Summary: Jasmine Tremaine is a witch, working as a “curse remover” by day and limo driver by night. She is happy with her existence that includes a pair of carnivorous bunny slippers, a roommate who designs dating sites for vampires, and a glorious car inhabited by a ghost from the 50s.

All this until one night her ex boyfriend, Nick, who also happens to be a vampire, came to her needing her help with a case, seemingly not caring a bit about the thirty years that have passed since they last saw each other.

This is my latest foray in the Urban Fantasy genre and probably my last for quite a while, as I have decided (after this and Yasmine Galenorn’s Witchling) that it is most definitely not my cup of tea. I simply can summon no sympathy for the kind of heroines this genre seemingly has to offer: the slang-talking-trying-too-hard-to-be-cool-and-failing type.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a spunky heroine just as much as anyone else, but Jazz seemed to me in a desperate need of an anger management course more than anything else. All she ever does is snarl at people, left and right (sometimes with good reason to, sometimes not), acting like a spoiled brat most of the time. Nope, I so did not like her. As for Nick, he is rather ok (in an “he didn’t annoy me as much” kind of way), but most of what he does has to do with Jazz (he’s either with her or daydreaming about her), so we didn’t actually get to know him that well. As for the villain of the piece, it is a clear case where “show, don’t tell” should have been applied, as he only has about two or three scenes in the whole book (but we spend the rest of the time reading about how much of a badass he is and how Jazz is afraid of him — definitely too much “tell”).

The relationship between the two main characters has also bothered me. They met about 300 years ago and had great chemistry between the sheets, but they do not want to admit there can be something serious between them as witches and vampires usually don’t mix. That would be fine with me, except with one small issue: over the years, Nick always finds ways to make Jazz end up in jail. According to him he only does this to protect her from greater forces, but (and here I agree with Jazz) she is always annoyed with him because of that. However, a bit surprisingly, their latest rift is not because of Jazz having to face yet another stint in jail, but it all comes down to Jazz being really disappointed by the fact the vampire has not come to her help one day when she really needed it (his reason for that is not explained, leaving me as a reader imagine that a) he probably had no idea Jazz was in danger and b) I don’t exactly get the fact that after thirty years she still holds a grudge for a thing he had no way of preventing).

I would have liked it a lot better if the magic system in the book had been a bit more defined, or structured. Or if it had been at least explained, some lines drawn, and so on. As things are, Jazz can do practically anything, as there are no actual limitations to her strength (other than those needed by the narrative at one moment or another). Meh. It is not even clear whether incantations are needed in order for the magick to work or not, since Jazz only uses them about half the time (plus the words are rather creatively changed, “Because I say so, damn it” being the ending formula of choice, yet another token of Jazz’s charming personality).

At least the book has a really cute cover :) (although it does depict a black cat, where there was none in the book, and also Irma is mentioned on the back cover as Norma, hehe)

Thoughts on the title: Meh. It’s actually the title of the book Jazz has once borrowed from the Library. I can’t exactly put my finger on what it made me expect from this book but whatever my hopes were they ended up dashed.

Thoughts on the ending: A fair candidate to the most “What???” ending ever. Which is to say I hated its guts.

show spoiler

What I liked most: I was amused by the reason Jasmine (once Griet) ended up in this day and age: sometime in the 14th century she, along with other witches, was punished for some transgression to spend one hundred years in the world. One hundred years who turned out to be more like seven hundred, because Jazz’s punishment kept being extended due some other transgressions she kept adding to the list. :)

What I liked least: The use of the words “magick” and “magickal” and so on has annoyed me to no end while reading. Why do some people think that if they take a normal word and change its spelling it suddenly becomes much cooler?

Also, Stasia Romanov? Really?

Recommend it to? Lovers of urban fantasy. I for one have not enjoyed this book at all, but it has lots of fans plus lots of sequels, so I imagine that those who enjoy the genre will probably find this one interesting too.

Buy this from amazon.com | Buy this from bookdepository.co.uk | Linda Wisdom’s blog

The links to amazon.com and bookdepository.co.uk are affiliate links. If you click one of them and buy something, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price. This being said, rest assured that the few cents I might thus make will never influence what I say or do not say about any book reviewed on the site.

Incoming search terms for the article:

Summary: Lady Ombersley’s household has its share of problems. The head of the family has gambled away all his fortune and more, leaving the eldest son, Charles, to shield the loss as well as he could. Cecilia, one of the daughters, has contracted a marriage with a man highly-esteemed in society, only to fall in love with a handsome but penniless poet while her affiance was bedridden with a case of mumps. Both her mother and Charles are horrified, but their opposition only serves to harden Cecilia’s decision even more. Adding to that the fact that Charles’ betrothed was a particularly sour girl, and that Charles’ brother Hubert had a few debts of his own, we will get a fair idea of the general air of the house.

Enter Sophy, whose father sent her to live with the Ombersleys, both because he had to be away for a while and also because she, at twenty, was in need of a husband. Upon arriving, Sophy was so saddened to see the sorry state of affairs this family was in that she instantly committed to solve all their problems.

Ever since I first met Sophy I couldn’t help liking her. Even her physical description was the kind I like most seeing in books:

“Sophy would never be a beauty. She was by far too tall; nose and mouth were both too large; and a pair of expressive gray eyes could scarcely be held to atone entirely for these defects. Only you could not forget Sophy, even though you could not recall the shape of her face or the color of her eyes.”

