Joel and Charlie have only been seeing each other for less than a year, but Joel has a niggling suspicion that Charlie’s “the one.” They’re complete opposites. Charlie’s the romantic, sci-fi movie buff, and openly gay. He runs his own business and is a carefree sort of guy. Joel’s a history professor at a local college, abhors public displays of affection, and digs dry history-type movies. When they come together in the bedroom, though, nothing else matters.

On Joel’s birthday, Charlie arranges a romantic evening on a friend’s sailboat. Too bad neither guy knows anything about sailing. A storm rolls in. The boat sinks. Charlie dies while Joel lives. Yikes. What a catchy way to start a story.

Jump head exactly one year. Joel hikes across town to get drunk in a bar where no one will recognize him and hopefully, where he can kill enough brain cells to forget what happened this time last year. In the midst of his bender, he thinks he sees Charlie. When he staggers up to him, he finds all Charlie’s quirks and scars in the same spots, but the person looking at him through Charlie’s eyes isn’t the Charlie he knew. And the crowd his dead lover’s running with aren’t the type of people Charlie ever hung out with.

Bottom line? The Charlie Joel loved isn’t really dead. But nor is he exactly the human man he knew. Joel’s just stumbled over a monumental secret that’s quite likely going to get him killed.

It’s hard to describe Water without introducing plot spoilers. This is a rich tale with a very unique plot, original paranormal creatures, and two lovers who happen to both be men in this incarnation of their lives and who are desperately trying to remain together despite a lot of weighty issues hanging between them. Astrid Amara’s tale is a breath of fresh air in the stuffy vampire/werewolf paranormal world. Clever world building, characters who are true to themselves, and strong secondary characters make this a story the avid paranormal reader won’t want to miss. Suffice to say, I’ll be eagerly anticipating the next installment.