Reviewed by Vicki
TITLE: Kitto
SERIES: Tyack & Frayne #4
AUTHOR: Harper Fox
PUBLISHER: FoxTales
LENGTH: 123 pages
BLURB:
Now Lee is free from the malevolent ghost of Morris Hawke, his clairvoyant gifts are expanding fast. Too fast for comfort, and he and Gideon find themselves wrestling with his unsettling capacity to see the future. In some ways this new power is wonderful, and Lee finds himself a local hero after predicting a flood.
But there’s one aspect he can’t bear, and that’s the blind spot he sees when he thinks about the wedding plans he and Gideon have started to make. It’s as if this event, which he wants more than life, simply isn’t going to happen. He’s troubled and stressed out, and Gideon decides to intervene, whisking him off to an isolated creekside cabin in the mysterious Cornish ria country. All is peaceful there, and the clamour in Lee’s head subsides. It’s time for companionship, peace, good food and plenty of sex…
Then a young man wanders out of the woods and turns their blissed-out retreat into chaos. Kitto is harmless – a charming drifter, very handsome. To Gideon he’s just a kid, flesh and blood and a bit of a nuisance. But Lee reacts with horror. Since when can Gideon – Lee’s rock, his connection to the real world and sanity – see ghosts?
Mysterious midsummer is rising in the deep green Cornish countryside, and as the village gears up for the eerie Golowan festival, Lee and Gideon face their toughest case yet: a battle between the real and spirit worlds that threatens to tear their own apart.
REVIEW:
Ok. I’m totally biased, I LOVE this series and was so excited to see a new book about Lee and Gideon! I’m just starting the book, I will say right now it’s going to be awesome. How can it not be? It’s Lee. And Gideon. Written by Harper Fox. Duh.
Now, here’s my honest, non fan girl review:
What a great start! Lee and Zeke (Gideon’s REALLY conservative, Minister brother), out jewelry shopping. Together. They seem to have developed an oddly friendly relationship over the last couple of books, considering how conservative Zeke is, and how NOT conservative Lee is. But it works. It helps that Zeke believes in Lee’s ability/power/whatever-you-want-to-call-it. So Lee has taken Zeke out for a day of shopping in a local Cornwall mining village. Of course nothing around Lee can go easy, and chaos happens. Gideon comes to the rescue after everything is over! But someone figures out that Lee “saw” something, the press finds him and he gets overwhelmed.
There are many characters in these books, both human (alive and dead), and animal, but Cornwall is a character as well. I love the details of the land that Harper gives us. The villages, roads, trees, forest, ocean, coast and stones all make up an incredible cast, and add such depth. I can tell Harper is very familiar with Cornwall, and loves it. It obviously is a real place, I know that, I’ve been there a long time ago, but her books make it so much more “real” somehow. That probably makes no sense…. But just by her descriptions I can smell the water, feel the damp, see the light, sitting in my living room on my couch. She does the same thing with the people, the fabulous, scary, quirky, wonderful people that inhabit Cornwall. Then she works in local legends and histories, celebrations and events. Just perfect.
As with most romance novels we have two stories within a book. The plot, and the couple. Let’s talk about the plot first. This one is about a boy named Kitto, who is the step brother of a friend of Gideon’s. Lee and Gideon are unintentionally drawn in to his story when they go stay in a village to escape the press following Lee around home. They stay in the cottage of Ray, a funky, fantastic local man that Gideon knows. Kitto, Ray’s step brother, stops by for a visit, things get really odd, Gideon and Lee get involved, then save the day. That’s all I’ll say without giving anything away. This all happens on summer solstice, giving us a fantastic look at the local solstice celebration. I am reading this on the solstice, I wanted to be in Cornwall, I got so pulled in to the magic…. The story isn’t as creepy as the last books have been, it was dark, there is a man that does bad things, but I wasn’t as freaked out as I was with the first book in particular! Lovely characters as usual with Harper, both good people and bad.
Then we have Gideon and Lee. I can tell you they are planning a wedding (it says that in the blurb!), but Lee is turning in to a bit of a bridezilla! He’s freaking out about where to sit people, planning, and obsessing, which made me laugh, it seems so unlike him. Gideon is calm, and strong, like the good Cornishman he is. I love these two dearly, they are a well established couple by this point. Their connection is deep as a couple, but there is more too it with Lee’s abilities. They are spiritually bonded as well. In this book they actually have a couple of nasty fights. It shocked me a bit, I didn’t want them to behave that way, they are supposed to be perfect! Which is obviously not realistic. But I was mad at Lee at one point, he really wasn’t nice to Gideon at all. I suppose that is the sign of a good writer…. I was emotionally involved enough to be mad at a fictional character!
So they fight, this bad thing happens around Kitto, they make up, they have sex, lots of lovely, hot, sex… Uh, where was I? Right. They go home, good things happen, and then the ending! Damn it Harper! You better not take long to write the next one!
If you haven’t read the other books, go read them first, then read Kitto. They are all amazing, well worth reading! We have reviewed them all, here are the links to our reviews:
Elizabetta reviewed Once Upon a Haunted Moor, and Tinsel Fish, books one and two. https://lovebytesreviews.com/2014/06/14/two-book-review-once-upon-a-haunted-moor-tinsel-fish-by-harper-fox/
I reviewed Don’t Let Go, book three. https://lovebytesreviews.com/2014/02/20/book-review-dont-let-go-harper-fox/
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