Sophy’s personality shines through the pages of the book. She has been brought up by her father,a diplomat who spent most of his life in foreign places, so she cares little for the propriety taken for granted by people who never left London. She is very confident in her own abilities (with good reason to), has a good deal of common sense, seeing straight through everyone’s pretenses, is smart and also caring for everyone around her. Just what the house needed, as Charles, the ruler supreme, was rather cold and reserved, caring very much for propriety above all else. It doesn’t help matters that he has an almighty temper, scaring all his relatives into submission.

There are a lot of supporting characters in the book, some of them very much amusing. One of them is Sophy’s future stepmother, Sancia, a Spanish woman with a fiery disposition; when she’s not busy sleeping that is. The man Cecilia professes to love is another, as he is a poet mostly out of this world: nothing exists for him when he’s under the spell of one of his poems (and that’s usually most of the time). Last but not least there is Eugenia, the priggish woman Charles has chosen for himself, a woman who holds propriety as her only god, whom she never hesitates to preach to everyone in sight (one can guess that she and Sophy are not precisely the best of friends). My feelings for her alternated between pity, as she was oblivious that she alienated the people around her by her constant nagging, annoyance, due to the said nagging, but also a bit of admiration, as she seemed to have read quite a lot for that time (which then led me to pity, because albeit cultivated she was alienating people, and the cycle started all over again).

Overall, the book is simply delightful. Sophy’s good humor is infectious, and she never allows anything to put her down, ensuring a fun right for the reader alongside her.

Thoughts on the ending: To me it seemed a bit hurried off, as the happy pair only get to be so in the last very few pages. To my chagrin because I was so very looking forward to see them as a couple (of course I understand that there’s nothing more to be said in a romance book after the hero/heroine have professed their love for each other, but I was a bit sad nevertheless).

What I liked most: Sophy’s personality was like a hurricane, sweeping everything down its path. As such, I loved reading about it on the whole, but my absolute favorite trait was the fact that she was witty and never afraid to tell people what she thought. As such, her dialogue with her uptight cousin Mr. Rivenhall are delighting, an example being my favorite line of hers:

““I’ll take care of that!” he retorted. “Let me tell you, my dear Cousin, that I should be better pleased if you would refrain from meddling in the affairs of my family!”
“Now, that,” said Sophy, “I am very glad to know, because if ever I should desire to please you I shall know just how to set about it. I daresay I shan’t, but one likes to be prepared for any event, however unlikely.””

What I liked least: While I simply adored the first two thirds of the book, everything went a bit downhill for me since Sophy started planning her grand scheme that was supposed to make everyone happy. show spoiler

Recommend it to? I am not a big romance fan but I have thoroughly enjoyed this one (admittedly some parts less than others, but the strong characters made up for everything in the long run). So I just have to recommend it to everyone, right? :)

I read this book for The Classics Circuit – yay! Interested in more Heyer reviews? Click here for the full schedule of the tour.

The links to amazon.com and bookdepository.co.uk are affiliate links. If you click one of them and buy something, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price. This being said, rest assured that the few cents I might thus make will never influence what I say or do not say about any book reviewed on the site.

Incoming search terms for the article:

Summary: Professionally, Brian Weller is on top of the world. A famous author, his books are selling like hot cakes and all media is courting him. On a personal plane his life is not so perfect though: his wife is in a coma following a DUI car accident that also killed their three years old boy, plus he cannot help thinking about an old flame of his, Joanna, with whom he parted ways in a less than friendly manner.

And then, out of the blue, an email lands in Brian’s inbox, a note from and old acquaintance. It’s from Joanna, confessing that she has never stopped thinking about him either.

I started reading this book after reading a few reviews of it, and, as all of them were positive, I ended up having high expectations form it. However now that I have finished it, I am not sure what to think. It’s not a bad book and it’s not badly written, the subject matter (“a love triangle that transcends time“) has lots of potential and at times I was so caught in what happened I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough, and yet I am not overly excited now that I finished it (but I agree that this may have something to do with the high expectations mentioned previously).

My major qualm would be that I didn’t actually care for the characters. Believe it or not my favorite one was the very antagonist, Erik Ruby (Joanna’s husband at the time the book begins). While I agree that he was too ambitious for everyone’s good and perhaps a touch too greedy too, there is a thing I really liked about him: he always keeps his promises (which is more than we can say about either of the star-crossed lovers that are the protagonists). As an interesting tidbit about him, the author has mentioned in an interview that “In early drafts Erik was an out and out criminal, a blackmailer, whose secret files rivaled those of J. Edgar Hoover“, but then he changed him to make the fact that Joanna has remained with him all those years believable, as she was too intelligent to be with such a guy for too long. Thing is, I for one would have very much preferred that first version, because that way Joanna’s deceit towards him would have been a bit more understandable for me. As things stand, I ended up liking Erik the most of all, which probably made me biased towards the rest of the cast.

Brian, the character most followed by “the camera”, is an overall good guy and I mostly liked him (especially somewhere near the end). I was amused to notice his similarities to the author (they share the same initials, they’re both authors, they both enjoy playing guitar, they both have an artistic side — Mr. Walker being a graphic designer, making books look good, and Brian being a video editor, making videos look good). Thing is, there wasn’t much of Brian in the book other than what related to his love for Joanna (his past was mentioned once or twice, but without shedding much light on his character, other than the fact that he was a really nice guy, but we already knew that) so for me he was mostly monodimensional (yes, I do think I have just created this word). Overall I actually find it fascinating how, while I’m usually head over heels with the good guys in books, I wasn’t that excited about this one.

