Fire Burn And Cauldron Bubble: The Jolie Wilkins Series, Book 1 (Paranormal Romance) [Kindle Edition]

H.P. Mallory (Author)

Book Description

From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, HP Mallory, comes FIRE BURN AND CAULDRON BUBBLE, the 1st book in the Jolie Wilkins series!

A self-deprecating witch with the unique ability to reanimate the dead.
A dangerously handsome warlock torn between being her boss and her would-be lover.
A six hundred year old English vampire with his own agenda; one that includes an appetite for witches.
The Underworld in a state of chaos.
Let the games begin.

Life isn’t bad for psychic Jolie Wilkins. True, she doesn’t have a love life to speak of, but she has a cute house in the suburbs of Los Angeles, a cat and a quirky best friend.

Enter Rand Balfour, a sinfully attractive warlock who insists she’s a witch and who just might turn her life upside down. Rand hires her to help him solve a mystery regarding the death of his client who also happens to be a ghost. Jolie not only uncovers the cause of the ghost’s demise but, in the process, she brings him back to life!

Word of Jolie’s incredible ability to bring back the dead spreads like wildfire, putting her at the top of the Underworld’s most wanted list. Consequently, she finds herself at the center of a custody battle between a villainous witch, a dangerous but oh-so-sexy vampire, and her warlock boss, Rand.

Books Available by HP Mallory:

JOLIE WILKINS SERIES:
Book 1: Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble (FREE on Amazon!)
Book 2: Toil and Trouble
Book 3: Witchful Thinking
Book 4: The Witch is Back
Book 5: Something Witchy This Way Comes
Novella: Be Witched (Just .99!)
Stay Tuned for the Jolie Wilkins Spinoff Series Coming 2013!

DULCIE O’NEIL SERIES:
Book 1: To Kill A Warlock (FREE on Amazon!)
Book 2: A Tale of Two Goblins
Book 3: Great Hexpectations
Book 4: Wuthering Frights
Book 5: Malice In Wonderland
Book 6: For Whom The Spell Tolls

LILY HARPER SERIES:
Book 1: Better Off Dead
Follow HP on twitter at www.twitter.com/hpmallory
Join HP on Facebook at www.facebook.com/hpmallory

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

H.P. Mallory is an indie urban fantasy and paranormal romance author who has written the first books of two series that span both paranormal romance and urban fantasy genres, Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble and To Kill A Warlock. So, just what the heck is an indie author? An indie author is someone who is sick to death of the staid publishing industry and is, instead, blazing her own way into the wild frontier of publishing. If you are all about fairies and witches and vampires (oh my!), you love a good alpha warlock and you like men who get a little hairy during a full moon, H.P.'s got the goods! H.P. is all over the web! Find her at: http://twitter.com/hpmallory http://www.facebook.com/people/Hp-Mallory/10000124964376 www.indieurbanfantasy.com

Product Details

• File Size: 821 KB
• Print Length: 306 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1453812954
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B003UNL8OG
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #825 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
  • #28 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Romance > Fantasy
  • #41 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Fantasy > Paranormal & Urban

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 65 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable, but not what I expected August 7, 2010

By Super-Excited Person©

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

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.

108 of 125 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Burned and Bubbled my Patience April 19, 2011

By Tracy TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

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.

~*~*~*~
Reviewed for One Good Book Deserves Another.

64 of 73 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Can't wait for the next book July 30, 2010

By Yasamin

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

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.

More About the Author

H. P. Mallory is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Jolie Wilkins series as well as the Dulcie O'Neil series. She began her writing career as a self-published author and after reaching a tremendous amount of success, decided to become a traditionally published author and hasn't looked back since. H. P. Mallory lives in Southern California with her husband and son, where she is at work on her next book.

To find her on the web, please visit:

Website: www.hpmallory.com

Twitter Page: http://twitter.com/hpmallory

Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/hpmallory

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#34 in Books > Romance > Fantasy & Futuristic

#100 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Fantasy

#34 in Books > Romance > Fantasy & Futuristic

#100 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Fantasy