Magic of the Loch

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Pub Date 10 Aug 2012 | Archive Date 31 Aug 2017

Description

Michaela Grant travels to Scotland for a holiday, knowing this vacation is her last. A medical condition threatens her life and any chance of a future--until she meets Alan MacLachlin, a man forced to exist between two worlds.

Alan is the legendary Loch Ness Monster. Once every fifty years he returns to human form in search of his soul mate, the one woman who can break his curse. He believes he has found forever with Michaela, but to claim it he must figure out how to save her life.

Michaela and Alan vow to take what time has to offer, but another threat looms. A sinister shape shifter with a vendetta against Alan is making Loch Ness his personal hunting ground. Now he's threatening Michaela. Alan must discover who the shifter is and stop him before it's too late.

Michaela Grant travels to Scotland for a holiday, knowing this vacation is her last. A medical condition threatens her life and any chance of a future--until she meets Alan MacLachlin, a man forced...


Available Editions

EDITION Ebook
ISBN 9781612172934
PRICE $5.99 (USD)

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Average rating from 12 members


Featured Reviews

Being a bit Scotland-mad for years now, I was immediately interested in this book. I don't know much about the Loch Ness Monster myth beyond the fact that it's largely believed to be a tall tale. No verified photos have been captured, and most believe it's simply a tale told to children or to reel in tourists. What Karen Nutt has done is created this truly magical tale of how the Loch Ness Monster came to be, assuming that it is real. I love the self-sacrifice, the bravery, and the ultimate love in the story, and the characters intrigued me as much as the tale. In addition, there is a brilliant murder mystery (or rather, several murder mysteries) that will keep you guessing until the very end. Every time I would think - I know who did it! - I would be proven wrong. Guaranteed to grab your attention and hold it until the book is done.

Once there were two brothers who, out of love for their sister, sacrificed themselves to save her from a terrible fate. Drawing from their shapeshifter ancestry, they were turned into fantastic sea creatures. They could only walk as humans every fifty years, for a period of fifteen years at a time, with the hope that they would each meet their soulmate and break the curse upon them. Now, in present day, one brother, Alan, is about to meet his soulmate. But she is dying, visiting Scotland as part of her will to live life to the fullest. And he only has a short amount of time to convince her to live that life with him. With murders suddenly happening all around the loch, and many fingers pointing at Alan, he must work to stop the violence before he and his brother are killed for another's crimes, and he must win the heart of his love, before it is too late.

Alan and Hyatt were such fun - Alan with his brooding good looks and Hyatt with his charming, devil-may-care attitude. While our heroine went with Alan, I personally would have probably fallen for Hyatt. Either way, both brothers are chivalrous and kind, perfect gentleman in an age where it seems they are dying out. Michaela Grant, our heroine, was lovely as well, with a willpower that made me instantly like her. She stood her ground when threatened, and I loved how she stuck to her guns, even when her ex-boyfriend did his best to coax her back. She knew that she had found the right guy in Alan, and nothing was going to take him away from her. With her disease threatening her life, it was bittersweet watching her worry over that as well as try to live her life with Alan the best she could.

I sincerely hope there is another book coming soon for Hyatt! I am eager to read more about this brother, as I am certain his story will be just as engaging.

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Sweet and heart wrenchingly beautiful romance, I loved reading it!!!!!

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This is the first book I have read written by this author and it won’t be my last. Magic of the Loch was a lovely paranormal romance with a rich suspense element running through the story.

In this story Michaela Grant is on her last chance holiday. Having accepted that she has a virtually untreatable brain aneurysm she just wants to enjoy herself. She soon meets Alan MacLachlin, cursed into the shape of the Loch Ness Monster, who is only given a reprieve every fifty years so that he may find his soul mate and so break the curse. Little do they know that with Alan’s emergence a dark creature, bent on revenge, has initiated a sinister plan to ruin Alan and destroy everyone he knows and loves.

Despite the seriousness of Michaela’s condition the story is not a depressing one. The reality is always there and both characters acknowledge it, but at its heart the story is a romantic one and with that there is a chance for hope. I am one those people who hates a bittersweet ending or a ‘happy for now, but it’s all downhill from here’ type ending. So for those like me, let me assure you, it is a happy ending. But how it’s done is not necessarily what you begin to expect from the beginning of the book!

I’m the first to admit my detective skills are subpar, but this book kept me guessing ‘whodunit’ until the end. There are so many red herrings and redirections. Just when you think you know, something happens and you dismiss that person, only to come back to them to dismiss them again.

To really enjoy a book it is so important to ‘click’ with the author’s writing style and this certainly happened here. The author’s world building was good - life as we know it with just a little twist. The characters were well developed and the author managed to avoid ‘paper cut out’ syndrome that often applies to secondary and minor characters. All were fleshed out sufficiently for the story without being bogged down in too much detail.

