Customer Reviews

Dime Store Magic (Women of the Otherworld 3)

5 star:		(55)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Kelley Armstrong's "Dime Store Magic" is the third novel in the "Women of the Otherworld" series. Like the preceding books, this one stands on its own and it is not necessary to read the other two to understand or to become involved in this one. I am/was so enamored of the original werewolf novels, and their heroine Elena Michaels, that I had my doubts about whether or not I would enjoy this new book starring, not lycanthropes, but witches. However, I quickly became absorbed in the story, and Ms. Armstrong's narrative is, as always, excellent and filled with her dark humor. Therefore I am able to recommend "Dime Store Magic" without hesitation.

Twenty-three year-old Paige Winterbourne, recently orphaned, has inherited her mother's role as Leader of the elite American Coven of Witches. Paige, is not anywhere near as experienced in witchcraft and lore as her deceased mother, or as some of the elderly and very conservative witches in her Coven. She does, however, have a vision for the future - something sorely lacking now and very necessary. Paige has long been known for her rebellious antics and doesn't have much credibility with her fellow witches. In fact, many of them feel that the younger woman is not fit to lead. However, Paige's goal is an important one - to better her people and bring them into the 21st century - not to hide from the world, as the paranoid Coven Elders, little old ladies with blue rinses on their hair and polyester pants, wish to do. She strives to find hidden grimoires filled with ancient, stronger spells to help witches worldwide regain their rightful power in the supernatural world. Over the years, witches practicing "white magic," for the betterment of the human and supernatural races, have lost power and status to Sorcerer Cabals - kind of like the Mafia, peopled by males, (sorcerers), who make black magic for profit. Paige wants to regain that power for the purpose of doing good.

Nine months earlier, Paige's mother was murdered along with another witch who had an adolescent daughter, Savannah Levine. This precocious young women was left in Paige's care to train and to raise to adulthood. Savannah has supernatural powers far exceeding her age, and her potential for making magic is beyond what most witches can ever expect to achieve. Part of Paige's responsibility is to make sure Savannah's power is used appropriately. The powerful sorcerer Kristof Nash, heir to the Nash Cabal, is Savannah's father and wants custody of his daughter whom he has totally ignored heretofore. Obviously Nash recognizes the potential for evil in his daughter's powers and wants to use her for his own dark purposes. Paige is well aware that Kristoff dabbles in the black arts and would do anything in order to capture Savannah and control her, including murder. Lucas Cortez, a young and handsome sorcerer, heir to the most powerful Cortex Cabal and an attorney also, comes to Paige's rescue. This is completely unheard of, as witches and sorcerers have always been enemies. Yet, the two, witch and sorcerer, make miraculous magic together.

Once again Kelley Armstrong succeeds in dazzling her readers with her outstanding, well-crafted plot and numerous new characters - as well as bringing back some old friends, (and foes), from former novels. Her portrayal of the sometimes troubled relationship between Paige, herself a young woman without too much life experience, and adolescent Suzannah, is extremely realistic and often moving. Paige's frustration with the narrow-minded Coven Elders, and their refusal to leave their old and ineffectual ways behind and move forward for the betterment of all, is described with maturity and sensitivity. The novel is chock full of excitement, adventure and romance. I can't wait to read the next book in the series!

JANA

Dime Store Magic is the third book in the Women of the Otherworld series. At the conclusion of Stolen, Elena, Paige, and the rest of the supernatural interracial council rescued Savannah and destroyed the facility that was kidnapping supernaturals. Savannah had been kidnapped with her mother, Eve. She was murdered shortly after the kidnapping, leaving Savannah alone and at the mercy of Isaac, an evil sorcerer and Leah, a half-demon Volo.

Dime Store Magic begins a year after Stolen. Paige, a coven witch, has custody of Savannah, a 13-year-old angry witch. Paige has her hands full trying to guide and protect Savannah, who is experiencing teen-angst with an unhealthy dose of rage.

Leah, the half-demon Volo has decided to join forces with a Cabal, a high ranking sorcerer who is also CEO of a large corporation. This particular Cabal, Nast, is very powerful and also Savannah's father. The fight for custody is more then a legal matter. Nast wants Savannah for her power and will do anything to acquire her.

