a night, but compared to their immortal spans, humans live and die in the blink of an eye. Unfortunately, all that is about to change.

In Virginia Kantra’s Sea Witch, the selkie Maggie became marooned as a human on the shores of the Maine island called World’s End. A demon targeted her, hoping to start a war between the humans and the selkies, but Maggie’s human lover Caleb interfered.

In Sea Fever, Caleb’s missing brother Dylan returned to World’s End. He used his attraction to cook and waitress Regina as an excuse to hang around, while his real purpose was to protect against another demon. Despite himself, however, he found himself falling in love.

In Sea Lord, the selkie prince Conn ap Llyr finds himself beset by visions—visions of a particularly unremarkable human woman. As much as he tries to shake them off, he’s driven to seek her out. That woman is Lucy, sister to Caleb and Dylan. She’s the wallflower no one notices, the quiet one, the schoolteacher who takes care of their drunkard father.

But Lucy has secrets of her own, reasons why she fights so hard to remain unremarkable and unnoticed—such as her inability to venture more than 20 miles from the seashore without becoming violently ill. And the arrival of Conn on the island of World’s End disrupts that, because he can’t help but notice her. Worse, he believes her children will fulfill a prophecy to save his people, and so he kidnaps her away to the selkie home of Sanctuary to keep her safe—only to find himself falling in love with her.

Sea Witch was a fantastic exploration of the mindset of an immortal selkie trapped in a human body, and the beautiful relationship that developed between her and Caleb. It was also a wonderful rendering of the utterly human and earthy island of World’s End.

Sea Fever delved into the difficulties of someone who wasn’t human—the selkie Dylan—but was born human and raised thusly until he was a teenager. He had been taught the standoffish ways of the selkie, but underneath it he still had some of the emotional problems of the teenager he’d been. Watching his relationship with Regina evolve was quite beautiful, and we got to see more of demons, selkies, and the background of magic in Virginia Kantra’s amazing universe.

Finally, Sea Lord focuses on Lucy, Conn and Sanctuary. We’re immersed in the selkie world and find out it isn’t as black and white as it seems from the outside. We also find out that Lucy isn’t nearly what she seems, either! While Conn’s kidnapping of Lucy sets them at odds, there’s plenty to pull her in as well. At Sanctuary, she doesn’t have to hide her true self any more. She can learn how to master the abilities she can hardly admit to herself that she has. And she’s protected from the demons that, if they were to learn of her, would risk everything to kill her.

Or at least, Conn believes she’s protected…

Much like the previous books, Sea Lord kept me absolutely enthralled. It was another “I can’t put it down!” book. Lucy and Conn’s relationship might have a rocky beginning, but it evolves in wonderful and fascinating ways. They also both change a great deal as people, thanks to their time with each other.

The demons keep things fast-paced and tense, while the chemistry between Lucy and Conn keeps things sizzling and sweet. (Usual adult material warning: explicit and delicious sex!) And the “Lucy” that Conn leaves in her place to fool her family makes things back home rather interesting as well!

You could probably read this book on its own, but I highly recommend reading all three if just because they’re so utterly lovely.