Reviewed by Tori (Vicki)
TITLE: Once Upon a Western Shore 
SERIES: Tyack & Frayne #9
AUTHOR: Harper Fox
PUBLISHER: FoxTales
LENGTH: 160 pages
RELEASE DATE: April 30th, 2018
BLURB:
It’s May Eve, and for once the body discovered in a meadow isn’t Gideon’s concern. The remains are decades old, and Gid and Lee are free to enjoy a proper Cornish Beltane, with maypoles, mirth, and a wild, sexy dash into the greenwood.
When trouble flares, it’s from an unexpected source: Tamsyn, after a quiet few months, suddenly manifests terrifying new paranormal powers. She can’t be kept hidden forever, and working out how to shield her is enough to drive a wedge even between these most united of parents.
Then Gideon’s cold case becomes a hot one for Lee. The dead man in the field has been forgotten by the living, but his memories are vivid and riding wild on the wind from the sea. No-one can act out his unfinished business but Lee, and it’s going to take all Gideon’s strength and love to get him through the ordeal.
Beltane magic past and present sweeps through Cornwall as Tamsyn steps into her powers, and the witches of the western shore look set to pay a dreadful price unless Gideon and Lee can bring to light the truth buried so long ago.
REVIEW:
Back to Cornwall we go for another adventure with the Tyack-Frayne family! This time it starts with a Beltane celebration and some wild forest sex for Gideon and Lee, but of course it has to be interrupted by a phone call. Which sends Gideon off on a drive to a nearby village to see about a dead man. A long gone dead man in this case. Eventually Lee is pulled in as well, and there is a very sad look at the history of a lonely man. I was brought to tears by it, but it was a good addition to the plot of the book.
The other part of the book involved Tamsyn and her special powers, which lead to some drama and unwanted attention, not only by the locals, but by a relative of Lee’s who seems to want to be very involved in Tamsyn’s education. This led to a confrontation between Lee and Gideon and honestly seemed out of character and made me uncomfortable. Not their usual behavior at all! I have to say I wasn’t fond of this plot line particularly, and there’s this thing with the relative that was just all weird. Although there does seem to be a potential solution to Tamsyn’s situation, a character pops up at the end that might lead to good things! So I’ll hold my judgement until we see how that plays out.
So this wasn’t my favorite book of the series, unfortunately. I liked the paranormal plot, which involves the dead guy from the past. That had some interest, and some characters both good and bad. It wasn’t as creepy as past stories, and had less for Gideon to do, no big mystery to solve or anything, and Lee was pretty passive about it. But the thing with Tamsyn is getting old. It’s detracting from the paranormal mystery feeling of this series, yes that sounds stupid considering she has paranormal powers, but what I’ve loved about past books is the solving of an issue by combining Lee’s paranormal abilities with Gideon’s LEO abilities. That wasn’t present in this book. And someone comes back that I wasn’t happy to see, who keeps coming back over and over, and that is getting old. Not the person that may help Tamsyn, but someone else. Yes, I’m being vague!
This book was really a little meandering and unfocused. It took me a long time to get in to it, and looking back over it I am really just feeling meh. Not bad, I didn’t hate it, but not great either. It felt a little like the author needed to get a book out and just tossed something together. Damn, I hate to say that, Harper Fox is a favorite author, but something was just off about this book.
If you have read the others you’ll need to read this one, if you haven’t, go find book one read them! The first dozen or so are amazing!
RATING: 
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