Customer Reviews

Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble, a Paranormal Romance (Jolie Wilkins Series, Book #1)

5 star:		(187)
4 star:		(54)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(21)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

This was a great story! It contains everything a reader wants romance, suspense, action, adventure, a variety of solid characters and humor. While the story would make me laugh there were times when I would have unshed tears. The variety of characters make it really exciting since you will see witches, warlocks, werewolfs, vampires, fairies and even ghosts.

Jolie starts out as a normal everyday girl who realizes she is a witch when she is hired by Rand, a very handsome Warlock; to discover the murder of a now ghost. Jolie did not realize how much her life would change once she met Rand. Jolie's character evolves into a more mature powerful person or in this case witch. Throughout her journey Jolie has to leave family and her country behind, have a small fling with a handsome and dark werewolf only to realize that she has very strong feelings for Rand, that could even be love. However Jolie is not the only one struggling with their feelings, Rand has to fight against his for fear or ruining anything and in this process they both make mistakes.

There is much more to this story than Rand and Jolie's relationship which is what makes it the perfect blend between PNR and Urban Fantasy. If you like Lynsay Sands, Gena Showalker, Jeaniene Frost, Jennifer Armintrout then you will definitely love H.P. Mallory and the adventures of Jolie.

I don't understand how so many people loved this book. I couldn't finish it. I kept trying, but at 75% I just lost it. I liked To Kill A Warlock: Dulcie O'Neil Series, and I kept thinking this one would get things going.

Didn't happen. I skimmed the rest.

The book starts off fairly well. Jolie Wilkins runs a store to exploit the gullible... er I mean tell people their futures. See actually has visions, so she's more then a simple charlatan. The beginning is filled with promise. Jolie runs her business and even employs her best friend, Christa, as her assistant. The early focus on the relationship between Jolie and Christa is well done. Shades of jealousy and insecurity add color to a standard friendship.

Enter Rand. Rand is a Warlock who will change Jolie's world. Sadly, not for the better from a reader perspective. The sad part is that Rand is the most likable character in the book. His only major flaw (it's a doozy) is that he has no problem with casual mind control. Stripping a person of free will is meaningless to him, and he doesn't seem concerned with the consequences of his actions. Mere humans are there to serve him. For example: He mind controls Christa because he finds her advances irritating. What happened to being honest?

Early in the novel, I enjoyed how vampires were presented as creepy villains as compared to the witches and warlocks. Sadly, the author gets into poor world building. Vampires are inexplicably immune to the magic of a witch or warlock. This seems more about submission fantasies then any actual reason. This is compounded by the "heroine's" immersion-breaking lust for a vampire who imprisons and beats her. Yes, he actually slams her into a wall and later choke-slams her into a tree. Yay anti-feminism!

Jolie is perhaps the weakest part of the entire work. She is pathetic. She's neither moral or ethical (she's largely unconcerned with such things). She's not strong of body, mind or soul. Jolie can't fight worth a darn. Fine, not all heroes need to. Jolie isn't very bright. She can't solve problems with wit or panache. Her idea of problem solving is either wait-to-be-rescued or get-lucky. She's a coward who never stands up to evil. She'd rather help evil people then risk herself or her friends. Her only redeeming quality is that she's not promiscuous even though she has a randy mind. Jolie's main character feature is that she can resurrect long deceased folks. This is what makes her a pawn to be fought over.

The book really starts to lose cohesion when the obligatory abduction happens. Capturing your characters is difficult for talented authors. The problem is that it's boring. Escapes are interesting, but the part where the character is captured is dull. This book is no exception and could serve as an example of what not to do.

I gave up because I no longer cared what happened to the characters. The ending sucks (to be blunt). I don't even understand how this is classed as paranormal romance. Contemporary fantasy sure. There's no romance though. No Love. No sex. No happy...

Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble is a super fun read that remained with me well after that last page. The heroine, Jolie, is a character every woman can relate to, a character attempting to understand herself and her powers. This book is full of action and suspense that will keep you turning the pages. Attractive heroes and even a love triangle are what make this book more emotional than most and give it a flavor of romance. There are a variety of paranormal characters for every reader's taste. Excellent book for Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance readers.

I enjoyed reading this book, and plan on reading the sequel, but I must say that it was NOT what I expected. Looking at the cover art, I was expecting a very light, frivolous paranormal humor/romance/fantasy story, the kind that would make me chuckle or even laugh out loud. This wasn't that way at all. The storyline was very good, and the characters were well-rounded, but there really wasn't a lot of 'funny' in it. There was some humor, and a few places where the situations the characters got themselves into were humorous. It's probably just me, and the old adage to not judge a book by its cover should have come into play. As I said, an enjoyable story, but don't look for it to be the type of story to make you laugh right out loud. The subtitle, A Paranormal Romance' is really true - the book was a light romance with a good dose of paranormal thrown in.

review
A very entertaining story. I enjoyed reading about the characters and about the complex world of magic the author created.

