• Fate Actually (Moonstone Cove Book 2) by Elizabeth Hunter
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Fate Actually Book Cover Fate Actually
Moonstone Cove Book 2
Elizabeth Hunter
New Adult, Adult, Paranormal Women's Romance
Recurve Press, LLC
December 15, 2020
Kindle

Toni Dusi grew up knowing everyone’s business and everyone knowing hers, because in Moonstone Cove, you can’t pass a restaurant, farm, or winery that doesn’t have at least one Dusi involved. Despite that, Toni has managed to carve out a private niche for herself. She has a car shop she loves, a country cottage all to herself, and has carefully avoided any long-term romantic commitments.

Then fate handed Toni a shot of supernatural empathy that threw all that out the window of her prized vintage Ford.

Now she’s feeling the mood swings of everyone from her parts guy to her reluctant crush to her second cousin going through a messy divorce. She’s losing her temper; she’s crying a river; and she’s definitely giving in to temptation.

For a woman who prides herself on always being prepared, Toni has no idea how to handle a supernatural storm of emotion.

Which is not to say empathy doesn’t have its advantages. When the body of a long-time family rival turns up on a back acre of her cousin’s winery, Toni realizes that her inconvenient feelings magic has turned her into one heck of a lie detector. Along with her new friends, Katherine and Megan, she might be the only one who can clear her cousin’s name.

When fate throws a final curveball in Toni’s direction, will she drop everything with disastrous consequences? Or can a forty-one-year-old empath learn enough new tricks to keep the life she’s built without sacrificing her happiness?

Real relationships…

Elizabeth Hunter’s second book in her Moonstone Cove series, Fate Actually, is another example of fantastic women’s paranormal romance. 

Set in the idyllic wine country of California, Moonstone Cove is the last place you would expect murder and intrigue.  But a near mass-shooting has triggered different paranormal gifts in three women;  Katherine, Toni, and Megan, who become the key to solving and stopping a number of illicit and unscrupulous events.  Toni is an empath whose tough exterior has kept men at arm’s length for over 40 years.  Now with her feelings constantly overwhelmed with other’s emotions she doubts she’ll ever be able to handle a relationship.  However, one genuinely good, and not to mention hot, younger guy, Henry Durand, might just be the balm her psychic ability needs.

Elizabeth Hunter never fails to produce realistic characters in authentic relationships. I think with the ladies in Moonstone Cove, she might have actually outdone herself.  Katherine, Toni, Megan might be three of my favorite characters ever; they are unique in their own right with an amazing chemistry that makes you wish you could join their wine Wednesday gatherings.  It wouldn’t even surprise me if Elizabeth told us they were actually based on real people, psychic abilities and all,  that’s how believable they are.  No spoilers here, but I can’t help but including a teaser about one “little” event that totally upends Toni’s world that took me totally by surprise.  Elizabeth’s inclusion of something so unusual in women’s fiction, is again one more reason I love reading her books so much.

Fate Actually, is so much more than great relationships that it’s worthy of 5+ stars!  It’s a wonderfully compelling mystery, full of tension and intrigue along with the romance and relationships.  There are so many twists and turns that it is hard to put the book down and a marvelously satisfying ending that makes you eager to get Megan’s point of view in the last book of the series.