Customer Reviews

Finding Your Mojo

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

 

 

After her father was murdered and she and her mother were ushered into Witness Protection, Lorey has always longed to reconnect with her lost teen lover, Zane Riley. Now an adult, and answering to the name Gloria, she has just taken over a law practice in the small Louisiana town of Mojo. Imagine her shock when her law clerk suddenly dies after she handles a voodoo doll, and she is introduced to the new police chief, none other than Zane. The quirky town of Mojo is filled with folks who believe in voodoo and consult tarot cards. Gloria finds herself falling for Zane all over, particularly when she learns what drove him to pursue a career in law enforcement. When she learns that the culprit behind her father's murder is getting a new trial, it becomes imperative to bring Gloria and her mother in, but mom left WITSEC years earlier and she has no idea how to locate her. Besides, a budding romance with her first love is in full bloom. When Zane discovers her true identity, will it be the end of their new beginning?

Bond has a great ability of combining humor, intrigue and romance to tell a refreshing story. This is the second in a 2-book series (In Deep Voodoo), and readers who have not read the first might be a little confused at times; since I read them out of order, I am looking forward to getting the first one. The story is fun, engaging, and has some great dialogue.

Over a dozen years ago Lorey Lawson had been a normal teenager living a normal life in Mojo, Louisiana. It all changed one night when a hitman broke into the house and killed her father in cold blood. The assassin told them that if Maggie (Lorey's mother) testified in a racketeering and money laundering case against Bernard Riaz, someone would return to finish the job. Maggie and Lorey disappeared into the WITSEC program.

Gloria Dalton arrives in Mojo to open her attorney's office. The previous attorney is now deceased and Mojo is happy to receive a new lawyer in the area. Gloria meets Marie Gaston, acting as the Welcome Wagon, and hardly has time to say a thank you before a vehicle comes crashing through the glass window.

Gloria is shaken when she learns that her new paralegal, Steven Chasen, died en route to the hospital. She is more unnerved to find that the new police chief is Zane Riley, the boyfriend she had when she had to disappear all those years ago. Zane changed during Gloria's time away. Zane has hardened to the world and deals only with facts. Gloria shows him a voodoo doll that had arrived earlier, dressed just like Steven, but Zane blows it off since he does not believe in voodoo.

But more dolls appear, followed by dead bodies, and Gloria seems to always be around when someone dies. Zane believes Gloria a suspect, no matter how attracted he is to her. Gloria believes that Riaz's thugs have found her again.

**** Author Stephanie Bond takes her readers back to Mojo, Louisiana, for another visit with the colorful locals. Mystery, romance, comedy, and a bit of suspense blends together to create a delightful story that will chase boredom out of your life, at least temporarily. ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

This was a book I had an incredibly hard time getting through. Usually I can finish a book in like 1.5-2 days, but this took me about 5 days. It was just chock full of problems and not all that interesting. I was really tempted to just stop reading and chuck it back on my bookshelf.

There were a number of critical problems in this book, and right off the bat, I had issues. The book ties in with Bond's previous novel "In Deep Voodoo" in that it takes place in the same town, has common characters, and some minor plot tie-ins. I love connected books; they are some of my favorite's to read. But I hadn't read the 1st book in the series when I started this one, and it ended up being a problem. Bond constantly references the previous story, but with glancing mentions about events. She never bothers to do a couple paragraph summary of the plot of that book, which makes things extremely confusing. You keep hearing about this and that happening and wondering "what are you talking about?" It really took away from the readability of the story when you're left in the dark about things. Bond made the mistake in assuming that anyone reading this book read the previous one. Connected books are great, but they also need to be able to stand solidly on their own. All she had to do was summarize in a couple paragraphs and all would have been fine. Without those paragraphs, the story just...suffers.

A bigger issue for me with the book, though, was the fact that Bond focused utterly and completely on the Gloria POV. The whole entire story is solely focused on Gloria, her thoughts, actions, etc. She never once goes into Zane's perspective. It left the story very one-sided with the reader unable to relate to Zane. It made it seem like he was just some guy, rather than the hero of the story. As a reader, I really wanted his perspective, but it never came and it made the romance and story overall a bit flat and dull. Why Bond chose to go this route, I don't know. I can't think of another romance book I've read that had only 1 POV.

Aside from those 2 things, there were smaller issues. There were way too many extraneous characters and I kept forgetting who was who. I didn't believe some of the Witness Protection aspects; they just didn't work for me. The storyline goes every which way with like a million different things happening that just cluttered up the story. And the ending was really trite.

All in all, just a thoroughly lackluster book that wasn't in the least worth reading. But if you should want to give it a try, make sure to read the other book in the series first.

