On the surface, Genny's life seems ripple-free right now. Finn, her sexy boss, has stopped pushing for a decision on their relationship. The seductive vampire Malik al-Khan has vanished back into the shadows. And the witches have declared her no longer a threat. But unless Genny can find a way to break the fertility curse afflicting London's fae, she knows this is just the lull before the magical storm. Then a faeling - a teenage girl - is fished out of the River Thames, dead and bound with magic, and Genny is called into investigate. As she digs through the clues, her search takes a sinister and dangerous turn, exposing age-old secrets that might be better left buried. Then another faeling disappears, and Genny finds herself in a race against time to save the faeling and stop the curse from claiming its next victim - herself!
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
'A magical series that makes me want more and more. The books keep on getting better.' BOOK GIRL OF MUR-Y-CASTELL 'I love this series, and I think this might be my favourite so far' 9 out of 10 rating THE BOOK BUNDLE
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
About the Author
Suzanne McLeod has been a cocktail waitress, a dance group promoter and a barmaid. After years in retail management, she started writing. THE SWEET SCENT OF BLOOD and THE COLD KISS OF DEATH are the first two books in the Spellcrackers.com series. She lives with her husband and rescue dogs in Bournemouth.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
fae, witches, vampires and trolls....wonderful mixup of characters,
By
This review is from: The Bitter Seed of Magic. by Suzanne McLeod (Spellcrackers.Com 3) (Paperback)
Really, I'm afraid I'm not going to do the book justice. I never really analyze books, characterization and plot points, etc. Frankly, I wouldn't know the first thing about this type of reviewing. I do know whether I like a book or not though. Mainly I focus on whether I enjoyed reading the book, if the dialogue was good, great or lame and how the story flows....
for me, this means The Bitter Seed of Magic scored high on all three points. The dialogue was great, the enjoyment factor was high and the book flowed from beginning to end, from the first page to the last. Genny Taylor has come to enjoy a sort of peaceful existence after the events of the last two books - She's not under any immediate threats, the vampires are leaving her alone, the witches are tolerating her, and the fae are holding back on pushing their courting of her. But this is just the eye of the storm, because really, everything has just been on hold. Being called in to look at a body, checking for spells seems to be the catalyst for a series of events that shatter Genny's world and even changes what she thought she knew about herself. Previously, Genny had found out that the fae were under a curse - no fae would be fertile and they all expected Genny to be able to crack the curse. Many of the fae expect her to be able to break the curse by bearing children with them, or doing the nasty with them. Of course Genny doesn't want to be forced to bear any children with just anyone (or anyfae). But at the beginning, things are calm, until the body is discovered. Turns out this isn't the first body, and they've all been faelings. Genny is now being pressured in a huge way to find out what's going on, at the same time the same people seem to be going against her finding out, the fertility curse becomes important again to all, and things begin to spiral out of control. There were many twists in this book. It was great. Just when I thought I knew what was happening, nope - that wasn't it. It's fun being taken by surprise with who's behind the deeds and who's plotting against whom. I also love the way the different characters speak to each other. Ms McLeod is able to have (for instance) Genny and Malik have a conversation with Genny's more modern speech and Malik's more formal speech with out it feeling forced and awkward. Seems like this should be an obvious skill for writers, but it doesn't always work out for some.... Speaking of characters; I love a good mixup of character types. And the Spellcrackers.com series has lots of fun characters....dryads, brownies, goblins (might be some of my favorites, with their love of the shiny bling), witches, ghosts, vampires, satyrs, and more. I also love the way they are described under their glamour - or their human guises. The attention to detail without being overwhelming, the many varied appearances - I am consistantly amazed at the creativity of writers like Suzanne McLeod. sometimes you get to read a story that calls itself paranormal and yet has very little interactions with different species. Suzanne's novels are all about all the different appearances and species, and behaviours. Even though one of the main points of the plot was fertility, or the fertility curse- with all the accompanying feelings and desires that go with fertility - I didn't feel like I was getting ambushed with the "hawt and heavy" - y'know, the heaving breasts, and turgid...well y'know. There were some steamy situations and some hot-blooded wants, but it never felt like that was the complete purpose of the book. The parts were there, the situations were happening - but it wasn't obsessively so; there wasn't a time when I felt like rolling my eyes and saying "oh please". Believe me, with some books that's all I felt like doing. I usually don't finish reading them. There was a good blend and balance of story, subplots and all those....y'know - feelings. :) Fun characters, good plots, fun dialogue, some steam and lots of humor to go along with the suspense and mystery. What else could I ask for in a novel? Wonderful! If you've already read the first two in the Spellcrackers.com series, you're going to enjoy this third book. If you haven't read any of them yet, What are you waiting for?
