OCEAN'S FIRE

Tucker (Eat, Drink and Remarry, 2011) offers a fantasy about a veterinary intern who’s drawn into her deceased mother’s mystical world.

Before starting her fourth year at Cornell University, aspiring veterinary student Skylar Southmartin loses her mother, Cassie, to cancer. When she visits Massachusetts to square away Cassie’s home, she takes her father Joel’s advice and registers at the nearby Rosen College. There, she’ll intern at its equine program for the year, work on her thesis, and earn credit to graduate from Cornell. Upon arrival, Skylar is swamped by memories of competing in Rosen’s horse shows as a teenager and of her best friend, Argan, who later moved to Greece. She’s shocked to learn that Argan works on the night shift at Rosen and is now—10 years later—a handsome young man. They rekindle their friendship, which soon leads to warm, romantic feelings that feel like destiny. Later, in her mother’s library, she finds the Sanskrit Book of Akasha, which supposedly reveals one’s past and future. Her boss, Ronnie Treadwell, helps her translate small pieces of it. One night, Skylar dreams of a “stunning blond beast” of a man who radiates power and magnetism. Later, she meets Joshua Rider, an attractive and mysterious musician whose seemingly irresistible swagger just might doom her relationship with Argan. In starting a new fantasy trilogy, Tucker effectively uses her protagonist to merge the realms of science (through genetic engineer Joel’s influence) and mysticism (via Cassie’s) as Skyler finds out more about herself, her family, and the world in which she lives. Tucker’s gift for dialogue asserts itself often, as in one of several vivid, erotic scenes, when Skylar is told, “That mask you wear is all prim and appalled, but secretly...in parts you pretend don't exist, you're coming alive.” A larger theme involving the Earth’s “Divine Feminine” cycle, characterized by compassion and healing, explores such concepts as reincarnation, triple-helix DNA, and the secrets of Skylar’s lineage. Some intense, gory moments, however, aren’t for the fainthearted.

A romantic fantasy series starter full of intriguing concepts from science and spirituality.