Perhaps it really had been the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, Marie LaVeau who had visited Justin Thibodeaux in the swamps as he'd been looking for the legendary jar holding gold and the secrets of his legacy. If it hadn't been she, then where did he get the gris gris he did not dare to take from his neck? He doubted the memories of his swim in the swamp that night because they could not be real. She had promised to bring back Jean Marie, and she had told him to guard the treasure, and when he turned into an alligator at night, he knew he had to do as she had asked. He loved his childhood sweetheart Jean-Marie even though she'd been gone for five years and he still carried the bullet where she had shot him. He wished she'd come back so he'd have a chance to prove to her how much he loved her--and Marie LaVeau was giving him that chance. But at what cost?

Jean-Marie LeFleur was having troubles of her own, trying to get away from her Hispanic Mafia boyfriend from Vegas, Gino. She had intentions of staying a stripper but planned to find a job where she could keep her clothes on. Hiding out in New Orleans had seemed a good idea until Gino's thugs had caught up with her. If the police hadn't been tipped off and nabbed them in the cemetery where they'd nearly shot her, she'd have been dead for sure. Or maybe it had been that prayer to Marie LaVeau that was responsible for her timely rescue. So the New Orleans police had called Justin, who was the law in LaTreche, and handed his former lover to him for protective custody until she could testify against the thugs who were after her. Where would she stay in LaTreche but in Justin's own house, where he could keep her safe?

So there were a couple of problems Jean Marie and Justin have to deal with: he had to find the jar, his secret heritage and pay back Marie LaVeau for helping him in the nick of time; she had to stay alive long enough to testify against Gino; and they both had to find each other and make up for past mistakes. Alicia Sparks has written story as hot and steamy as a Louisiana Bayou. Read this book set on the delta and expect to be enchanted by the sultry promise of voodoo magic and Ms. Sparks sultry prose. Bayou Gold delivers what it promises, though the treasure might not be exactly what you expect.

Reviewed By: Maîtresse
© August 2004