Jolie Wilkins leads a pretty normal life. That is right until the day sexy warlock Rand Balfour (a male witch) comes into her life. He needs her help to solve a crime and seems to know more about Jolie and her abilities than she does. She is attracted to him and he also seems to feel something for her. Jolie agrees to help Rand but doesn't know that this decision will change her life completly.
It turns out that Jolie is a witch herself with the unique talent to bring back the dead. Because of her skill many people are interested in Jolie. Rand wants a normal life for her but when the witch Bella decides that she wants Jolie he sees no other chance but to take under his protection.
What started as an exciting discovery for Jolie develops into a serious fight for her life. In the end Jolie needs to trust in her own power if she wants to survive.

I don't know if this book is Urban Fantasy ot Paranormal Romance but what I know is that I enjoyed reading it. The story is very entertaining and at the beginning light-hearted. I enjoyed the change to a more darker story throughout the book and liked that the characters got time to develop. Jolie is a great heroine and how she handled being a witch was believable. I enjoyed seeing how she got stronger and stronger. Her relationship with Rand is complicated and I want to know how it will continue. I guess Rand still has still some secrets to share with her.
The world of witches, vampires, werewolfes and faires is a fascinating and complex one. It's not so easy to say who's on who's side and I hope to learn more about the magical world in the next book of the series.
Besides Jolie and Rand I especially enjoyed reading about the mysterious vampire Sinjin. I want to know if he really is one of the good guys and how Jolie will deal with him.

cover
The cover is fun and cool however I don't think that it fits the book perfectly.

final appraisal
I had a lot of fun while reading "Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble" and enjoyed that the book was easy to read, that the characters were great and that the story never bored me. The book made me excited to read what happens next in Jolie and Rand's life and the fight against Bella.

Jolie Wilkins had been content with her little life, running a shop in L.A. with her best friend Christa and using her abilities to read auras and glimpse futures to provide the business that supported them both. Then she saw the ghost - her first, actually, and soon after her life didn't resemble anything she recognized.

That wasn't the ghost's fault, at least not directly. It was more the influence of one ultra-sexy warlock Rand Balfour, who sent the ghost to Jolie as a test of her powers. And then told her she was a witch. A powerful one. She didn't believe it, of course, but when she brought the ghost back from the dead - purely by accident, really - she knew her life was forever changed. And she had Rand to thank, so to speak, for it.

Unfortunately, Jolie's gift paints a big target on her back and soon a power hungry witch of age and skill tries to coerce Jolie into her service as she gathers forces to lead a charge to become Queen of the Underworld, and only Rand stands between the powerful Bella and the timid Jolie. She has to rely on the warlock to teach her, employ her to keep her safe, and to move her from Bella's territory to his own in England. And while her previously neat little life spins wildly out of control and her attraction to Rand grows into heated intensity, Jolie struggles to get a handle on the use of her powers, as they may be the only thing that will save her from the myriad of things that go bump in the night...creatures all who seem to be out to use her as a pawn in a deadly game of war and supremacy.

Despite my appreciation for the concept of this story and the many positive reviews on several different sites, I was horribly disappointed in this book. It plucked at so many of my reading anathemas that I could have danced to the cacophony of dislikes. The heroine - and I use the term loosely - is an insipid, immature, shallow chit who cares more about how hot a guy is...even as he's holding her prisoner after she's vein-raped by a monster...than about character. She's got zero self esteem and her backbone is roughly the consistency of cold porridge. And she consistently puts herself into dangerous situations out of ignorance, pride, vanity, or idiocy. Then wonders how she could have been so stupid. Ugh.

The hero, Rand, wasn't as offensive, but his constant waffling over the boundaries he needs to maintain because he's Jolie's employer was the cornerstone of his character development and that got old even before he explained them. He wants her so very much but he won't take her - yadda, yadda, yadda. Of course, his moral fortitude doesn't preclude him acting like a jealous wanker when Jolie dates a werewolf. Still, at least he maintained an appearance of maturity.

Unlike Jolie, who while dating Trent (the werewolf), practically has a nervous breakdown and gets jealous to the point of hyperventilation of her own best friend during a double date because her BFF is SO gorgeous and Trent is nice to her, so of course that means he's more into Christa than he is Jolie. Um...yeah...on the second date. And I feel compelled to mention that nearly all the male characters, including the warlock, the werewolf, a vampire, and a fairy King kept telling Jolie what a gorgeous creature she was and how they all wanted to bed her - even the ones who wanted to eat her afterward. This was not only extremely annoying in its own right, but it kept me wondering why Jolie kept comparing herself so unfavorably with Christa throughout the book.

