4 ½ stars for PARAMATCH.COM by MK Mancos.
REVIEWER'S OPINION:
Very fun, light, enjoyable escape. I chuckled a few times. I didn't expect the ending regarding Lucilla's abilities. It was good. I was surprised with and enjoyed some events regarding Zeus.
STORY BRIEF:
Lucilla comes from a long line of witches, but she's incompetent as a witch. So she gives up any attempt at magic and works as a matchmaker. Her clients are paranormals, for example: succubus, werewolf, djinn, and selkie. Jager is a Titan, a deposed god, who used to be in charge until his son Zeus overthrew him. Jager wants to date Lucilla, but she insists he date her clients first. Meanwhile someone is planning to overthrow the Witches Council. The Council's main job is to oversee all paranormals to make sure they stay secret from humans.
DATA:
Story length: 68 pages. Swearing language: moderate. Sexual language: mild. Number of sex scenes: 2. Total number of sex scene pages: 5. Setting: current day Sleepy Hollow Woods (a town). Copyright: 2009. Genre: fantasy and paranormal romance.
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4 stars for CAROLINA WOLF by Sela Carsen.
REVIEWER'S OPINION:
This was nice, fun, and enjoyable.
STORY BRIEF:
Debra is a witch with just a teensy amount of witchcraft power. She is the town librarian. The Mayor wants to date her, but she refuses. Maddox is a wolf shape shifter and works as wildlife manager in the nearby forest. Maddox and Debra are drawn to each other. Debra is attacked by a creature, and Maddox saves her but is injured. She helps heal him. The creature wants Debra's book of powers and continues to be a threat.
DATA:
Story length: 68 pages. Swearing language: moderate, including religious swear words. Sexual language: strong. Number of sex scenes: 1. Total number of sex scene pages: 10. Setting: current day Culford, S. Carolina. Copyright: 2009. Genre: fantasy and paranormal romance.
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2 stars for THE GHOST SHRINK, THE ACCIDENTAL GIGOLO & THE POLTERGEIST ACCOUNTANT by Vivi Andrews.
REVIEWER'S OPINION:
Lucy blushes a lot, blunders a lot, and is not very smart. I didn't enjoy the story much because I was annoyed with her thinking and actions.
When Jake (a private investigator) first arrived, Lucy kept thinking he was a gigolo and was hoping to get some action which annoyed me. The visiting ghosts were trying to be sexy, but it was kind of pathetic. The Jake parts were good.
STORY BRIEF:
Lucy is a medium, a post-life therapist. Recently departed ghosts visit her. She helps them work through their issues and move on to the next plane. Lucy is frustrated sexually so most of the ghosts who visit her are similar. They are businessmen who now as ghosts do a strip tease and try to entice her sexually. Elliot was an accountant who was recently murdered. Jake visits Lucy and stays with her until Elliot's ghost arrives. He wants to ask Elliot who killed him. Elliot the ghost wants Lucy for himself and sees Jake as competition, so Elliot causes trouble for Jake.
DATA:
Story length: 63 pages. Swearing language: strong, including religious swear words. Sexual language: none. Number of sex scenes: 2. Total number of sex scene pages: 5. Setting: current day unknown town. Copyright: 2009. Genre: fantasy romance.
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2 stars for WITCHES ANONYMOUS by Misty Evans.
There were several interesting characters, but I needed to know more about them. Also, the ending was unfinished.
STORY BRIEF:
This is told in first person by Amy, a witch. She used to be a devil-worshipping witch and had lots of sex with Lucifer. She stopped her relationship with him after she saw him having sex with her sister Emilia. Now Amy no longer practices witchcraft and attends Witches Anonymous meetings to stay that way. She meets Adam, a firefighter, and they are attracted to each other. Lucifer keeps interfering. He wants her back. Gabriel, an angel, is Lucifer's enemy. Gabriel asks Amy to do something for him.
REVIEWER'S OPINION:
I just couldn't get into it. The plot was ok, but the characters weren't developed enough. I think the story needed to be much longer. I don't normally require back stories on all characters, but in this case I wanted to know more about Amy, Adam, Emilia, Lucifer, Gabriel, Liddy and Marcia. They had interesting parts to play, but I didn't know their motivations or back stories. So, the result was a story that felt superficial, incomplete, and not enough depth. I was intrigued that Lucifer loved Amy so much and did some interesting things for her. I was bothered that the author never explained why Lucifer slept with Emilia. I was unhappy with what I felt was an unfinished ending, wondering about Lucifer and Amy. I also wondered about why Amy was moving forward in a relationship with Adam.
At the end of the story, I felt like "wait a minute, there's more going on here. It's not done."
CAUTION SPOILER:
Amy didn't stand up to her sister Emilia and allowed Emilia access to Amy's home. As a result, Emilia stole Amy's spell book, which had a spell that could do serious harm to Amy. I was annoyed at Amy's stupidity in not safeguarding the book and trusting her dangerous sister when she shouldn't have.
DATA:
Story length: 63 pages. Swearing language: mild. Sexual language: none. Sex scenes: none. Setting: current day Eden (a town). Copyright: 2009. Genre: fantasy romance.
