"A witchy supernatural romance for anyone who believes in soul mates"
Reviewed by Elizabeth Crowley
Posted October 10, 2011
Fantasy | Romance Paranormal
Kat Richetti was fortunate enough to find the man she was
destined to marry, but the man who was Kat's destiny had
not romanced her with flowers or even uttered a single word
to her. Her soul mate was chosen by Kat's first psychic
vision. Kat came from a family of witches with supernatural
abilities. Only the eldest daughters in the Richetti family
inherited the gift. Once a Richetti female had a vision of
a man, she had to fall in love with him before she turned
twenty-five or would lose her powers forever. Kat had a vision that saved Jake Taggert's life after a
trailer smashed into his truck. When Kat pushes Jake to
safety, her destiny is set in stone. She must fall for Jake
before she turns twenty-five in five weeks or lose her
powers. Although Kat is attracted to Jake, she resents that
the vision would choose to appear at this time in her life.
Kat and her cousin, Gina, have just opened a new beauty
salon. As far as Kat is concerned, a husband has no place
in her life right now. But Kat knows that rules are rules
in the witch world. Jake is enchanted by Kat's beauty, but he finds her
witch/destiny/marriage story ridiculous. As much as Jake
wants to dismiss Kat as a lunatic, he accepts to get to
know her better by going on a few dates. Jake and Kat's
relationship begins to feel too good to be true. Just when
Kat and Jake begin to get close, Jake sees Kat's powers in
action and questions whether he can accept who Kat really
is -- even if she appears to be the woman of his dreams. ENCHANTED DESTINY is like Twilight (Think Bella and
Edward), Harry Potter, and Charmed all rolled into one
delightful package! Rayka Mennen has written an
unforgettable tale that will capture the heart of anyone
who believes in soul mates. If a beautiful love story
isn't enough for you, Kat's witchy side will keep you
hooked. Kat even went to witch school! ENCHANTED DESTINY
has everything I love in a novel: tons of romance, angst,
and a big dose of the supernatural!
SUMMARY
Kat never believed she’d fall victim to her family’s stories
about destined soul mates—she makes her own fate, thank you
very much. When she walks by a construction site and admires
the same sexy architect for the zillionth time in a week,
the last thing she expects is to be slammed by a vision of
his death. Which activates the spell that will change
their lives forever. Jake is a single dad with a
singular focus—create a stable life for him and his son. His
ex-wife cured him of any desire to fall in love, but when an
intriguing woman saves him from what should’ve been a deadly
accident, he can’t shake his fascination. Too bad she’s
crazy, claiming she’s a witch and that they’re soul
mates—not exactly the “stable life” he had in
mind.
Kat’s destiny comes with a deadline. If they
don’t fall in love by her twenty-fifth birthday—a mere three
weeks away—Jake will never find the peace he seeks and Kat
will lose her magic forever.
ExcerptChapter One
Jake Taggert dragged his eyes away from her front door
for at least the fifth time in as many minutes. With a
muttered curse, he forced his attention back to the
unrolled plans spread across the hood of his truck.
Three days. Three days since he’d begun this job, and
three days he’d been drawn to that woman with the gorgeous
curly hair. And legs that reached the sky. She must work
nearby—she walked past him every day. Or maybe she
took the bus or train? Had she already left before he
arrived today?
Do not look at her house again.
With his coffee mug held away from the drawings, he
squinted at the blue lines. One of the construction workers
called out a greeting and he glanced up, raising his free
hand in response. He noticed the trailer pulling onto the
verge opposite him, piled high with sections of metal storm
drains. Good. He’d called in a couple of favors and the
company had come through with the delivery.
The crisp autumn breeze sent gold oak leaves scurrying
along the sidewalk. It blew his hair over his eyes,
reminding him he needed to get it cut. Shoving the too-long
strands off his forehead, he kept his wavering focus on the
intricacies of sewer pipe designs, trying to make sense of
the land gradient and the lay of the new drains.
He scrunched his eyes. Lord, he was tired. If Cam would
stop waking up at three in the morning, he’d be more
functional. Of course, then the kid then fell asleep on the
way to the sitter’s.
He stepped back from the truck and knocked into a body.
A soft female body. By pure reflex, he half-turned and
caught her around the waist before she fell.
"Oh, damn." Her husky tone brought forth instant images
of silk sheets and king-sized beds. Some exotic, flowery
scent wafted over him.
"I’m sorry, ma’am. I didn’t realize you were there."
He stared. It was her. The woman he’d watched for three
days. The sun shone down on her just a little brighter, the
grass on the verge behind her just a little greener.
"It was my fault." Her full lips curved into an
apologetic smile. "I wasn’t paying attention."
Her hair was curlier than he realized from those short
glimpses of her. She smiled again, flashing pearly white
teeth at him.
When the hell did I started noticing women’s teeth?
She looked down at his arm still holding her waist.
"Er... sorry." He let go, wishing he could think of
something witty to say. Something that would keep her
there, talking. But that had about as much chance of
happening as the Bears winning the Super Bowl this year. He
wanted—no, needed—to hear that bedroom voice
again.
Her eyes widened for an instant as she gazed at him.
Beautiful, and grass-green. Thank God her lids swept down,
hiding those eyes behind thick, curling lashes. He could
have drowned in all that green.
Great, now I’m mooning over her eyes.
"Thanks for not letting me fall." She nodded at him and
walked on, heading away from the construction. He couldn’t
help following the line of those long, long legs under her
red skirt. The same light wind blew again, and flirted with
its edges, teasing him with half glimpses of the backs of
her thighs.
Head bent, bag slung over her shoulder, she must have
walked about fifty feet before she stopped. She swung
around on one heel and ran back toward him and grabbed his
bicep. "Quick! You have to move."
What the hell? "Excuse me?"
Even startled, Jake still registered the softness of her
fingers on his arm and the tingle of awareness that shot
through his skin.
"Please, just get away from the truck." Her voice rose,
urgent, strange. Had she flipped her lid?
"Look... " he began.
She caught his arm with both hands and tugged, and he
took an involuntary step in her direction.
Hell, when a gorgeous woman pulled him toward her, who
was he to say no?
Still hanging on, she towed him away from the vehicle.
He followed, more curious than alarmed. "Miss, what’s going
on?"
"I... can’t explain. Please just... just get away from
the damn thing."
"Hey, I don’t know what you want. What’s wrong with my
truck?"
"Just a feeling."
A feeling? She’d super-glued her hand to his arm because
of a feeling? They stood about a hundred feet from the
truck now. Enough was enough. He dug in his heels and shook
loose from her grasp. "Miss, you want to tell me what’s
going on?"
"It’s just that... oh, how do I explain this?" She raked
a hand through her hair, her bewildered tone touching a
chord inside him.
"Explain what?" he asked, softening his tone. He glanced
back at his vehicle. Maybe this was a scam and someone
planned to carjack him.
The shout caught his attention. He looked in the
direction of the noise, and stiffened in shock. The
trailer, filled with sectional storm pipes, slid off the
pavement, the tubes clanging as they knocked against each
other. Tires spun as gravity took over.
"Oh. My. God." Jake breathed the words and watched in
horror as the trailer slammed into his truck. The side
where he had stood not a minute ago.
The resounding crunch of metal against metal echoed
above the sounds of cars and machines. He flinched. People
shouted, the words barely penetrating the haze over his
mind. Unable to tear his eyes from his mangled truck, he
stared, stunned.
Something sharp dug into his arm. He moved his head
slowly, like swimming upstream in swamp water, and looked
down at the hand still curled around his bicep. She had
nice nails, painted a pale pink.
Jesus, she had saved his life. But how the hell had she
known?
...
Kat Richetti shoved open the door to her salon.
"Hey. You’re late, but you don’t have to break the door
down."
She glanced at her cousin, Gina, then stumbled into the
reception area and sank into the nearest chair. Too early
for customers, thank goodness.
"Kat? What’s wrong?"
She opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. A
steamroller had taken residence on her chest. Swallowing,
she tried again.
"Accident," she squeaked, her voice far from normal.
"Who’s had an accident? You? Damn it, Kat, talk to me."
Gina’s worried words pierced the fog that hung over her.
She clutched Kat’s hand in hers. Hard.
"Not me. A man. Out there."
"Where?"
Breathe in, breathe out.
She took another deep breath, the ritual associated with
her meditation calming her somewhat. "By the construction
site. Mon... Monroe Street, you know where they’re
repairing the road?"
"By your townhouse, yeah."
"There was an accident." The trembling in her legs had
stopped. Or maybe she couldn’t feel it because she was
sitting down. "One of the guys doing work on the street.
And I saw it."
Gina sank onto the arm of the overstuffed chair, her
hand smoothing Kat’s hair. "You saw him get hit by a car or
something? Did he die?"
"No, Gina." Her voice rose in exasperation and she
caught herself. No point snapping at her cousin. Gina
wouldn’t understand until she told her.
"This guy. I don’t know who he is but I’ve seen him
there before. He’s with the work crew. A supervisor or
something. A big trailer came loose and smashed into his
truck."
Gina’s hand flew to her chest. "With him in it?"
She rubbed her cold hands together. "No, he was off to
the side."
"So he didn’t get hurt?"
Kat shook her head.
"Then why are you so upset?"
"Gina! I saw it."
"Yeah. You just told me that. The guy wasn’t hurt, so
what’s the big deal?"
"I mean I saw it before it happened."
Understanding dawned in her cousin’s eyes. "You mean... "
"Yes."
"Holy cow! Tell me the whole thing."
At least her heart had stopped racing like a Chicago
cabbie beating a red light. "He brushed against me on the
street. I started to feel funny, kinda hazy. I walked a few
steps away when I saw the whole thing flash in front of my
eyes."
"Oh, my God." Gina bounced off the chair. "What’d you
do?"
"I ran back to him and tried to get him to move away
from the truck. Sure enough, he wouldn’t. Kept asking me
why. So I grabbed his arm and pulled him away, right before
the trailer hit his truck."
Her cousin whistled. "What happened then?"
"People started shouting, running up to us. I slipped
away and practically jogged here."
"Do you think anyone knew?"
"No. I mean, how could they?" No one else had been
around her at the time she had the premonition. "Except
him."
Gina knelt before her. "Him! You know what this means,
don’t you?"
Of course she knew. It had been a tradition every
firstborn woman in their family hoped would happen to them.
Except for Kat. When the vision didn’t show up, she’d
thought it was skipping a generation. Or maybe just her.
She pulled at the lone curl falling over her left shoulder,
and her heartbeat picked up the pace again.
It had really happened.
She buried her face in her hands and groaned.
"What?" Gina asked, rising and standing before her,
hands on her hips.
"If it is the vision—"
"Don’t start second-guessing yourself."
The timing was just so bad because they had applied for
a loan to expand the salon.
"It’s not about second-guessing. We have plans for the
salon." She glanced up at Gina. "You haven’t forgotten our
loan application?"
"I’m not forgetting anything. So, yeah, we’ve asked for
a bank loan to expand the business. We can’t exactly ask
fate to stop, can we?"
"But—" She clutched her head.
"But nothing. Stop with the head holding, your hair’s
starting to look like a rat’s nest. We’ll manage."
"But now more than ever, we need to put all our focus
into the business."
Sometimes she worried that Gina didn’t realize how
serious this venture was, or how they could lose all the
money she had put into the business if it didn’t succeed.
"I know that. But there’s two of us to do it now. Trust
me, I’ll pull my weight."
"I know you will." She hastened to reassure her cousin.
Gina had plenty of insecurities piled on her by their
family without Kat adding to them. "I’m not doubting you.
But it’s going to take the two of us putting in everything
we have to make this work. I don’t have time for a man in
my life. If I hadn’t given up on the vision I would never
have agreed to us applying for that expansion loan."
Too restless to sit, Kat stood. She patted Gina’s
shoulder in reassurance.
"You know," she said, and chewed on her lower lip. "It
doesn’t have to be the vision. I’m almost twenty-five. No
way would it show up this close to the deadline. Not with
this much at stake."
Gina snorted with derision. "Okay, so now I know you
weren’t listening when Nonna was lecturing us." Gina shook
her head in exaggerated disapproval. In perfect imitation
of their grandmother’s storytelling voice, she
continued. "The tradition will find you. The vision will
happen. But you must accept your destiny by your twenty-
fifth birthday. Or you will lose it all."
She stepped closer and placed her hands on Kat’s
shoulders. "Your birthday is in five weeks. Seriously, Kat.
How many friggin’ visions do you think you’ll have where
you save a guy’s life before then?"
Damn, damn, damn. Had she really thought she could
escape the family tradition?
Damn.
She should have paid more attention to his looks. She
couldn’t even remember the color of his eyes. And now the
man was destined to be her soul mate.
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