As for Joanna, I’m sad to say I didn’t manage to connect with her at all. She is supposed to be this wonderful woman that makes every man around fall head over heels with her. To me she seemed a bit superficial and immature, not to mention more than a bit selfish. I know that I may be biased when I think of her by a pet peeve of mine (I don’t like people who cheat on others and I don’t like people who lie about important things, and she does these both to Erik), but I can’t really help it as my personality, including pet peeves, do influence the way I relate to things around me, including books. I do have one think I have really appreciated about Joanna though, and that is the fact that she was a talented artists and the way she viewed her art, as an expression of self.

You know, had I been the editor of the book, I would have requested at least one scene to be added, one where Joanna goes to Erik and confesses everything and tells him she wants out of the relationship. And then he does something (either begs or blackmails her) forcing her to reconsider. The presence of this one scene would have changed a lot of my feelings towards the book, because Joanna would have at least tried to do the right thing instead of jumping head-on into the wrong one, and then I could have, perhaps, esteemed her.

On the other hand (because there always is another side to the story), this book reminded me in a way of a biography of Prince Charles I have read many years ago. Prince Charles who, while married to Lady Di, tried for a while but couldn’t suppress his feelings for Camilla then Parker-Bowles. Sure, the story was a lot more complicated than that, as all sorts of things were at stake, but the thing that touched me the most was the way their love has endured for many years, despite both of them being married to someone else, and the very intensity of this love had some redeeming qualities in my eyes (and yes, I was thrilled when the two actually managed to get married to one another a few years ago). From this point of view I sort of regard Brian and Joanna’s love story a bit better than I would have otherwise. As both of them state, not only they are soul mates and understand each other to a T, but they have never stopped thinking about one another even in the fifteen years they spent apart. And yet I still have trouble accepting the deceitful side of the story. Why oh why hasn’t the author added that scene I mentioned :( :(

To end on a positive note, I think the cover is great. While it seemed a bit cryptic to me before reading the book, I can’t help loving it after. It depicts a Buddha (Joanna is a Buddhist), a single white rose (Joanna and Brian’s special flower) and a note whose first words are “Dear Brian”, a note that I like to think of as the “note from an old acquaintance” in the title, despite that note being actually an email :)

What I liked most: The way Brian described his being an author:

“I suppose I’ve always had a talent for words, ever since I was a little kid. And I’ve always loved telling stories, creating worlds that never existed. Yet they existed for me. I’d spend hours scribbling all sorts of fantasies, seeing them unfold in my mind like movies.”

The way Joanna always talks about her art too.
Plus I was mildly amused to notice that Erik Ruby’s email address was RedJewel@hotmail.com :)

What I liked least: For some reason I couldn’t stand one of Joanna’s pet names for Brian, “my sweet writer”. Every time she mentioned it I couldn’t help thinking “blech” (without a clear idea why, it’s just how I felt).

Recommend it to? I do realize that a lot of this review was subjective and had to do with that pet peeve of mine. Because of that and because of the fact that the book has gotten many good reviews I do encourage everyone to at least give it a try. Everyone not sharing my pet peeve that is :)

See also
Bill Walker’s official site

The links to amazon.com and bookdepository.co.uk are affiliate links. If you click one of them and buy something, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price. This being said, rest assured that the few cents I might thus make will never influence what I say or do not say about any book reviewed on the site.

Summary: The Comte de Renard wants to force his neighbor, Ariane Cheney, into marrying him. A very determined woman, Ariane will have none of it. She has only seen him twice before the wedding, and furthermore she has a duty to the people living on the island she owns. Not to mention that Ariane is a daughter of the earth, a wise woman skilled in the art of magic, very easy to be taken for a witch by anyone who doesn’t know any better. And yet Renard insists on winning Ariane’s hand, for mysterious reasons of his own. In order to be left alone, Ariane agrees to the comte’s proposal: he will give her a magic ring with special powers, so anytime she needs help all she has to do is think of Renard and he’ll arrive; the catch being that after three such summonings Ariane is to agree to marry the compte.

Ariane does not believe in magic items so if accepting the ring means she’ll get rid of Renard, so much the better, she thinks. But horrible news arrive from Paris, as Catherine de Medici has poisoned Jeanne de Navarre, and the proof of the deed is brought to Ariane. Catherine retaliates by sending the worst witch-hunters in the kingdom, and all of a sudden the quiet and peaceful life on the little island is shattered to pieces.

The book started out a bit too romance-y for my taste, making me worry a bit about it being just another bodice ripper. And yet very soon the characters started to develop and to show me their facets, and I fell in love with them all. Ariane, the woman with quiet eyes, has all the qualities necessary to the good leader she tries to be, trying to follow in her mother’s footsteps yet struggling to live up to the expectations of her title. Renard (whose name means “fox” in French) is the typical romance male (he has a title, he’s a skilled warrior but he’s never afraid to show his gentle side, he’s physically attractive and oh so predictably well endowed), and yet he didn’t read like a cliche, on the contrary, both he and Ariane manage to come to life from the page. Everything turned out to be a far cry from what I worried that the book would be after the first chapter, and I was happy about it, of course. :)

A lot of pages are dedicated to Ariane’s two sisters, Gabrielle and Miribelle, setting the scene for the next two books (each featuring one of them as a main character). They are both well developed characters, and I loved reading about them and their “adventures” of their own. So far my favorite of the two is Gabby, the impetuous one who used to be an incredible painter until she lost her magic in the arms of a man. She tries to harden her heart as her main ambition now is to become a courtesan (the book about her is named “The Courtesan” too), but underneath it all she is still a kind, brave girl, wanting to be loved. Miribelle is as yet a child, elf-like and a protector of all living creatures, understanding their language and taking care of any wounded creature she comes across. She also has premonitory dreams, and on the whole, although I did like Gabrielle more, it’s Miri that I am most curious about, how she will turn out to be when she grows up and how her own love story will develop. Especially as we already get to know her (possible) future beloved in this book, and at the end they part on less than friendly terms, to say the least.

