SLEEP TIGHT

Author: Lisa Maria Altom ISBN: 0505525690 9/2004 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: DORCHESTER/Love Spell

Being a Tooth Fairy was a low-key, wonderful gig: collect a few teeth; make kids smile. For Belle Moody, life was perfect—until her aunt Lila lost their every dime! What would go under kids' pillows? Belle had to take a second job playing the part of a European royal just to get change. Millionaire Texan Boone Wentworth's year was going from bad to worse. First, the Texan discovered his fiancée only adored money. Then his dad died. Now he was experiencing headaches and dark mood swings. He was turning into everyone's worst nightmare, becoming a real Boogeyman! He’d sold everything to hide out on a remote farm, but nothing could stop the transformation. He'd even grown wings. Wings! So when he learned the sexy princess co-hosting his mourning mom's soiree was a fraud, her charade was something he just couldn't swallow. Lovely or not, this princess was going to discover trying to dupe him was like pulling teeth.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

How do you combine cute with scary? Just ask Laura Marie Altom or read her newest release, SLEEP TIGHT. It's cute, and scary, and dark, and sexy, too.

This is my second "fairy tale type" read in the past two weeks, and it seems the authors both have wonderfully inventive imaginations. However, SLEEP TIGHT involves a lot more fairies. There is the heroine, Belle, the reigning head of the Tooth Fairies with a habit of spinning her own tales, and her hero, Boone, who is morphing into something that isn't so cutesie, namely, a Boogeyman. Oh, did I mention a retired Easter Bunny and Orgasm Fairy, too? Yep, fairies all over the place in this one.

The love story is more funny than hot, yet a bit sad, too, since poor Boone doesn't know what is happening to him. How does one fall in love when morphing into a soul-sucking demon, destroyer of fairies? Well, I didn't know until I read this book and it's a bit heart wrenching at times.

I love Belle's little boy, who nearly steals the book towards the end, but most of my praise is for Boone, the tortured hero. He manages to be funny or do sweet things while in agony. He even hides out in a barn all day, so he doesn't hurt Belle. That makes this a semi-light read with some fun banter between the two main characters and a host of strangely funny scenes with the supporting cast.

See? Cute and scary!

Shannon Johnson