Most Helpful Customer Reviews
48 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not my thing, I guess...., September 21, 2007
This review is from: Witch Fire (Elemental Witches, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)
I was disappointed in this novel. I found it difficult to get into and kept putting it down. The writing was rather...Blah. Not awful, but sort of boring. The story seemed just filler for sex scenes. I thought the sex scenes were pretty good though a trifle repetitive. I probably would've culled them down to three scenes. Jack and Mira (our witch couple) were bland. I didn't care what happened to them... They had sex, trained, fought evil, had sex.... Hmmm....
2 Stars. Perhaps if the storyline had been stronger I might've been more into what happened in the book. As it was, this couple could be any generic romance couple.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
5 Klovers! Courtesy of CK2S Kwips & Kritiques, June 17, 2007
This review is from: Witch Fire (Elemental Witches, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)
Unsuspecting Mira Hoskins is one of the most powerful elemental witches, an Air Witch, born to two Air Witches who met their fate when she was still a young child. Raised by her godmother, she has no idea of her true legacy, much less the fact that witches and magic really exist.
She is even less prepared to meet Jack, the Fire Witch to whom she finds herself irresistibly drawn. Thrown together when Jack is assigned as her bodyguard to protect her from a group of evil witches intent on sacrificing Mira for their own nefarious purposes, desire burns hot between these two. Sure, Fire and Air Elementals are naturally drawn to one another, but the attraction she feels for Jack appear to go uncomfortably further for that. After surviving one bad relationship and broken marriage, Mira isn't in the market for another and is determined to keep this thing with Jack purely physical. Easier said than done.
But Jack has issues of his own - secrets he can't share with Mira, and those secrets threaten to destroy her feelings for him forever.
Bravo! I was already a fan of author Anya Bast after reading some of her eBooks from another publisher, but her new print release through Berkley moves her up my list of favorite authors and cements her as an auto buy! Witch Fire is a bewitching start to what promises to be a fascinating new series - Elemental Witches.
Mira is a perfect romantic heroine - a little broken from a bad marriage, but still warm and caring and ready to love again, even when she does not think so herself. She has a forgiving nature, which proves a balm to Jack's long tortured soul and mind when she discovers the secrets he has hidden from her. Although she was not raised with knowledge of her powers, she quickly accepts her new role and the responsibility her powers bring her.
Jack is strong and heart-breaking as he punishes himself for a past that was beyond his control. Watching him penalize himself for a wrong he believes he perpetrated on Mira's family long ago tore me up, especially as he denied both himself and Mira the love both so desperately needed in each other's arms. But by the same token, this made the happy ending so much sweeter when Jack finally discovers redemption in the arms of his soul mate.
I loved this Elemental Witches, Book 1: Witch Fire, and cannot tell you how excited I was when I read on Bast's blog that she is pretty much done with its sequel, Witch Blood! I will be counting the days until Book 2 of this exciting paranormal series is ready for review... But having read Witch Fire, I learned I cannot begin reading one of Anya Bast's books too close to bedtime, as I will be up all night until I finish it!
Series Order:
Witch Fire (Elemental Witches, Book 1)
Witch Blood
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
23 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Start To The Series!, June 6, 2007
This review is from: Witch Fire (Elemental Witches, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)
Disclaimer: I know Anya Bast and we've been friends for several years. In addition to being one of the kindest, sweetest people I know, she's also an amazing writer. I'm even fortunate enough to be her crit partner so I got to watch Witch Fire grow and polish into what I believe is an excellent book.
In Witch Fire, Bast gives us the first in what I hope to be a many book series in which witches (say that three times fast) are governed by The Coven but there are rogue witches out there who remain a threat to all the Coven witches hold sacred.
She also gives us Jack McAllister - a fire witch and one of The Coven's men sent to find Mira Hoskins, an air witch who has no real idea of her power because she's grown up outside The Coven. She's under threat now from the Duskoff - the rogue witches who want to take her so they can drain her power - the same way they did her parents.
Bast gives readers two very complex characters in Jack and Mira. They're instantly drawn to one another but Jack has a secret he's convinced will drive Mira away should she find out and Mira can't understand why Jack wants to push her away when they have something so good between them. It's paced quite skillfully and the tension is delicious as is the sexual and romantic tension between these two. The ending between them is a happy one of course, this is a romance, but Bast makes them both work for it. It's a believable twist that makes Witch Fire stand out in yet another way.
I love Jack, he's a really sexy man, smart, strong, courageous and yet, he's got a blind spot about his past.
Mira is such a wonderful romance heroine! My favorite kind - real, flawed, she's got her insecurities but she's strong too. A survivor. Mira doesn't go into the basement alone when there's a serial killer about but she faces a heck of a lot of scary stuff but never gives up.
The worldbuilding is wonderfully inventive and original. Bast has created witches and magick with believable rules and boundaries. The action and mystery elements are well drawn and interesting and the secondary characters are really fabulous - especially Thomas (who gets his story in Bast's next book, Witch Blood) and the delicious villian Stefan.
Anya's Winter Pleasures was the first EC book I ever bought and I've loved her ever since. She has continued to grow and improve, giving her readers new worlds and characters to lose themselves in. In Witch Fire, her talent shines and I can heartily recommend it!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