What I liked most: The way the book deals with historical truth. Sure, this is a fantasy and as such there are some liberties taken (especially when it comes to Catherine de Medici, the title character). However I very much liked the fact that all the important moments in the story, history-wise, have actually happened. For example, Catherine’s Escadron Volant has actually existed, and so did the suspicions over Jeanne d’Albret‘s death as being due to a pair of gloves poisoned by Catherine. Not to mention, of course, the night of St. Bartholomew‘s Eve. The author has taken the known events of the time and has imagined some motivations for them, fantastic ones, with magic involved, but she did this as smoothly as possible, and I loved that.

Also, Miri’s pony is named Butternut :)

What I liked least: A minor qualm only: one of the abilities of a witch is reading someone else’s thoughts in their eyes. While a plausible enough idea (eyes being the mirror of the soul and so on), at times the technique was used for finding out specific dates and names, which was for me a bit harder to believe. A very minor thing, I know, especially as an author’s universe is her own and anything she says can be done simply can.

Recommend it to? Anyone who enjoys a good Historical Fiction/Romance book. It’s a light and entertaining read :)

The links to amazon.com and bookdepository.co.uk are affiliate links. If you click one of them and buy something, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price. This being said, rest assured that the few cents I might thus make will never influence what I say or do not say about any book reviewed on the site.

Summary: Gerry and Holly are a happily married couple living in Dublin. They lead a (mostly) carefree life, surrounded by their many friends. But one day Gerry is diagnosed as having brain cancer and he dies in a few short months. Holly is a disconsolate widow at first, as she lived for Gerry and now that the center of her world is gone she has no idea how to keep living without him. But Gerry has thought ahead at the possibility and sent Holly a last gesture of comfort: ten small letters, each to be opened at a set date (one per month), each containing a piece of advice to make Holly’s life easier, and, of course, each of them ending with “P.S. I love you”.

I added this book to my list of planned-to-be-read books more than a year ago, since first hearing about it, because the topic seemed new to me and full of potential. A husband that was so in love with his wife that he wrote her letters for the future, so that a small part of him could be around her then. For some reason I expected each letter to be long, I expected him to explore previously unseen sides of him each time, in order to… I don’t know, make him harder and harder to miss, make the love they had seem even more precious. But. It is only now, after reading the book, that I realize this couldn’t have been. First of all, because there are no “previously unseen sides” in a couple like that. Also, had the letters been like I hoped they were, long and full of promise, it would have done a world of harm to Holly, as she had enough trouble coping as it was and she didn’t need any extra reminders of what could have been and now could never be. I very much admire the author for the way she chose the letters from Gerry to be (although I, as a reader, always wanted more, more, more :) ).

Another thing that I have liked was the way the author has written the relationships between characters: they seem real, and I felt for Holly’s pain of her loss all throughout the book. There’s more to the book, relation-wise, than this, as Holly is anything but an island: she has four siblings, a mother and father, friends, work colleagues, casual acquaintances and so on. I watched her struggle with the said relationships, trouble to form them, trouble to keep them when worse came to worse, and I was glad to find them fairly well written (at least for a chick lit book, of course).

There are plenty of characters in the book, and, while none of them are perfect, all of them were likable with one notable exception. Unfortunately, I really couldn’t like Holly herself (all the more reasons why I thought the author has done a great job with portraying her emotions, making me care for them and their effect on Holly although I didn’t like her). Holly celebrates her thirtieth birthday somewhere at the beginning of the book, and yet she acts mostly like a teenager (including a most annoying habit to call things “stupid” at times). The most fun she knows how to have is getting drunk in a pub (with friends, of course, but she has definitely spent too much of the book being drunk for my personal taste). I may be too uptight but really, her work ethic was dubious too (“Holly would daydream the majority of the day, make personal phone calls, especially abroad, because she didn’t have to pay the bill, and would be first in queue to collect her monthly paycheck, which was usually spent within two weeks.“). While I get she didn’t like her job and so on, I kinda have a problem with her being so unreliable for her employers (but then perhaps everyone does that and I live in a world of my own). Oh, and she cannot even spell!! How am I supposed to identify with that???

(Well, to be completely honest with the author, Ms. Ahern was 21 when she wrote the book so understandably enough she made Holly have the ideal life for a girl that age, forgetting or ignoring the fact that Holly is supposed to be a whole decade older and presumably more mature (the kind of maturity that was nowhere in Ms. Ahern’s sight at her tender age). I can of course understand that but I still didn’t like Holly at all.)

Gerry on the other hand is a whole other matter. While I admit that we see him very little and only in situations meant to emphasize his good side, I really liked him nevertheless (at least all his letters are spelled just fine). As for the rest of the cast, the author has definitely done a good job with them, as they are multifaceted enough and at times a joy to discover — although some changes in them were somewhat forced (I am thinking here about Richard, one of Holly’s brothers, who became almost a different person mid-book).

