Wild Irish Renegade by Tricia O'Malley

Alex Franzen shared Tricia O’Malley’s Mystic Cove series with her email subscribers back in 2019 and, on a whim, I read Wild Irish Heart, the first of the series. I loved it. Magick. Romance. Spicy love scenes. Ireland. It was delightful, heart-warming, and made me want to read all the books in the Mystic Cove series, and her other work.

Wild Irish Renegade is the eleventh book of the series and it was fine. Not great, but fine.

What I loved: With all the Mystic Cove books, I love the connection and imagery of western Ireland. I also love characters, like Cait and Mr. Murphy, popping up to weave into this story. It does make it feel like world, rather than a bunch of standalone novels set in one place.

What I didn’t love: The Irish, like all of us, have slang and quirks in their speech patterns. O’Malley does a great job of picking up on it, but I felt like the use of two or three of these elements ended up overused and feeling forced. I also feel that neither magick nor love was the central theme – the story felt rushed and formulaic.

Despite the elements I didn’t love, the story still works and fits into the broader world. I’d call this a stepping-stone novel in the series. There’s probably more, but we just don’t know it yet!

Solid 4 stars.

Happy Reading!