The Selkie (Wheeler Large Print Book Series) [Hardcover]

The People, the selkies, are in a crisis. Their numbers are diminishing and no females have been born in decades. Nor have any human women capable of bearing their children have been born either, to their knowledge.

When Hexie weeps into the ocean and accidentally steals Rory's sealskin, she unknowingly completes a ritual that may bring new life to the selkies. Rory comes seeking the woman who has taken his skin, thus binding him to her until it is returned or she is with child.

Hexy is unsure of what to make of this strange man with unfamiliar speech. However, their is a pull between them that is undeniable, and unexplainable. When they come together passionately, Rory realizes that this woman is more than she seems, and might be the hope of his people. Before they can find either happiness or hope, they must defeat monsters who steal souls and find a way to make a terribly mixed marriage work.

***** Those of you who have missed fairy tales will be enchanted by this story set in a time between the old world and the new. Magic and reality mix in a gray area where the only real truth is love. In what seems to be a situation made for heart break and tragedy, joy comes to pass. Hessy demonstrates a strength that is usually displayed in novels such as Tolkien's, while Rory has the charm of a handsome space alien blended with a fairy prince. Fans of pure fantasy and romance both will enjoy this one and be begging for more. The sea truly does hold magic and peace. *****

Scotland, 1929, after the `war to end all wars' and Hesiod "Hexy" Garrow, an American has come to work for a beautiful widow who is renovating her inherited Fintry castle in Scotland. Life has not been going well for Hexy, her allergies are driving her crazy, her boss Jillian has misplaced her fur coat on the beach, her boyfriend has basically dumped her, her last living relative and brother Rory has died in the war and she just can't seem to stop crying as she talks to the sea. After she has wept into the sea, she does find a fur coat, only it isn't Jillian's - it's a selkie's skin.

Packing up the fur and Jillian for a trip to Italy, Hexy remains at the castle to oversee the renovations when she opens the door to a very irate, handsome, and underdressed Scotsman, Ruairidh "Rory" O'Uruisg. What Hexy did not realize is that by inadvertently stealing his fur, along with shedding seven tears in the sea she has summoned this `selkie' to come lie with her. What Rory was not expecting, was that this woman who summoned him would be so beautiful - but what really shook him was the sense that she wasn't at all what she knew herself to be!

This was an amazing, magical, and sensual fantasy bringing some beautiful imagery to mind. Rory, the selkie was intoxicating for Hexy and I quote, "In the space of a few hours, her soul's winter had turned into spring." Ms. Jackson's writing intoxicated me. This was a fast paced beautiful love story with all the elements I look for - handsome lead couple, sensual love play, and edge of the seat thrills as Hexy puts her life on the line to save her `selkie' and her love. I highly recommend this book - beautiful addition to my keeper shelf!

I have to say it: this book was a yawnfest! The story bored me. The characters in it didn't really have depths or layers...they were flat and dull. And none of them had a sense of humour. I felt no empathy for any of them, so whenever they were in peril I just didn't care if they made it through or not. (Of course they always did survive...the hero always saved the heroine in a predictable manner just in time.) Hexy, the heroine, was as dreary as a rainy day, and Ruairidh, the hero, might have come from the ocean, but he didn't rock my boat at all, if you know what I mean. And the passion between them was barely lukewarm at best. The love scenes were about as exciting as watching toast burn, but with much less heat. And worse, those scenes were obscure to the point where I sometimes wondered if they were love scenes at all. Actually, if you're the kind of prude who doesn't like rude words or anotomical descriptions in love scenes then this book is for you. The most provocative word used in it is probably 'skin'. This is so tame, it could almost be made into a Disney family movie.

There were a lot of flaws with the continuity of the story too. The author had problems with consistency. For instance, her Scottish characters slipped in and out of their Scottish brogue like I would slip shoes on and off in a shoestore...one minute they'd be using Scottish words like hae, maun, or tae, then the next they'd be using the English versions: have, must and to, only to slip back to the Scottish words a moment after that. It was totally annoying. And there's another bit, towards the end of the book, that's flawed, where the heroine complains that selkies don't seem to know the meaning of the word 'love'. Yet her selkie lover had talked about love before that...he mentions it twice just on page 149, in fact. Another problem is when the 'sin eater' tells Hexy she is carrying twins. But then, shortly after that, he says "before the babe sickens" as if Hexy is carrying only one child. Is he senile or something? Or is the author? There are a lot more continuity errors, but I won't bore you by going through them all here. Needless to say, the author should have paid more attention and taken more care.

I will say, too, that I got annoyed with the way the author seemed to be showing off by using big words. It is all very well to portray yourself as the type of person who eats dictionaries for breakfast, but it's really stupid throwing lots of big words that most readers won't understand into fast moving parts of the story line. It impedes the flow of the story, and ruins the reader's rollercoaster ride if they suddenly have to stop completely and try to work out what sentences like 'then the sepulchral threnody subsided' actually mean! (For the record, 'sepulchral threnody' means a song of lamentation that sounds as if it comes from the grave...like this author, I like to show off the big words too. But I do think there's a time and a place for them, and if you don't know when the best time is to use them then don't use them at all.)

This could have been a magical story, but the way it was written sucked most of the magic out of it, and just left a hollow, empty void where a good story could have been. Even the front cover was wrong. Oh, don't get me wrong, it's a gorgeous cover, and whoever the girl on it is, she's a stunner. But the heroine of the story has red hair, which makes me wonder who the hell the brunette covergirl is.

I definitely agree with R. Kelley's negative review of this book...R. Kelley, if you're reading this, you're not the odd one out for not liking it any more. And I'm sure there are others of discernment and taste who would agree with our judgement.

There are plenty more fish in the sea, and plenty more books on the shelves...read them instead of this one, and you'll be much happier.