A quote I very much liked:

Growing older became something he wanted desperately to accomplish, rather than merely a dreaded inevitability. How presumptuous they both had been never to consider growing old as an achievement and a challenge. Aging was something they’d both wanted so much to avoid.

As a final mention, I for one have never been through what Holly’s been through (thank God!), but I’ve seen it mentioned among young widows that the year the book spans is quite unrealistic, way too short a time for Holly’s heart to heal as much as it did. I can understand the need for the book to take a shorter while rather than longer (as no one would write letters for the next I don’t know how many years), and also I think that the ending is a bit ambiguous with respect to the exact amount of healing Holly has managed: show spoiler

What I liked most: I know I have already blabbed on and on about the relationships between the characters, but bear with me a bit more: my favorite part of the book was the light banter all of them shared throughout the book. Everyone has a nice sense of humor, they tease each other now and then, and they actually manage to be funny without looking like they’re trying to hard — unlike other books I read *coughWitchlingcough*

The ending was bound to appeal to me too: show spoiler

What I liked least: Out of curiosity I have seen the P.S. I Love You movie prior to reading the book. While the two have nothing in common other than some character names and the central plot (Gerry, an Irish guy, married Holly, and then he died, but not before writing her some letters), I have nevertheless the main protagonists’ physical appearance stuck in my head as belonging to them. Now, I like Gerard Butler and he did a decent job as Gerry (especially as we don’t very much see the Gerry in the book, so while I had an idea he was younger than Mr. Butler looked in the movie I didn’t much care). However Hilary Swank really and truly ruined (what was left of) Holly for me. While I have nothing against Ms. Swank herself, I kept imagining Holly looking as her, and then it felt wrong, because in the book Holly is a bit shorter and blonder and a lot more vulnerable than Ms. Swank portrayed her in the movie. But, of course, serves me right for watching the movie first :)

Recommend it to? Anyone in the mood for a chick lit story a bit more gloomy than usual. It’s a light read though and as fun as can be with the said topic.


The links to amazon.com and bookdepository.co.uk are affiliate links. If you click one of them and buy something, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price. This being said, rest assured that the few cents I might thus make will never influence what I say or do not say about any book reviewed on the site.

Incoming search terms for the article:

Summary: A Jane Austen festival seems the perfect opportunity for Eleanor Pottinger to launch her new business as Regency costume maker. She arrives at the hotel with a trunkful of period dresses, only to find out there are no free rooms left. She can have the tower room though, named thus because it is on top of the building and shaped like a tower, and still free because it’s said to be inhabited by ghosts. Which, as Eleanor is about to find out, is quite the truth: the room is the place where the ghosts of two girls who have lived in the Regency era like to spend their time. They are delighted to see Eleanor too, considering her the key to their freedom (they couldn’t move on or leave the house because of something bad that had happen to them when alive) — they plan to send her back in time, in their own age, in order to convince their former selves not to do whatever it was that brought them in their current situation.

I picked this up because I felt like some light reading and because Jane Austen being in the title sounded promising. Not to mention the time travel which I’m usually bound to enjoy. And yet it seems like I was expecting too much and so the story didn’t manage to draw me in all the way. At times, the plot seemed slapped together simply for the sake of being, with some matters that didn’t seem to have been considered all the way. For example, there were a few instances that very much detracted from my reading pleasure, such as when two characters get married, after a two year relationship, and on their wedding night they have a conversation like “You have to know I can’t cook. My mother died when I was young and etc.” — after two years together it’s hardly believable that the subject of cooking or abilities or one’s mother dying never came up before. Or the part at the end when every villain uncovers his/her dark & dirty secrets in a scene reminding me very strongly of a bad movie. The part of the plot where our male character is secretly hunting down spies was also quite unclear for me and to be honest the only thing I did get about it was that there was a secret place where the said spies exchanged notes. The number of the said spies went up and down quite mysteriously from my point of view, ’cause I mostly failed to see the reasoning. Let’s consider for example show spoiler

The fact that has disappointed me the most though is that there is not the slightest hint of depth to be found anywhere in the book! As I said, I was looking for something light, but unfortunately this was a bit too much. Take the characters for example. Eleanor is perfectly average, she is good at designing dresses, she dreams of studying Jane Austen, nothing interesting, nothing out of the ordinary. Despite that, there is a particular character who thinks the world of her, although there is no reason given for it other than the obvious “whenever I see you I dream of kissing you” part, with no background whatsoever. I for one would have liked a bit more interaction between the two, so the guy would have discovered the gal was special in a lot more ways than sheer physical attraction (but that’s usually my main qualm when it comes to romance books).

Speaking of the male lead, he is a cliche from head to toe: proud, rich, handsome, with a secret mission in order to help his country (**swoon**), irresistibly attracted by the heroine and so on. Not a bit of substance unfortunately, nothing to make him stand out in a crowd. The same goes for the rest of the cast, from the two flighty sisters acting a bit reckless (to the extent of visiting a gentleman in his bedroom at night, unthinkable at their ages and in that time), but quite likable overall, to Jane Austen herself, putting in a cameo appearance and speaking somewhat in cliches. Darn.

It may be time to say something nice about the book too. It does have some interesting moments (unfortunately nothing above average) and a cute ending (although it sort of annoyed me that the author never gave a moment’s thought of time travel affecting the future, other than the obvious — I mean that nothing actually changed, except what the author wanted to, but time travel doesn’t work like that :( ). Funny how the more I try to think of nice things to say the more things I didn’t like come to mind. I should probably stop now.