I enjoyed this book however, I do not think it was as good as In Deep Voodoo. At the end of that book the author promised a follow up book, and I don't think this was as good of a book as she made it sound. I like the characters though and would like if this were a series of more than 2 books.

I liked this book and recently recommended Bond to another person. I do think you need to read the first book before reading Finding Your Mojo. It had some quirky humor in it - if you like Nancy Martin or Janet Evanovich then it may be worth your time to check out this author.

Loved the purple hair.

I hope Ms. Bond continues to write about the little town of Mojo. There seem to be many people around there with secrets, and this heroine had one
of the hardest to live with, plus her father was dead and she had no idea where her mother was. I loved the teasing romance with Zane, and his determination to find out what her secrets were. I don't want to say too much and give away the story, but I am looking forward to a sequel, and just ordered the first one in this series, that I wish I'd read first!

2.5 stars. But don't get me wrong, competence shouldn't be taken for granted either. Diving into Finding your Mojo-I found the first few chapters intriguing and humorous...but then an army of characters are paraded in front of you-so many, in fact, that your brain start to short circuit and you just say the heck with it and just stop trying to keep track of who is who. Our main character Gloria Dalton who also have long list of aliases couldn't have been more bland if you tried...well, maybe she could. But in writing this, I can't tell you one thing that made me admire, like or even made me feel sympathic to her plight. And a lot of that has to do with the author cramming an unbelievable backstory down my throat. I'd imagine that it's a little more than just difficult to have someone in the WITSEC program that goes off to become a lawyer. I mean-if she was moving around so much-that she would have to maintain something in order to get in law school and then she would have to remain the same person through college and then law school. Then that bar exam and ever time she relocate-WITSEC would have to deal with the Bar people issuing a new license under a different name-or not and just say that they did? Each time you went to another state you would have to apply for a new license. You get my drift. It's just not the sort of job to go in if you're hiding. Then the author tells us that Gloria has been a different type of lawyer over the years-from corporate law to entertainment law-??? What? Lawyers specialize just like doctors and I certainly don't want a general practicioner suddenly thinking he's a brain surgeon. Then the whole, I think my cover has been blown and I need to relocate. WITSEC knows that bodies are propping up left and right and they still require for her to come to them? Wouldn't they go get her? Then the whole handler is on his way to save her--but he never shows up? When the goverment showed up at the crime scene they gave her a speech and left. At that time, they didn't even know that the hired gun was outed and killed. Jeez...thanks buddy! And don't get me started on that whole mother thing. As a leading character Gloria Dalton irked me because she truely acted like she had been in the WITSEC program all of five minutes instead of half her life. I hate when an author try to sell me a bill of goods that their characters are intelligent and then I have to sit through over three hundred pages of their characters failing to do ANY thing smart. If she's a bit of an airhead then just say that and I can adjust accordingly. As a romance, I felt short-sighted because the reader only gets one side of a story here: Gloria's. We never get to see things from Zane's end and therefore I couldn't connect with him as much I needed to-and I needed to connect with somebody. But there was a serious overkill to reference the first book in this series. To the point that at times I felt lost in this story simply because I didn't read the first story. Overall, the story is well written (grammar-pacing) but the story lacked heart and a creditabilty.

Lorey Lawson grew up in a happy home in Mojo, Louisiana until as a teen, a hitman killed her father in front of her and warned her that if her mother Maggie testifies against Bernard Riaz they all will die; no matter how long it takes to find them. Lorey and her mom are buried in the Witness Protection Program as Maggie testifies in the racketeering and money laundering case.

Years later Lorey using the name Gloria Dalton hangs her attorney shingle in Mojo. However, she finds a voodoo doll someone left behind that looks like her paralegal, Steven Chasen. Not long afterward, a car crashes through her office window injuring Steve. He is rushed to hospital, but dies on the way. As shocking as that is, Chief of Police Zane Riley leads the inquiry. He was her high school boyfriend at the time she vanished; she never was given time to say goodbye to him. He has become cold especially to her. She shows him the voodoo doll, but he blows it away as inanity until more appear with corpses. Zane assumes Gloria is a killer while she believes Riaz's associates have found her.

Readers will find they are IN DEEP VOODOO with Stephanie Bonds return to Mojo, Louisiana. The story line is a fast-paced lighthearted paranormal romantic mystery reminiscent of the 1930s romps. Fans will have no trouble FINDING YOUR MOJO as long as Ms. Bonds escorts them.

Harriet Klausner

Stephanie Bond is AWESOME!!
I couldnt put the book down once I started!