The Love Potion by Sandra Hill ****

This is the first book in Hill's Cajun series about the LeDeux family - Lucien, Remy, René and half sister Charmaine. Oh, and the young Tee-John LeDeux, half brother, is also introduced (even though he doesn't get his HEA till years go by and in the Jinx series).

This is Lucien's story. He's the Swamp Solicitor, the Bayou Bad Boy - he's a lawyer now, and spends his time representing the unrepresented, especially shrimpers whose jobs are being threatened by Big Oil. And his dad, the bad Valcour who abused the boys, made his money in Big Oil so he's pissed off at Luc - well, all the time.

Sylvie is descended from a wealthy Creole family - and they have always looked down their noses at Cajuns in general. As far as Luc is concerned, Sylvie has been out of his reach since they were schoolmates. He never realized Sylvie was painfully shy, not stuck up and aloof. And now Sylvie is a chemist working on a Love Potion she's injected in jelly beans and been feeding to rats - who are boinking their brains out. Maybe her company has discovered the next Viagra!

And ooooops, while visiting Sylvie's office to ask a favor, Luc just popped a bunch of jelly beans into his mouth...

Now the 2 are on the lam - Sylvie from the media about her Love Potion, Luc from Big Oil trying to stop his efforts to test the water for pollutants (with Sylvie, the chemist, doing the analysis). And Tante Lulu has set them up with a lot of St Jude statues and food so their soujourn is well spent on making wedding plans!

Once again, Hill's over-the-top, often silly humor makes for a fun ride. And this is the first Hill book I've read that really seemed to have an axe to grind about environmental issues! I'm sure it's true that shrimpers have been adversely affected by Big Oil in the southern Louisiana bayous - and I support the environmentalists. I'm just not used to politics in my romance novels!

The end was funny - the Cajun Village People routine was pretty funny, as well as the Happy Hookers where Sylvie breaks out of her shell. So I teetered betwixt a 3 and a 4 star rating - maybe it was a 3.5, cuz I liked it a little more than "average" but didn't loooove it like a keeper. So, because I round up and don't really use fractions, I give it 4 stars. It's also a Series for the Serial Readers Challenge.