Magick & Moonlight/ Marie Lavender

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Genre: Paranormal Romance/ Contemporary Romance

Approximate word count: 20-25,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: NO

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

“Marie Lavender lives in the Midwest with her family and three cats. She has been writing for over twenty years. She has more works in progress than she can count on two hands. Marie has published nineteen books. Her real love is writing romances. She has published historical romance, contemporary romance, romantic suspense, paranormal romance, mystery/thriller, literary fiction and poetry.”

For more, visit the author’s website or blog.

Description:

“Messing with free will is always a bad idea…

Ethan Hamilton moves to a lazy little town in Oregon, hoping to escape his demons. But, instead he discovers a woman dancing nude in the moonlight. This woman who claims she is a witch dazzles him with her sensual presence. He thinks she’s crazy, but what if she’s not?”

Appraisal:

I picked up this novella on a whim for a quick read. Jessie, a practicing Wiccan, runs a small candle and gift shop in Yachats, Oregon. Ethan Hamilton, an ex-cop, has recently relocated to the area to escape a past he would rather forget. I thought the premise had a lot of promise, although somewhere along the line the story fell flat for me.

When Ethan comes across Jessie dancing naked in the woods around a cauldron under the full moon, Jessie is afraid her secret will be exposed. Ethan offers to drive the crazy naked woman home wrapping his coat around her. (As a heads up I would like to warn others not to leave a personal item behind when you offer to drive the crazy naked woman home from the middle of the woods.) I am pretty sure Jessie did not walk out into the woods naked but no effort to pick up her clothes was taken, and from that point on my belief was shaken enough to not buy into the story as much as I wanted to. Once she is home Jessie begins to fret about being identified as a witch and casts a love spell on Ethan to protect herself from exposure.

The only fantasy element was the casting of the love spell, which Jessie knew would come back in a bad way. Otherwise, the story is about the journey of two souls who needed to find each other. Ethan, a hard-nosed cop, who refused to believe in magic and Jessie, an insecure Wiccan, who was raised with magic all around her. Sounds interesting, doesn’t it? Perhaps you should take the risk and give it a try.

FYI:

Some sexual situations that are not too graphic.

Format/Typo Issues:

I found no significant issues.

Rating: *** Three stars