Reviewed by True

TITLE: What if?

SERIES: Lost and Found #2

AUTHOR: Barbara Elsborg

PUBLISHER: Self-Published

LENGTH: 311 pages

RELEASE DATE: November 11, 2021

BLURB:

When 16-year-old Crispin stumbles across Kennedy’s Emporium, he’s transported into a magical world of the impossible. Unicorns, snow globes where the snow never stops falling, bubbles that never pop, paper fireworks that explode and refill, and most magical of all—Garrett Kennedy, youngest son of the owner, who makes Crispin’s heart leap in new and exciting ways. Crispin promises he’ll never forget Garrett, but when he loses Garrett’s gift of a jewelled bee, he also loses his memories of the time he spent with him.

Eight years later, the bee is returned to Crispin, along with memories of Garrett and his amazing world. But how can any of what Crispin now recalls be possible?
And yet…

What if it wasn’t a dream?
What if Kennedy’s Emporium exists?
What if magic is real?
What if Garrett’s been waiting, wondering why Crispin never came back?

And what if Crispin takes a chance on the best thing that’s ever happened to him, assuming he can find Kennedy’s Emporium again?

REVIEW:

Crispin is twenty-four and enters his parent’s home, a miserable, emotionally cold home, for diner.
He can’t believe his eyes, eight years ago his brother grabbed his ‘bee’ away from him and threw it into the lake, now he sees it again, on the neck of his brother’s girlfriend.

Eight years ago something extraordinary happened to him, he disappeared for twenty-four hours. Now he can remember what happened, but can’t tell a soul.

Letting Crispin into his magical world got Garrett remote and he has to return to his own realm for the next five years. He escapes and turns to Crispin, he can’t leave him. What they have is special!

So much hurt and so much fun.

Garrett wants to find a way to keep Crispin forever.
Meeting Crispin’s family made Garrett cringe, his mother and brother are horrible, thank goodness Crispin’s father is on team Crispin.

There’s an impending disaster, for Crispin, and now also Garrett, with a devastating outcome.

And then… the gates of magic opened widely. It wouldn’t be a fantastic fantasy story if there weren’t any fantastic magic, would it?

In both realms, are characters who are against them and try to trick them.
Crispin and Garrett are each other sanctuaries, in all the chaos.

The author took me into a beautiful, emotional, funny at times hard, fantasy world. The two main characters are more than engaging, they stole my heart at first sight. The story is amazingly captivatingly written, I laughed and got angry, it was sweet and harsh, it had all the feels and was so mesmerizing. This story had a bit of a slow start, it was captivating but I wondered where it was heading. Approaching the end it got clearer. We are confronted with magic, unconditional love, romance, fun and sexy time, supportive and less supportive characters, action, adventure, delightful humor, and a very good ending, thank you very much. I wouldn’t survive with anything less.

RATING:

BUY LINKS:

Amazon