Charmed & Deadly (Candace Havens)

Summary:
Basic premise is that Bronwyn is a high witch who pretty much always has someone out to kill her. She works for the British Prime Minister, and often works alongside the chief of the International Magic Police. She has a hunky boyfriend who she talks about incessantly, but it's not too annoying, and a bunch of magically inclined friends that surround her. In this book, there's four major plots going on: One is that her ex who tried to kill her in college is out to get her again. Two is that her father-figure type friend gets kidnapped. Three is that her brother who works in Africa with "Doctors Across Borders" gets kidnapped, again. And four is that there's a dark magic using dude hanging out with the PM and she's got to figure out who it is. Meanwhile she's got all kinds of personal issues she needs to deal with on top of all these other issues.

Thoughts:
Fabulous. Apparently it's #3 in a series, so I'm going to have to hunt for the others now.

All this stuff gets weaved together so seamlessly, it's hard to believe. Obviously, it's a quick read, considering I started it at about 2 yesterday, read for a total of maybe 8 hours, and I'm through already. But it's really great. The writing is fun, and Bron is an awesome character, as are all of her friends. Ms. Havens does a great job of weaving this web of crazy to the point that when you get to the end of the book, you're thinking to yourself, "okay, this is over now, time for things to settle down, right?" and then she smacks you upside the head with a couple more plot twists.

The writing style could use just a little help though. She starts writing in the present tense, but then suddenly it's past tense, then present again... She just needs to make up her mind a little. It's a little distracting, but then again, that's how we all tell stories, right? "So I'm going up to this guy and he goes "hey." and I said "hey." and then he hugged me and I hug him back and the end." It's really a matter of editing, but the story absolutely makes up for it, because it's just so engaging.

Again, really a great read, and I fully plan on hunting down Charmed and Dangerous, and Charmed and Ready, to see where Bronwyn's story actually began.

Pages: 258
Genre: Fantasy, Mystery, and a little Romance
Grade: A
Would I Read Again?: YES!!

Time for me to get to work! Gotta run!

3 down, 47 more to go!