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The series reaches a crescendo!,
By
This review is from: The Bitter Seed of Magic (Spellcrackers.Com 3) (Kindle Edition)
Life is never easy when the fate of London fae society rests in your womb . . . it has been months since sidhe Genny learnt that her ability to conceive would unlock an ages-old infertility curse. Since then she's had dryads and kelpies on her dance card and some less-than-subtle advances on her person.
Genny is busy looking for an alternative curse-breaker that doesn't involve a bun in her oven. Meanwhile, a dead girl turns up in the river Thames and Genny is dragged into a police investigation that sees her butting heads with DI Helen Crane (again). Matters are made more awkward when Helen's ex-husband, Genny's current boss and almost-kinda-boyfriend, Finn, wants to solidify their courtship. Not to mention the mysterious and enigmatic head-honcho vampire, Malik Al Khan, and all the delicious problems he entails . . . `The Bitter Seed of Magic' is the third book in Suzanne McLeod's brilliant urban fantasy series, `Spellcrackers.com'. I was beginning to run out of reader-steam after second book `The Cold Kiss of Death'. I was mostly disgruntled with the lack of romantic-development in Genny's life, despite the central plot of her baby-making curse-breaker indicating that love interests should factor in heavily . . . so it was with slight trepidation that I went into `Bitter Seed', but I came away a reborn-devotee of McLeod's fascinating series. In this book, Genny really can't hide from her destined curse-breaking baby-making any more. London fae are getting impatient, orderly courtship cues are being formed and Genny is rudely forced into acknowledging her fertile-role in the whole thing. Whereas in previous books the baby-making curse has wrecked Genny, forcing her to question Finn's attraction to her and run for her life from fae-rapists, in `Bitter Seed' she isn't so much reacting as she is acting. She is actually taking matters into her own hands and getting to the bottom of her fate. Yes! This is what I wanted from our girl Genny! She is somewhat pushed into action by a trip to `Disney Heaven' and a psychotic fae-child, but still - it's nice to see our heroine sit up and take control of her fate. This book also marks a new transition in Genny's love life. Finn is getting antsy and clearly wants to start something with Genny . . . but she is still struggling with her attraction to the devilishly delicious vampire, Malik Al Khan. I loved the development of Genny's romances in this book - especially with Malik. We learn a bit more about him and what he has done to keep Genny safe, and I've got to say - he's now a real contender for Genny's affections. Finn is still a question-mark for me, only because he has so much to gain from getting Genny pregnant . . . but McLeod also drops a few bombshells where he's concerned, and I was thankful that so much of the book was spent developing his character in relation to Genny. I also loved `Bitter Seed' for concentrating more on Genny's adversary, DI Helen Crane. She's such a fantastic witch-bitch; both for being Finn's (somewhat) jealous ex, but as McLeod demonstrates in this third book, Helen has many reasons to make Genny her `whipping girl'. I loved the femme-fatale tension between Helen and Genny, and I hope we haven't seen the last of Scotland Yard's finest. One thing I always love about `Spellcrackers.com' is McLeod's London setting. She does often go for the obvious scene-setter - like using the River Thames as the final resting place of a dead girl. But she paints the London picture so well that I absolutely fall into the scene. I love the city, and McLeod's descriptions leave me yearning to revisit London town (even if her vision is scarily noir at times). I wasn't overly thrilled with past `Spellcrackers.com' instalment . . . but `Bitter Seed of Magic' is a real crescendo in the series. There's curses to be broken, babies to make, Jack Sparrow-impersonators and a love triangle that gets heated up a notch. I can't wait for the 2012 release of `Shifting Price of Prey'!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent continuation of a great series,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Bitter Seed of Magic. by Suzanne McLeod (Spellcrackers.Com 3) (Paperback)
This is the third book in the Spellcrackers.com urban fantasy series. Our MC is Ginny, a full-blooded sidhe fae who has no magic of her own, but is capable of cracking (breaking) other peoples magic.
There is a major continuation here from events in the previous books, but essentially, a fertility curse has been placed on the fae, and they have been unable to conceive any full-blooded fae children for a while. They are able to have faelings (half fae/half human). Ginny has been viewed as the hope of the fae race, and if she can conceive and carry a child to term, it is believed that the curse will be broken. There are some pretty funny moments of everyone courting Ginny, but she is really not interested in getting pregnant to break the curse. Also, in this story, the faelings have started dying of mysterious circumstances, and Ginny is trying to help solve the case. Not to give anything away, but the central mystery turns out to be tightly intertwined with the curse and Ginny's hidden family tree. The major things that I like about this series are that Ginny is not a powerful, kick-butt heroine, although she does have certain talents. And Suzanne McLeod has done some great world-building here, with the different races and their primary characteristics. And there are also some powerful sexy love interests!
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