Can you imagine the Loch Ness Monster a human-by-day and monster-by-night? And a male one at that? In “Under Loch and Key,” author Lana Ferguson stretches her imagination and our credulity with this delightful romp featuring not just one fantastical creature, but two.

When Keyanna McKay goes to Scotland after her father’s death, she’s not just taking his ashes to Loch Ness to be spread on the lake as he wished. She’s also trying to find the only family she has left in the world, but after her grandmother’s fairly icy reception, Keyanna, who goes by Key, might not be staying long. She’s already met Lachlan, after he saved her from falling on the rocks by the loch. When he is decidedly distant after hearing her name, she decides it’s a shame that such a handsome guy is such a jerk.

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, Lachlan works on Key’s grandparent’s farm, so it’s only a matter of time before they meet again. And again. And there are definitely sparks that flare between them. While Key is trying to figure out why her father left Scotland to live in New York and rarely spoke of his life there, Lachlan is also searching for something.

Key admits to Lachlan that her father shared something that happened to him as a child. When he fell in the Loch, the Loch Ness monster saved him. History repeats itself when Lachlan saves Key from just such a monster at one point. But there’s a lot more to the backstories of both Key and Lachlan. And it’s when they decide to join together to try to figure out how to solve the mystery of what happened over seven centuries previously that things get even stranger.

There’s plenty of bad history between their two families and lots of reasons for that bad blood. Will the affection and connection between Lachlan and Key be enough to overcome the curse from the past? Will they find a way to deal with the magic that neither of them asked for, but which lies heavy on their shoulders?

This is not a deep philosophical novel. There are no thorny world problems to be dealt with. Instead, this is a light romance filled with fantasy and lots of sex. There’s a reason that many of the blurbs for Ferguson’s novels use the words “steamy” and “smutty.” They are. And this one is no exception. But there’s also love and affection, a sweet story, three-dimensional characters, and a happy ever after ending. Just what one expects in a romantasy, and what Ferguson delivers in spades.

This review was first posted on Bookreporter.com.