Paige finds herself fighting not only Nast, but also everyone else in her life to protect Savannah. Paige's once uncomplicated life becomes a living hell that seems to have no end in sight. To make matters worse, Savannah, at 13, is very immature and full of rage. She is angry about everything and is prone to using her powers in a reckless manner. Consequences are something Savannah does not understand.

Dime Store Magic is a wonderful, fun book to read. The Paige who was introduced in Stolen gains a great deal more depth and is a great heroine. She deals with these betrayals and attacks with a strong moral outrage and strength of character. She is not about to back down and shows her true feisty nature. What makes this book work is Paige's voice. It is unique and interesting. Kelley Armstrong did a wonderful job creating the Women of the Otherworld.

Kelley Armstrong is the author of Bitten and Stolen, the first two books in the Women of the Otherworld series. Industrial Magic, the fourth in the series will be released late in 2004. Be sure to visit Kelley Armstrong's website at www.kelleyarmstrong.com

Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong is the third book in the Women of the Otherworld series. At the conclusion of Stolen, Elena, Paige, and the rest of the supernatural interracial council rescued Savannah and destroyed the facility that was kidnapping supernaturals. Savannah had been kidnapped with her mother, Eve. Eve was murdered shortly after the kidnapping, leaving Savannah alone and at the mercy of Isaac, an evil sorcerer and Leah, a half-demon Volo.

Dime Store Magic begins a year after Stolen. Paige, a coven witch, has custody of Savannah, a 13-year-old angry witch. Paige has her hands full trying to guide and protect Savannah, who is experiencing teen-angst with an unhealthy dose of rage.

Leah, the half-demon Volo has decided to join forces with a Cabal, a high ranking sorcerer who is also CEO of a large corporation. This particular Cabal, Nast is very powerful and also Savannah's father. The fight for custody is more then a legal matter. Nast wants Savannah for her power - and will do anything to acquire her.

Paige finds herself fighting not only Nast, but also everyone else in her life to protect Savannah. Paige's once uncomplicated life becomes a living hell that seems to have no end in sight. To make matters worse, Savannah at 13 is very immature and full of rage. She is angry about everything and is prone to using her powers in a reckless manner. Consequences are something Savannah does not understand.

Dime Store Magic is a wonderful, fun book to read. The Paige introduced in Stolen gains a great deal more depth and is a great heroine. She deals with these betrayals and attacks with a strong moral outrage and strength of character. She is not about to back down and shows her true feisty nature. What makes this book work is Paige's voice. It is unique and interesting. Kelley Armstrong did a wonderful job creating the Women of the Otherworld.

Kelley Armstrong is the author of Bitten and Stolen, the first two books in the Women of the Otherworld series. Dime Store Magic will be available in the US April 27, 2004. Industrial Magic, the fourth in the series will be released on November 2, 2004. Be sure to visit Kelley Armstrong's website, http://www.kelleyarmstrong.com/ for more information on the series.

Paige Winterbourne stumbles her way through this book, assailed on all sides by people who hate her for no good reason. (Most of them, the reader suspects, hate her because she's rude to them. Paige claims repeatedly that she wants to help people, but she Does Have Her Pride, and she Does Not Hesitate To Tell People Off.) The sole exception is Lucas, who remains polite and helpful despite Paige's insults and abuse, until about two-thirds of the way through the book, when she relents and they have sex.

Is this how a heroine is supposed to see the world?

I always read the reviews before buying authors I am not familiar with. I bought the first two books in this series even though there were people who had problems with it. Most of the reviews seemed positive. I ended up liking both books a lot. The characters were interesting, the plot lines involving and the writing good.

I got to this one, and....it was awful. She had switched characters but that was no excuse for making the characters uninteresting and one dimensional. She'd introduce a character that seemed mildly interesting and then just make them do strange things. The villain, a half demon woman, especially seemed to do strange things. I found the idea of the cabals interesting, but not enough to make up a total lack of interesting plot. After two good books, I wonder what went wrong with this one?