I don’t know if this is a series, but I would love to read Hyatt’s story. He deserves a HEA too.

If you are looking for a light read that will also grab your attention; a book with a romance theme but also with a strong line of suspense running through it then I can highly recommend this book. For me, it was a page turner and I couldn’t put it down until the end.

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the blurb definitely solidified for me that I just had to read this!! I'm so glad for getting a copy of this. I loved reading it,

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a unique and interesting paranormal romance. I liked the setting and the characters.

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An interesting & unique foray into a world we rarely see. This was an amazing book & I can't wait to read others by the author!

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I received a copy of this e-book and am voluntarily leaving an honest opinion.

This story has a very interesting twist on the legend of the Loch Ness monster. Instead of one monster, there are 2(brothers) and every 50 years they are allowed to live as men for 15 years. Only finding their true mate will break the curse.

Michaela has a medical condition that will probably kill her within 3-4 months. Instead of going through another set of treatments she has decided to let nature take it's course. She decides to go to Scotland, a place she has always wanted to go. This is where she meets Alan, one of our Nessie's. Since Alan is a shifter, he can tell that something is going on with Michaela but he isn't sure what.

As their attraction grows, they decide to give into it. Alan realizes she is his mate and wants to save her. Someone else, another shifter, has other ideas though. People in town have started to disappear. All of these people have had interactions with Alan lately so of course the law is looking at him. It looks like he has a grudge against Alan and Alan is determined to find this shifter before he gets his brother and Michaela.

I really liked this story! The main characters, Alan and Michaela, are very strong and good people. Alan doesn't know how to tell Michaela that she is his mate and what/who he is. As the strangeness continues he will have to tell her and soon!

The shifter after Alan is truly evil and enjoys torturing his victims. He will not stop in till he has his revenge. It will be Alan's life or his.

I loved this little town where the story is centered! The writer gives really nice details and I could picture it in my mind with the B&B cabins and the tour across the river to see ruins from long ago. The "pub" in town and the fact that everyone basically knows everyone except for the tourists that is. It has a "magical" feeling about it.

This is a good read if you are into Scotland and shifters. I really liked it.

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What a fantastic story! Scotland is, hands down, my favorite setting for novels of any genre, it enriches any story. That being said, this was everything I could have wanted and more! (I will say that listening to text to speech try to do a Scottish accent and pronounce the words was hilarious!) This had everything anyone could want from action, romance, to thriller, all with a hefty dose of snarky shifter thrown in! The story flowed nicely, was solidly written, and had an overwhelming sense of atmosphere that very few books manage. I very much enjoyed this book, thank you for the opportunity to review this entertaining read!

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Magic of the Loche was a very interesting book, with an interesting set of characters. I enjoyed the story that went on, and I was very glad that I couldn't predict anything.

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This was a really interesting read,this is the first book i have read by Karen and i cannot wait to try more.I just loved Michaela she was a fantastic character i really liked Alan as well a great read and a fantastic twist on a shifter romance.

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Posted on Les Romantiques - Le forum du site
Reviewed by Rinou
Review Copy from the Publisher

From time to time Netgalley offers “older” books, and that’s how I found myself reading a romance where the hero is the legendary Loch Ness Monster; You would have fell for it too I’m sure.

In fact the prologue explains that there are even two Nessies: Alan, the hero, and his brother Hyatt. Both have been cursed in place of their sister and doomed to protect a sacred spring located at the bottom of the lake, and every 50 years they can have 15 years as humans. Both have very different characters, Alan is somber, more sensible, while Hyatt is the pleasure-loving and always in a good mood.

Michaela, the heroine, is an American who discovered she has a kind of brain aneurysm, a malformation most often deadly, and few chances to survive to a surgery. Her surgeon boyfriend doesn’t accept she refuses to be butchered and he dumps her. She decides to spend all her savings to fulfill her dream before dying: visit Scotland. She’s nice and loyal toward those she loves, but she has a strong character and she doesn’t let people walk all over her.

The couple Alan-Michaela works quite right, the attraction is there very quickly but they don’t act on it right away and we have the time to see their feelings growing. There are several sensual scenes but the love scenes in themselves are quite chaste. I liked that Alan repeats he’s ready to commit with Michaela no matter for how long each time she says it’s not worth it as she will die in a few months.

But a lot of other things happen in this novel: First the fact the spring seems to heal or at least to slow the heroine’s health problem. Then (and above all) there’s a shapeshifter with a desire of revenge against Alan who is going to kill several people and try to lay responsibility on Nessie. I might well read who-done-it I had no certainty about his identity before almost the end. There’s also the arrival of Michaela’s ex-boyfriend confusing the issues a bit.

The whole story is pleasant to read and I wasn’t bored even if I was at times wondering where the author was getting at. However the end is a bit fast in spite of all..

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