Customer Reviews

The Dark Desires of the Druids I: Murder and Magick

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

STORY BRIEF:
Sir John Corwin preaches about the evils of magickers (witches). He leads the movement for torturing and killing them. Beckett is one of his followers and kills people for him. Corwin doesn't know that Beckett is secretly a magicker.

Raven is one of the most powerful magickers. She is engaged to marry Gareth, another powerful magicker. They plan to have powerfully magick children to be leaders of their kind. But Raven is having an affair with Malcolm. They can't resist their passion and lust for each other. They are in love. He wants to marry her. Malcolm is a regular human and does not know that she is a magicker. The main conflict through the story is Raven being with Malcolm but telling him this cannot last. She must marry Gareth. She cares for Gareth but has no lust for him. The secondary story is someone killing magickers and others. The magickers are trying to solve the mystery. Malcolm helps.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
I managed to read the whole thing, but I didn't enjoy it. I wanted it to be over. I'm not sure I can explain what was wrong, probably the following. The characters weren't developed. No interesting personalities. Not enough development of the bad guys. Why and how murders were being committed wasn't shown very well. In the beginning, Corwin told Beckett he was searching for a powerful magick book. But nothing happened regarding that. There were several sex scenes that were somewhat hot, but not a reason to get the book.

DATA:
Story length: 291 pages (double spaced). Swearing language: mild, including religious swear words. Sexual language: strong. Number of sex scenes: 7. Estimated number of sex scene pages: 22. Setting: 1882 England. Copyright: 2008. Genre: erotic fantasy romance.

I just finished reading the next story on my TBR pile, and I'm very pleased. "The Dark Desires of the Druids: The Tryst" by Isabel Roman is the prequel to Murder and Magic. Exactly what the title implies, the story is a steamy little rendezvous between Malcolm and Raven that is sure to have you running back for more. It's a great thing that this is part of a series. Otherwise, reading this delightfully erotic short story would be frustrating because it's so short.

If this prequel is any indication of the entertainment one can expect from the novels, look forward to an entertaining tale of naughty, magical Victorians.

"The Dark Desires of the Druids: The Tryst"
Prequel to Dark Desires of the Druids I: Murder & Magick
by Isabel Roman

* Publish Date: 2008-12-06
* ISBN: 978-1-60777-120-3

Get the story at [...]

I'll admit, this book is a bit more racy than I'm used to, although I found the more exciting scenes to be very well written and quite descriptive.

The storyline, however, is quite well thought-out, and I was so interested in the characters I was sad when the story ended (although there are several more installments in this series!)

The story is of a Druid Master,and her family and followers, who have survived through a "cleansing" of sorts to Victorian times, trying to maintain their right to exist against a man - with his own followers - who quite self-righteously believes that all Magickers are evil, abominations against his beliefs, and should therefore be irradicated. And even still, against this evil the Magickers are unwilling to take his life, believing that to be only in the last possible resort - that even someone so reprehensible in his hate has some right to exist. Can they coexist? Will he succeed in gaining political control and legalizing the extermination of these Magickers?

Overall I was quite impressed with the quality of the writing compared to some other "romance" novels I've read. I'm almost through with the second story in the series, and can't wait to finish the third.

In short, I was MOST satisfied, both with the expected racy scenes AND with the story, plotline, and characters. I felt genuine affection toward the Magicker family, and genuine distaste for the "bad guys". I'll probably read this book again (maybe a few scenes more than others. ;) )