The Magic of “I Do”

Falkner’s second paranormal Regency (after A Lady and Her Magic) suffers from scattered plotting and uneven chemistry. While her family is away, faerie Claire Thorne is placed into the keeping of her human brother-in-law, Lord Phineas “Finn” Trimble. They act on their mutual attraction while snowbound in Finn’s country home, but Claire then disappears to the land of the fae. When they meet again months later, the smitten Finn wants to marry Claire, but she is afraid of the consequences of a mixed marriage—the fae steal part-fae children and erase their parents’ memories—and refuses. They team up to investigate a murderer who is bent on revenge against Finn’s family, and in the process Claire’s objections mysteriously vanish. Plot threads appear and disappear, characters behave inconsistently and are frustratingly self-absorbed, and the intimate scenes have a naive overtone despite the characters’ forays to sex parties. Fans of book one will be confused and disappointed. Agent: Melissa Jeglinski, the Knight Agency. (June)