Mina Kelly

A Hearts On Fire Review

3.75 HEARTS--My first MM selkie story and first time read from this author!

What does that mean?

1) If you're tired of reading about the same shifters in MM paranormal, check this series out.
2) I like this author's style. I'm going to take #1's suggestion.
3) This was a mostly satisfying novella.

Toby is 26, a ginger fishmonger recluse who lives with his father. He sticks mostly to himself since people think he is weird. It's hard enough being deaf but gay in a small Yorkshire coastal town? It's not worth his effort. Until a selkie who goes by the name of Flirt gets caught in a fishing line. Flirt is mute, injured and is drawn to Toby.

Both main characters have a disability but it did not impede their communication. They were able to communicate through sign language. And I have to give props to the author describing Toby and how he perceived the world with heightened senses. How loud the noises got when he put in his hearing aid, the feel and textures, the smells...nothing was skimped in that quarter.

Flirt was basically a seal in a human's body. He did not lose that sense of animal, I mean the man ate a raw fish. I couldn't help but recall the last time I cleaned a fish...and fishy smells and fish guts. Yuck. The author went there and did not hold back with either main characters.

The secondary characters mainly Toby's dad, Alfred, was a hoot. He was so accepting of his son and even tried helping him on the dating front.

My favorite quote BTW:

"It's not a date!" The blush came back tenfold.

"It should be. Sharing a bed with a man without even buying him a drink first? One of you is a shameless hussy, though I'm not sure which."

The relationship progression felt real. There were things that stood in both men's way and they overcome them. I believed their relationship. There were some baddies in scientists that stalked poor Flirt. I question some of Toby's actions to protect his lover but overall, it was a great story. Their disabilities does not get magically solved.

Some smexy sexing in a few unusual places, a realistic HEA (well for a selkie romance anyway) and a satisfying read. For someone who has not read but #1, I was not lost. It can be read as a standalone."… (mer)