Spellbound Falls

January 16, 2012
Interlacing magic and reality, Chapman (Highlander for the Holidays) weaves a delightful yarn around lonely young widow Olivia Baldwin. Despite the bossy supervision of her mother-in-law, Olivia loves running Inglenook, a successful parent/child camp in picturesque Spellbound Falls. When single father Mac Oceanus arrives early with his son, Olivia is instantly smitten by his good looks, strength, and confidence, and she weighs the joys of initiating an affair against her fear of abandonment. As Mac tries to draw Olivia out of her shell, strange occurrences crop up, like his sister Carolina’s sudden appearance during a snowstorm, a working cellphone in a towerless region, and an ankle bracelet that Olivia can’t take off no matter how she tries. Contrived conversations between the otherwise well-drawn characters are distracting, but readers will root for the down-to-earth heroine who finally has her chance at powerful love. Agent: Grace Morgan, Grace Morgan Literary Agency.

February 1, 2012
Chapman begins a new spin-off series from her popular Highlander titles. Olivia Baldwin will do all kinds of things to avoid conflict, even being alone with a new employee who makes her uneasy. When he attacks her, Maximilian Oceanus and his six-year-old son, Henry, save her. They were on their way to the family camp Olivia runs for her former in-laws. She was supposed to give Max parenting advice, but he ends up helping her as well. Layers of secrets are uncovered as they begin to fall for each other. It turns out that Max is a sea god avoiding his Atlantis family, and Olivia tries to sustain the myth that her former husband was a fallen war hero in their small, gossipy town. Henry and Olivia's daughter provide lots of humor and surprises in Chapman's well-paced, fun romance. Even the Highlanders make an appearance in what is sure to be a popular series, especially with fans of Barbara Bretton's Sugar Maple paranormal small-town romances.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)