Then again, why her BFF is included as a secondary character to begin with boggled my mind, as rarely have I read as vapid and useless a character appendage as Christa. So no, with maybe the exception of Sinjin, the characters didn't work for me at all.

Neither, unfortunately, did the plot. It would have, I think, had the subplot about the brewing conflict between Bella and Rand and the growing alliances of both been a larger part of the story. But it remained a subplot, and instead over sixty percent of the book focused on Jolie's emotionally immature actions and reactions to the changes in her life while not actually expounding on those changes.

Even after she moves to England and starts to train her magic we see her life through chapter-long vignettes of social dates and angsty confrontations between her and Rand; the same angsty confrontations again and again about whether they will or won't have sex and what it would or wouldn't mean. And the transitions between those vignettes are choppy and lack explanation and definition. One chapter she dates Trent. Another she double dates with him and Christa and another werewolf. There's a chapter in which she meets other werewolves who've fled Bella and moved to England. Then Trent dumps her - which we're told of after the fact while Jolie and Christa are getting ready for girls night to tie one on. It was all so disjointed and segmented it didn't read like a smoothly developing narrative building towards a satisfying conclusion at all.

There's more than one reason for that, too. It didn't actually HAVE a conclusion. No, it just cut off after a conflict that was ancillary to the main conflict of the impending war subplot. I would call it a cliffhanger...but the preceding action hadn't climbed nearly so high as to warrant an actual cliff. Perhaps a hill-hanger. Ant hill. And normally I loathe cliffhangers. This one didn't bother me so much (I was sorta just glad it was over), though it did further cap my disappointment.

To be honest, I did find the last third of the book more palatable than the first two-thirds. The narrative smoothed out quite a bit and the story started to delve a little more deeply into the characters actions as they were happening instead of that choppy vignette style. And the plot threads were more centrally focused around Bella's antics and nastiness instead of Jolie's romance angst. There were even some relatively pleasant surprises sprinkled here and there. It was too little too late for me, and Jolie wasn't redeemed nearly enough for my tastes to really improve my overall opinion, despite her evidence-bereft proclamation to the contrary, but at least I stopped wanting to shatter my Kindle against a wall.

I know this book has achieved quite a lot of popularity and garnered much praise, but there were just too many of my personal dislikes running rampant in this one. These things happen. I wish H.P. Mallory all the luck in the world with her series and hope future books continue to entertain. For me, though, there was too little payoff for the investment of time and money and too little about the story that was even tolerable. I also want to caution those who are expecting a paranormal romance, as it claims to be on the cover, because that is not the impression I got as I was reading, nor was it how it seemed upon completion. There may be a romantic resolution for Jolie and Rand one day, but that day was not seen in this book.

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Reviewed for One Good Book Deserves Another.

Fanfiction has a term Mary Sue for stories that are obviously the author putting herself in as the lead female.

This reminds me of those. No woman is desired by every male who meets her. That gets old real quick, especially when other parts of the story are working.

I find myself saddened by the lack of editing as well. Can someone tell this person that site and sight have two different meanings. And when you see someone or something it is sight not site.

Please at least read a grammar book.

I don't understand how so many reviewers think this is a great romance. The warlock and witch get the hots for each other pretty early on in the book. He doesn't want to ruin their working relationship; she keeps writhing around on him anyway. Then she decides to get over him by dating a werewolf. She leads him on, then decides she doesn't want to have sex with him because she doesn't love him. He dumps her, she thinks he's a bastard, and she's still pining for the warlock. Then she gets all kinds of sexual urges for a vampire. And a fairy king. She doesn't act on them because she loves the warlock, but she sure doesn't seem to put up much of a fight. Then the warlock finally declares his love and . . . the end.

Seriously, people, how is that romantic? I get the feeling that the author isn't sure which otherworldly creature the witch should have sex with, so she just leads them all on without following through with any of them.

First, let me say that I never actually write reviews. This book was so hard to like. I didn't like nor could I relate to ANY of the characters. Jolie was infuriating and so frustrating, not to mention really unlikeable. She made very bad decisions and everybody suffered for them. Christa was annoying and not a very good friend, yet Jolie was completely loyal to her. She was pretty superfluous to the story. The idea that Rand wouldn't have sex with her or get involved because they worked together was absurd and got old real quick. I can come up with no redeeming qualities and I struggled to finish in hopes that it would get better. I am on page 285 of 294 and so far no go.

More than worth the $ .99 for sure! This is a very enjoyable story that kept me turning pages rapidly. Already started Book 2 and want to know when Book 3 is coming.....