What I liked most: Probably not the best thing in the book but a nice touch. I was amused by Ellen, the cousin of the two ghost girls. Actually, not by her (since she never makes an appearance) but by the fact that the author has chosen to hint at her having premonitory dreams: she dreams that one of her cousins will break an arm, and it happens, she dreams that her ship will sink, and it presumably happens (since we don’t actually get to meet her), and so on. It’s cool in a way that such a minor character has a potentially interesting trait while no such thing happened to the major ones.

The idea of having a scene in a butterfly-filled meadow was quite cool too :)

What I liked least: The fact that Jane Austen is mentioned in the very title, thus heightening the potential readers expectations (yes, such as I). The book is a lot closer to a bodice-ripper than anything Austenesque, so the Jane Austen part is misleading to say the least.

Recommend it to? Chick lit & romance aficionados. Don’t worry, it’s probably not as bad as I made it sound, especially if you’re a fan of the genre. :)

The links to amazon.com and bookdepository.co.uk are affiliate links. If you click one of them and buy something, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price. This being said, rest assured that the few cents I might thus make will never influence what I say or do not say about any book reviewed on the site.

Summary: Jane Hayes is a young woman with a career in graphic design and a disastrous love life. The latter is, in no small part, caused by her obsession with the books and times of Jane Austen and, most of all, with Mr. Darcy. When her great-aunt Carolyn finds out about Jane’s problem, she sends her to a sort of Austen camp: an estate in England where everyone acts like the year is 1816 and actors are paid to help the guests having an experience as immersive as possible, including gentlemen suitors set on declaring their unending and irrepressible love (as in all Austen novels). Eventually, Jane decides to go, in hopes that the experience will help her set her illusions aside forever. And yet once there she discovers that keeping track of what is real and what is not it’s a bit harder than she has previously thought.

I liked the way Jane grows and develops throughout the book. She is aware that her intensity and her expectations are a roadblock in her path to happiness, and all the time while at Pembrook she is doing her best to play along and, at the same time, reinvent herself. Day by day she discovers that, after all, she could very well enjoy the trip as well as the destination, and that a relationship can be savoured even if a wedding does not appear on the horizon. Oh, and there’s nothing wrong with a bit of harmless flirting now and then. Jane does change after her stint in Austenland show spoiler

The writing style is casual and enjoyable, sprinkled with funny bits that made me smile (such as “She thought she should say something witty here. She said, “Really?” “), and some pretty intense moments too (“[He] smiled in his way, the way that made her stare back and wish she could breathe.“). I couldn’t help but very much admire the diligence of the author when she created the characters’ Pembrook lines, because a good chunk of the book is written in Austen-like style, and, at least for a profane like me, it sounded quite close to the original.

Speaking of which, another thing that mightily amused me throughout the book was imagining what I myself would have done in such a setting, being forced to talk in such a style. Each time I ended up being very much impressed with the way the author has chosen to have Jane and the rest of the cast go back and forth between conversational tones: everyone is doing their best to act as 1816 as possible in order not to ruin the Experience for everyone else, and yet their true upbringing and habits do slip through the pretense now and then (making it all the more real because I really wouldn’t have believed a complete change from one way of talking to another can be achieved on such a short notice).

What I liked most: The fact that the ending is not obvious until the last few pages. Or at least it wasn’t for me. Oh, and the whole idea of an Austen-esque estate making guests feel like they went back in time is pretty cool too.

What I liked least: Chick lit, easy reading, nothing to take seriously…what’s there not to like? :)

Recommend it to? Since it’s a chick lit book I obviously recommend it to chick lit fans. Nevertheless I do encourage anyone (especially if they have a penchant for Mr. Darcy) to at least see what it’s about. It’s not perfect but if you’re in the mood for something light it might be just the thing :)


The links to amazon.com and bookdepository.co.uk are affiliate links. If you click one of them and buy something, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price. This being said, rest assured that the few cents I might thus make will never influence what I say or do not say about any book reviewed on the site.

But trouble is brewing in the Otherworld. Shadow Wing, a powerful demon, is trying to destroy the boundaries between the three realms, wanting to destroy mankind and the magical creatures alike. But to do that he needs to get his hands on the nine pieces of the spirit seal that protects the borders. Luckily for the world, the pieces are scattered throughout the realms, and very few know about their wereabouts. A race begins: it’s up to the three sisters and their small group of friends to find those seals before Shadow Wing’s minions do, else the world as we know it will die.

For some reason that I don’t remember when I added this book to my TBR I expected to be enchanted by it. I was disappointed to discover that the opposite is closer to truth: I was so unenchanted with it I felt no compulsion to actually finish it (other than the fact that I always try to finish a book I started). I’m thinking it’s the characters.

My God, I really can’t say I liked the characters. Although the basic idea of having a trio of powerful sisters but with less than perfect powers was great, the way the author chose to write them was a bit lacking. Let’s take for example Delilah, the Werecat. The author wanted her to be the kind, softhearted one, plus the one that involuntarily turns into a cat when she’s nervous. How did she (the author) choose to show this to the reader? By having Delilah turn into a cat while assisting to a minor conflict between her sisters (a very minor one so her reaction seemed way overrated). Yet, later on, she manages to hold her own against things truly frightening, making the first event seem even more gratuitous. As for the softhearted part, the author wrote Delilah to be softhearted bordering on stupid: she wanted to release one of their enemies (that was nicely tied up because she was that dangerous) because “she has to be getting cramps” after being tied up for so long. Enough said.

