This one seems like a whole lot of mashups: there’s Captain James Hook, his betrayer Flint, Merlin, Oberon, Hunter Bron, Djinn Shay, Hades and Fenrir. I mean… it shouldn’t work but it kind of does. [well done, Adrienne]
The fae king Oberon takes the opportunity to toss out all the troublemakers in his kingdom in one fell sweep. They are cursed in two parts: one, they shall be exiled in purgatory (ie. Earth) where they will suffer the ravages of time until Hades breaks the Gate open and sets all of them free; and two, Tatiana the queen adds until all their hearts are thoroughly cleansed by the burning fires of love.
Neat.
So ALL of them must be freed together - no wimping out.
They are on the clock, as time is now relevant. [I’m not sure if it’s shown if they’re mortal or not…] So, no dying.
They have to break the Gates. Get Hades to free them. [he’s not that good at even talking to them.]
And they all have to fall in love.
The romance reader in me knows that the love part will be the hardest, right?
***
Hook finally gets them all to San Francisco but it has taken seven months. They don’t know that his final act of thievery was to swap out the gem on Oberon’s throne with a fake. [who ever tests the key to the Gates?] So he has the Key.
Hook blithely declares that any woman will fall in love with him so they can pick his love for him. Fenrir points at the harassed waitress in the restaurant they have met at.
Enter Mercedes, our heroine.
She’s too busy for this rubbish. She’s got college classes, an old Abuela to look after, a job at the cafe, debts to pay off, and a charity side interest to help out.
She doesn’t like thieves and her morals run straight into Hook’s. Other parts of her do, too.
There is an obvious series set up - all of them must find love.
It’s fun.
But one thing my editing brain noticed: ‘broach’ is to raise or pierce while a ‘brooch’ is jewellery with a pin. Or is this another US/English thing?
4 stars