Customer Reviews

Spellbinder: A Love Story With Magical Interruptions

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

The only reason I gave this 2 stars was because the writing flowed well enough, and was enjoyabled enough to keep me going to the end. The subtitle of this work is "A love story with magical interruptions," and that is exactly what it is -- a romance novel with some paranormal trappings. If you are looking for another novel along the lines of the Dragon books, or Ruins of Ambrai, this is not that novel.
I had real problems with this book. First, all of Rawn's books have an element of romance in them, the "One True Love" concept (Rohan & Sioned, Pol & Sionell, Tobin & Chay, Sara & Collan, Gorynel & Cai, etc). I have no problem with this in a fantasy setting; it only bothers me when the setting is the "Real World," because it just doesn't work that way.
Also, the Magic in the book was really confusing me. At first it seemed that a person's magic (something they were born with) and their religion or faith were separate things (hence being a Catholic Witch). But at other points in the book it became clear that if you were born a Witch than you became a Wiccan. The description of Holly's family is a prime example of that. Despite everyone else in the family being at least nominally Christian, if you were born with the talent, then you were Wiccan. Why? Doesn't jibe with things spouted by the characters at various other places in the book.
Holly's character was inconsistent. She was apparently supposed to be this big, strong woman, who knew what she wanted and wasn't afraid to go it alone, etc etc, prime example of feminist womanhood, blah blah blah. Except she dissolved into tears and insecurity at a moment's notice, particularly regarding men, she constantly whinged on and on about WHAT she was, and despite that educated intelligence she was supposed to have, that was so good at understanding other people, she hadn't the faintest clue what was going on with herself. I know that is common, but it seemed a little excessive with her. It's rare that I don't like a main character, but Holly pretty much just got on my nerves.
The whole scene with Evan and his breakdown just irritated the hell out of me. If it really did happen like it was described in the book, no way would he have been treated like that.
The fact that Evan and Elias don't like each other is harped upon constantly, but really no reason is given. Same with Holly and Elias. He just didn't seem that bad to me.
There was entirely too much build up to the main action -- the book probably could have been shortened by half and still provided plenty of information. The characters I was most interested in -- Aunt Lulah, and Nicky and Alec -- we didn't see nearly enough of.
All in all, I thought the book was inconsistent. The writing itself held my interest, and the story was interesting, but I just didn't have that level of caring about the characters that is necessary to really get into a book. There were just too many places in it that caused me to say "Wait....what?" and have to pull back to figure out why that made sense (and more often than not, it didn't).

Like a lot of other people, I was excited to pick up Melanie Rawn's -Spellbinder- because I have enjoyed her work in the past. Spellbinder differs from her more traditional fantasy, and is more in the urban witch vein--I was reminded of books by Kelley Armstrong, Laura Anne Gilman, and Kim Harrison.

When Evan Lachlan meets Holly McClure, he thinks she's a freelance writer. Finding out that she's a popular best-selling (and rich) author (who makes more than he does) nearly ends their relationship, but finding out that she's a full-blown Witch doesn't bother him nearly as much. They confess their love and decide to marry. However, an evil man named Noel is sacrificing people and committing black magic, and he wants Holly's powerful blood to make his spells stronger. With the help of Holly's Witch buddy Elias, her college buddy Susannah, and her uncles Alec and Nicky, Holly and Evan must take Noel down so they can live happily ever after.

Having greatly enjoyed Melanie Rawn's Ruins of Ambrai series, I was rather disappointed by Spellbinder for several reasons. Most of them had to do with characterization. I found most of the main characters--Holly, Evan, Alec, Nicky, Elias, and Susannah--to be virtually indistinguishable. What Holly said in one scene, Nicky said in another--the word choice, tone, and sentiments were identical. Part of this can be explained by saying that these characters knew each other for some time, but not enough of it. There was no underlying character conflict. Everyone believed exactly the same thing about everything--they all had very, very similar political and moral beliefs, identical senses of humor and styles of teasing, and any disagreement was on the surface. When Holly and Evan disagree on the fate of their relationship after he gets in trouble at work, for example, there is no character conflict--there is only event conflict. Even the closest people differ sometimes, or misunderstand each other, but in this book not only does everyone agree exactly with everyone else (in the six main characters, at least), they all have known each other for too long and reveal too much in conversations. While carrying out her disciplinary action against Denise, Holly makes clever comments about Nicky's sexual orientation. In general, though, she was wildly unprofessional while carrying out her witch duties. People do not constantly make reference to their friends' histories in conversation, and especially not while carrying out a secret-identity assignment. People are not perfect for each other--everyone has flaws, and no matter how well you might match someone 90%, that last 10% will still be there. Holly and Evan were far too perfectly matched to be interesting--after a few hundred pages of watching them coo at each other (starting in the first week of their relationship) in Irish (despite both being at least fourth generation), I was ready to put the book down.

Although we, the readers, are repeatedly told how intelligent Holly is, I found few examples of this. She struck me as immature for her age--I was surprised when I figured out she was thirty-six instead of in her early twenties. I am in my early twenties, and saw little of my age group in her, though I guess her expensive apartment, list of publications, and BMW might have tipped me off--her career is too established for early twenties.