The other characters weren’t any better. Chase somehow kept getting on my nerves, especially when he kept getting freaked out by the otherworldly creatures he ran into. I can understand why he might have been scared by some of them, of course, but he acted like he was seeing the impossible each and everytime, and one would expect a guy working for an otherwordly intelligence agency to be a bit more “in the know” than that. Not to mention he spends most of the time being afraid at anything he sees yet he turns out to be a martial art master — how plausible is that. Trillian, Camille’s irresistible lover, was annoying as hell from my point of view: so possessive and so arrogant it made me want to smack him every time he showed up. As for Camille herself she might have been okay but for her somewhat flighty mind: approximately half her thoughts (which is a lot given that she’s the narrator) were about sex. Now I do understand that she’s half Fae and as such she has a veracious sexual appetite but there’s only so many times I care to hear about how sexy Trillian is and how he makes Camille feel. Oh, and speaking of sexual appetite, as a sidenote: in the whole book there is only one male character that doesn’t try to have sex with Camille or at least touch her ass. One. And he was somewhat insane. I get it, Camille’s hot. But really?? Not even a dragon can resist her???

The dragon part was cool though. The dragon I did like (although it didn’t make that much sense to have it involved in their conflict in the first place but who cares). Especially when it came to its very own Saint George. And I have also liked Morio, the fox demon born and bred in Japan, the good guy in the story. He added an exotic touch to the book and I would have liked to see his character develop a little more with time. Menolly is interesting also, as the newbie vampire trying to get social, but she too appears too little for the reader to actually start caring for her.

Speaking of things I like, I’ve also liked most of the writing. The author has done a great job imagining the fantasy world she did, a world with creatures so varied that nothing seemed to be outside the realm of possibility, a world where magic intermingles to our daily, mundane life. A world where one can reach another realm by crossing through a portal guarded by one of the Hags of Fate (quite an irreverent name, isn’t it). Where faeries are among us and humans reactions to them vary wildly, from loving them and enlisting in their fan clubs, to considering them a threat to morality and trying to force them to go home, by picketing their premises. I only cringed a little at the fact that the author has chosen to make the otherwordly creatures to look down on one particular race. And look at the coincidence, that race was black-skinned. So unoriginal.

An idea I found interesting:

In Otherworld the land was so linked to the inhabitants that it felt like a community. Even in the dark woods, there existed a sense of comprehension and understanding. Earthside, a great chasm divided the forest from the people, underscoring the sense of distrust that I felt from the majority of humans that I met. They didn’t trust the wild, they feared the primal, and went out of their way to tame everything within reach. It was as if the wild places were at war with humanity.

As a last complaint, while reading I sometimes had the same problem I did when reading Inkheart: there is no actual limitation to what the main character can do so there’s no actual challenge as anything can be done. Case in point: Camille is looking for a guy named Tom Lane, and I imagine her thought process to be something like this “Where do I find him, where do I find him? Ooooh, look, there’s some magic! Ooooh, look, there’s a minor earth elemental (yes, just like that)! I’ll just ask him where Tom Lane is”. It seemed too easy, too much of a cop out, and I, as reader, felt cheated. I’d have preferred for Camille to find Tom Lane in a phone book.

What I liked most: The fluffy and cuddly gargoyle baby (with a name that fits it perfectly too, Maggie) that goes mooph mooph. The very idea of a baby gargoyle being fluffy as opposite to our current image about them (they’re the very opposite of cuddly since they’re made of stone).

What I liked least: The tone of the book overall: to me it seemed like it was trying too hard to sound hip and cool, and failed to be so. I got used to it after a while but it really grated on my nerves at first. The very reason why I am not planning to try the sequels any time soon.

Recommend it to? Everyone who likes urban fantasy. It’s definitely not my cup of tea but it does have some interesting parts, and there are people out there who liked it a lot more than I did, so if you’re a fan of the genre do give it a try.


The links to amazon.com and bookdepository.co.uk are affiliate links. If you click one of them and buy something, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price. This being said, rest assured that the few cents I might thus make will never influence what I say or do not say about any book reviewed on the site.

Summary: Logan Thibault was a marine stationed in Iraq when, one day, he found the photo of a girl. He stuck it to the bulletin board so that it could be retrieved by the one who lost it. Since after a while no one has claimed it he took it back on a whim. He might have forgotten about having it on him too, but for the fact that he seemed to experience a sudden streak of luck. It showed not only in the small things, such as playing poker, but also in the important ones — in time he became famous for having survived the most bomb attacks. Logan’s friend Victor, a firm believer in such things, became convinced that it was all due to the photograph, that seemed to be acting like a good luck charm. Victor retained his conviction even after both he and Logan came home from the war, and encouraged his friend to look for the girl in the picture, in order to “establish the balance” (Victor believed Logan owed that girl something since it was her picture that kept him safe in war).

Which is exactly what Logan does: in a moment when life felt particularly bad, he called his dog and picked up his backpack, and started walking. From his home in Colorado to the first Hampton he could think of (the name Hampton was somewhere in the background of picture). Luckily for him this was the right Hampton too :)

The characters are in a way cliche, the very cardboard pictures one would have expected to find in a romance novel. For example, Elizabeth. She has all the qualities a guy could want in a woman (a good sense of humor included), and she has also the kind of beauty that can only be found in books such as these (a.k.a. perfect to the point of becoming tiresome). As for Logan, he is sort of a master of all trades (or anyway, more than one), being a college-educated anthropologist, a marine, a talented piano player, good dog trainer, able handyman, and the list could go on and on. The only stain on his resume could be the fact that Elizabeth’s ten years old son Ben always beat him at chess, so there actually is one thing he cannot do. Alas, it is too little to make him feel like a real person to me but this didn’t keep me from rooting for him all throughout the book. And, of course, there’s Nana, Elizabeth’s grandmother. An old woman who knows all about the world she lives in and who enjoys expressing herself in hazy similes that no one else understands. My favorite character of them all, too, although she was a bit cliche herself.