So I'm not sure about subsequent books. Do I take a chance or not? And I obviously can't trust the reviews any more since this book had very positive ones.

Not being a lover of witches (or of Paige, from what I'd seen in Stolen), I was not excited about this book. I thought it would be weak, a swift departure from the beauty of Bitten.

I was wrong.

Kelley writes Paige from first person, and if I hadn't read Bitten and Stolen under the first-person perspective of Elena, I wouldn't realize how remarkable the difference was between them. Even her writing style is different when writing Paige, little phrases she uses. I've never seen an author do this as flawlessly as Kelley does.

The story itself is good enough to make me want to continue reading, despite my aforementioned aversion to witches. She fluidly opens us up to a world we were barely introduced to in Stolen, and makes it interesting enough that when DSM was over, I was eager to read the sequel, Industrial Magic (due out in late October).

As earlier reviews have mentioned, I wasn't as impressed with Kelley's later works as I was with Bitten, but DSM is a definate second! My only real complaint was the lack of perceived chemistry between Paige and Lucas (in my opinion). I didn't feel it there with them like I do with Clay and Elena.

A definate must-read for magic lovers, or anyone interested in Kelley's works. She's a definate keeper.

First off, let me say that the cover to this book is quite ridiculous. It has absolutely zero to do with the inside and the cover blurb of 'sexy' is way misleading. You would think this is a cheesy sex romp book but it really only has 3-4 pages, out of 400+, of that material, and it goes along with the story. And whatever witch is on the cover is definitely NOT in this book.

On to the book...

I thought this novel was extremely well paced, exciting, and was a gripping read. I finished it in two sittings quite easily. And what is with people saying Paige has no backbone? Sure she doesnt have the killer instinct and she doesnt like killing, and never has. Whats wrong with that? Sounds believable to me because not everyone has zero conscience and can kill bad guys at will.

I loved Paige and Savanna and all of their little troubles in the book. However, i did not care much for Lucas. He seemed like the perfect guy and everything out of his mouth was flawless and the right thing to say. He sounded like a robot. I also wanted to see Adam show up, and take names, but that was not to be.

The main villainess, Leah, was also pretty scary and had a high intimidation factor, which starts 5 pages into the book. She seemed to be scarier the more she wasnt around because you keep thinking what she is up to next. I also dont think we have seen the last of her...

Over all, i greatly enjoyed this book and plan on picking up every book by Armstrong in the future. Armstrong is way above present Hamilton and the other up and comers like Harrison. Pick up the book. You wont be sorry.

Okay, I admit that this wasn't the best book I've ever read. It got off to a slow start and yes, the main character was a bit annoying. But, she was realistic and well-fleshed. Her actions were well explained (sometimes ad nauseum) as was her inaction.

That said, the second half of the book was MUCH better. Armstrong has hooked me into the lives of the characters and now I can't wait until the next book comes out so I can find out what happens. Her writing style is a bit more serious than I'm accustomed to, but her world is fully realised and easy to believe.

I love Kelley Armstrong's werewolf books. Bitten and Stolen really captured me to the point where I read them both in one sitting. Dimestore Magic was not one of those reads. The heroine, Paige, was REALLY annoying. She doesn't have a backbone or any commen sense. She really lacks the edge and strength that Elena (heroine from Bitten and Stolen) has in abundance. The other characters didn't really impress me that much either. That being said, the book is not terrible. It is just not up to par with Kelley Armstrong's other books. If you haven't read her other books I recommend starting with them.

I agree with some of the other reviewers that it was hard to care about the characters because of a lack of, um, character. Maybe it was because I didn't read the earlier novels, but then I didn't have that problem with Terry Goodkind or Kate Forsyth. It was one of two books I've put down 3/4 of the way through in favor of another, though this one I did pick back up and finish. My opinion of the book improved towards the end, though the sex scenes felt like an afterthought to me, even compared to the reluctant lovers in Kristin Landon's "Hidden Worlds." And halfway through the second chapter I could tell without reading the bio that the writer wasn't from Massachusetts. Even the street names didn't feel "New England." Oh well, I did read the whole thing, but I won't be reading another by this author.