Five minutes after finishing the book, I had a hard time remembering Holly's name. The characters in this novel knew each other too well--there was no room for me, and no flaws in them for me to care about.

I look forward to Melanie Rawn's next Ambrai book, and hope that it will have better developed characters, like her previous novels.

I don't often feel moved to write a review, especially a bad one, but after buying this, in HARDBACK, well, I couldn't help but share my thoughts with the world. Dreadful, predictable and narcissitically silly come to mind. The book was a vanity piece for the author, something she should have handed out to close friends and family.

The real tragedy, of course, is that she has written some amazing books in the past. What happened Ms. Rawn?

I was hoping for something along the lines of Robin McKinley's Sunshine with a cool underworld ala Charlaine Harris or Kim Harrison, instead I have a book that I can't pass on to my best pals, bummer.

I'm a devoted fan of Melanie Rawn's Sunrunner and Exiles series so I feel terrible giving this book such a low score. If I had read this book without knowing who'd written it, I'd never have connected it with Melanie Rawn at all.

I know the official review says that this book bubbles with sex, magic... blabbity blah, but bubble is the last thing this book does (more like burble, ripple even). I really expected more, but honestly, it was painful getting to the end. There was a point where the story just draaaaaaaaaaagged, and then, bloop, pop, fizzle, the end.

There's really not that much magic, no real action, and a bare skeleton of a conflict, emotional, physical or otherwise. I hope Fire Raiser (if there really is a book by that name being written by Ms. Rawn) isn't some kind of sequel to Spellbinder, because I'm still waiting, faithfully, for her to complete her Exiles series with Captal's Tower...

I got about 80 pages in and put this book away. I very rarely do that. I'm glad I got it on the clearance rack because if I spent full price I really would've been mad.

I think that the book was all over the place and was really hard to follow. I have no idea what the author was talking about half the time or where the story was going. Maybe some of that is my fault for not being on top of paranormal "lingo". The story wasn't worth trying to figure it out though. I wanted to like it but couldn't force myself to finish.

This writer can write but she needs to work on the suspense. I am halfway through it but have given up on finishing it. Usually I can read a good book in a day. I have been on this one a week because it's not holding my interest. It's all romance so far and very little magic. What magic there is is very tepid indeed. I guess I expected it to be like the Charlene Harris and Kim Harrison books and it's nothing like them so naturally I'm disappointed. If you like more romance than fright, then you will probably like it because the author does know how to write.

Spellbinder wasn't, in my opinion, a *bad* book. I made it to the end, and that's a bonus. I also don't disagree with the author's right to do something different...the problem is that the book itself is patchy. I kept getting bored with Holly's natterings on about what x, y, or z herb/stone/piece of paraphernalia for witchcraft did. The exposition seemed frequently to take the place of actual storyline, and I found that disappointing. One of the real joys of Rawn's previous books is that she fleshes out characters so richly, making you sympathize with "bad" characters even if you don't particularly like them! In Spellbinder the real baddie is a flat character and has very little depth - I didn't understand him any better by the end of the book than I did at the beginning, which was a shame. Even the good characters are shallow and rather unbelievable. Evan and Holly's relationship never quite makes sense...and we hear a lot more about the relationship than we do the plot, making for a frequently rambling read.

Also problematic from the romance angle was how crude the language was - the sex seemed more porn-like in feel (ie, without underlying gentleness/compassion/sensitivity) if not in language than it seemed romantic and passionate. If I buy a romance novel, I want it to be sexy and this book just wasn't, although I suppose others' tastes may vary!

All in all, while I didn't love the book and probably wouldn't read it again (I got this one from the library instead of buying it automatically, the way I would another Rawn fantasy novel), it was okay and if it had been by anyone but Melanie Rawn, I probably would have walked away reasonably content with it. As it was, I felt that the book let Ms. Rawn down and I would hope that if she continues with this particular type of story that she finds a way to make this particular real-yet-fantasy world as compelling as she makes her high fantasy worlds.

I really wanted to like this book. I've loved her works since the start, and she's always been one of my favorite three or four authors. I recommend her to anyone who asks me about books. Her details, her stories, the depth of the worlds she creates - incomparable.

But unfortunately this one just doesn't match up to the rest of her works. I don't know if it's because she's writing it in "our" world, as opposed to some fantastic place she created, or because it's just a single stand-alone novel, not an epic series, but I just felt depressed after I finished it, no sense of anything.

Granted, those who love her books are holding their breath waiting for The Captal's Tower, and this was at least *something* in the meantime. But the grand scope of vision is not present here, the characters that sweep you up in their wake are missing, the stories and history that captivate your attention are sadly lacking. Her author's note at the end explains to some extent the difference and the reason behind it, but I still felt let down. I just hope this isn't her new level of ability since I'm one of those awaiting the final Ambrai book and would hate for it to be less than the others were.

If your looking for a trashy book to read on while on the beach, this is it. Basic romance, break up, make up, with little action until the last 1/8th of the book...the rest is pining here, bit of witchcraft description there, heavy breathing and soft porn everywhere else. A big disappointment....

Nice story. Had a beginning, middle and end. The fantasy and magic theory was not developed at all, but the love story was. Nice enough book if you are not anticipating the detailed and engrossig Fantasy worlds Ms. Rawn is known for.