I was amused to read in one of this book’s reviews that it is sort of the reversed version of Message in a Bottle. I almost laughed out loud reading that, surprised how I didn’t think about it myself. That book is about a woman who finds a love letter from a man and tries to find him in order to know him better. This one is about a man who finds the picture of a woman and tries to find her in order to know her better. Almost a perfect match :) (as a small spoiler, luckily the two endings differ, I was very very annoyed at the way Message in a Bottle ended; so much so that I told myself I’ll never read another Sparks novel ever again; I know, I know, and yet here I am…).

According to Wikipedia, the author has said that he is “[...] a big believer in the fact that people have the ability to influence the future in a way that seems coincidental and when that happens, the feeling of fate or destiny is amplified. [...] In the end, when writing The Lucky One, I wanted to explore the subject of fate or destiny, but in a way that reflected the reality of the world.“. I have to say I find this quite an interesting concept, although I don’t see it reflected that much in the book (or maybe it is, but with the stress on the other aspects other than the one that I find cool).

What I liked most: The idea of the picture being considered as a lucky charm. In the sense that we never actually get to know, the author never tells us whether the picture did hold some special powers (thus explaining Logan’s uncanny luck) or if they were all just a string of coincidences. Each reader is free to draw his/her own conclusions, and I liked that although I am a bit curious about the truth — was it actually something with the picture or not? I mean sure, in the real world I don’t believe either in good luck charms or (that many) coincidences, but in the world of a book the truth is anything the author wishes it to be.

What I liked least: (Possible spoiler) Why does Logan begin to consider Clayton “the center of the wheel”, the actual reason he ended up in Hampton? I can see how he is important because of his connection to Beth and his plans for her future, but I still see Beth herself the central figure not him.

Recommend it to? Everyone who likes romance books :) It’s a cute story.

Written by the same author:
Message in a Bottle

The links to amazon.com and bookdepository.co.uk are affiliate links. If you click one of them and buy something, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price. This being said, rest assured that the few cents I might thus make will never influence what I say or do not say about any book reviewed on the site.

Incoming search terms for the article:

Summary: The Owens women have all been very beautiful. And have all been treated like witches too.

Gillian and Sally Owens have been orphaned at a young age and went to live with their aunts. This is how they found out what being Owenses actually entails. Everyone in their small town fears and avoids the aunts, but when they have a love problem they never hesitate to knock on their door. Gillian and Sally grow up as outsiders, all other kids treating them as if they were freaks. Which probably explains why they both left the aunts at the first opportunity they got: Gillian eloped at 18, Sally waited up a bit more, but in the end both girls ended up in different cities than the aunts.

Years go by and, while Gillian’s life is a mess, Sally is quite happy with the home she has managed to build for her two girls. But one night Gillian appears unannounced at Sally’s door, a dead body in her car. And, of course, Sally, the ever protective big sister, cannot turn her away.

This is the kind of book with no black and white characters, only in shades of gray. Each of the Owens women we get to meet (including one of the ancestors) are trying to make the best out of their life they can, according to their resources and way of thinking. None of them is evil, of course, but none of them (except perhaps Sally) is particularly nice either. It’s just the way they are. And I did not dislike them, despite their flaws, and all. I did have my favorites, of course (Kylie, perhaps because I envied her gift of seeing people how they really are, and the aunts, because of their no-nonsense manner) and my least favorites (Sally, for the way she kept berating herself), but on the whole I have managed to connect with and care for all of them.

It is perhaps interesting to notice how their childhood drama (being treated bad by their peers) affected both sisters, albeit in very different ways. They both feel that they don’t deserve anything good, and this is very much reflected in their lives. Gillian, the beautiful, proud one, has chosen the path of male seduction. Perhaps looking for the love she missed as a child, she has a string of conquests, one after the other. She is usually the one ending all the relationships though, precisely because staying involved would be too much for her so fleeing is in her eyes by far the best option. Sally, the more responsible one, acts precisely the opposite: she shrinks away from love and the best thing she wants for life is building a home, a stable place for her two girls. I loved the way the author has imagined the inner workings of the girls’ minds (and, of course, how she has explained it to the reader).

What I liked most: The way Sally’s world lost color when someone she very much cared about passed away:

In time, Sally stopped believing in anything at all, and then the whole world went gray. She could not see orange or red, and certain shades of green—her favorite sweater and the leaves of new daffodils—were completely and utterly lost.

I am also quite fond of the title as I think it sums up the book very well. Practical magic, the kind of magic one would use (if possible of course) in order to make the day to day life better. Precisely what the women in the book are doing :)

What I liked least: At first I was a bit “meh” about the many pages with no dialogue. Sure, the story was interesting but after a while it felt like it was just droning on and on with no pause. Nevertheless after some more pages I have grown used to the style and actually started liking it :)

Recommend it to? Anyone who enjoys reading about a bit of romance and a bit of magic :)


The links to amazon.com and bookdepository.co.uk are affiliate links. If you click one of them and buy something, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price. This being said, rest assured that the few cents I might thus make will never influence what I say or do not say about any book reviewed on the site.

Incoming search terms for the article: