Review – Lightning in Her Hands (Wild Magic, Book 2) by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland (5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Paranormal/Romance
Length: 349 pages
Publisher:‎ Berkley
Release Date: October 15, 2024
ASIN: B0CSFJ3Y82
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Wild Magic series
Source: Gift
Rating: 5/5 stars

“Teal Flores is desperate for two things—control over her gift of weather, and a date to her ex’s wedding. The first isn’t possible until she finds her long-lost mother, but the second has a very handsome last-ditch solution: Carter Velasquez.

Carter needs Teal too. His chance at receiving an inheritance is dependent on him being married by age thirty (blame his traditional Cuban grandmother), so who better to pose as his wife than Teal? But fake marriage and cohabitation prove tricky when mutual attraction charges the atmosphere—quite literally for Teal, whose volatile emotions cause lightning strikes.

Together, Teal and Carter embark on a quest to find her mother and the answers she’s searching for. But along the way, they’ll discover something even better: a love that can weather any storm.”

Series Info/Source: This is the second book in the Wild Magic series. I got this on ebook for Christmas.

Thoughts: I really enjoyed this a lot; it is a super easy to read and hard to put down. I didn’t like the main character here quite as much as the first book but she ended up growing on me.

Teal is finally out of the abusive relationship that defined her life and is trying to mend her relationship with her sisters. She also continues to struggle for control over her magic, which links her emotions to the weather; it sucks that everyone knows she is crying when it rains! Then she gets an invite to her ex’s wedding and needs a date. She decides to ask her old bestie Carter. He agrees to be her date but wants a favor back, he can’t get his inheritance until he marries. Teal agrees to fake marry him if he’ll be her date to the wedding. Unfortunately, neither of them could have predicted how incredibly good they would get along.

This was a cozy and fun paranormal romance but with a lot of family and some fun small town elements as well. There is quite a bit of story here, which makes this more complex than your average paranormal romance. Teal is trying to get her magic gift under control, and this ties in with some history around her mother. I really enjoyed learning a lot about Teal’s mother and how that ties in to her and her sisters’ past. Add to that some complications with Carter’s family and the history that Teal and Carter have, and this is an intriguing story. Additionally, Teal is still trying to find her way in life. She escaped a horribly abusive relationship and is coping with that (which led to her loosing her job as well) and figuring out what’s next for her career-wise in life. On top of all of this, she finds our her best girlfriend has betrayed her as well. Let’s just say it’s a lot; especially for someone whose emotions control the weather.

I didn’t like Teal as much as Sage; she is just so different in so many ways from how I am and deals with things so differently. However, I grew to love her over the course of this book. Teal is dealing with a lot, like a lot a lot. Even though she is very different from characters I normally relate to, I grew to appreciate how tough she was in her own way and how determined she was to work through things. The chemistry between Teal and Carter was off the charts, and the steamy scenes between them were spicy and well done.

I continued to absolutely love the Flores family and enjoy watching them work through their complicated past. There is a lot more about the Old Gods in this book as well and the Flores family’s history with those beliefs.

This book ends up feeling cozy and hopeful and heart-warming, which is my favorite type of book right now so I absolutely loved this!

My Summary (5/5): Overall I loved this, this was so fun and easy to read. This book nearly reads itself, and I finished it in just a couple sittings. I love the Flores family, although I wasn’t a huge fan of Teal initially, I really grew to respect and love her as the book continued. This is such a fun and cozy paranormal read, with some very steamy romance parts, and some wonderful magic as well. I am looking forward to Sky’s story!