21 | January | 2016 | 38 Caliber Reviews

Ugh, this is one terrible book. I tried to DNF it but it was like a train wreck; I just couldn’t tear myself away.

Mia is the heroine, a witch who is hiding her craft from everyone except one friend, another witch. She’s a doormat, everything in this book happens because she can’t say no. She sounds and acts like a twelve year old girl trying desperately to be liked by everybody. She harbors a schoolgirl crush on her brother’s BFF, Ethan.

Guess who is the hero? A soldier on leave, Ethan returns to his hometown to spend the Christmas holidays with Nolan, his BFF, Nolan’s parents who are like second parents to him, and Mia, who he harbors a schoolgirl crush on.

I say schoolgirl for Ethan also because while the author head hops between Mia and Ethan there is no discernable between them. They both sound like twelve year old girls.

From the very beginning the problems with this book were apparent. “Jessa’s New Age shop–Eternally Magic– was empty. Usually, Jessa was around. But, right now, she wasn’t. I leaned against the front counter, resting my forehead against the cool glass. “-TWWCW Um, yeah. So she walks into her friend’s shop and dithers around wondering where she is. It takes this doormat 5 paragraphs to do what any normal person would do- call out. And if she’s leaning against the counter how can she be resting her forehead against the glass? Is she vertically challenged?

Then Mr Hot Guy walks in and Mia wonders why he’s there and then is on edge because she can feel his power. He makes her nervous and hot and- “Mr Sexy scratched the back of his neck, causing his shirt to lift. My gaze skimmed his navel and part of the defined six-pack I’d known was hiding there. Somehow, knowing how hot he was under his shirt calmed my nerves a little. Surely, he was fine.” – TWWCW Since when does a six-pack make a guy less dangerous? Single cell amoeba have better reasoning powers than this limp dishcloth.

Turns out Jessa, her friend and mentor, has thrown Mia to the wolves, so to speak, by volunteering her to make Mr Sexy a potion for his injured friend. Jessa knows nothing about Mr Sexy and Mia doesn’t know a whole lot about her craft but, hey, what’s a friend for if not to volunteer you to make a potion for an unknown someone with a mysterious case of poisoning? “…I couldn’t stay mad at my best friend. That would just make the whole situation worse.”- TWWCW What a wimp.

Not only a wimp but she has a jerk for a boyfriend that she really isn’t fond of but it’s just before Christmas and she doesn’t want to not have “someone” for the holidays. “Was I as thrilled about the relationship as much as Greg was? No. But I didn’t have it in my heart to break his before Christmas.”- TWWCW Break his heart? Two pages back he cancelled a date and the first thing she thinks of is he’s having an affair.

Logical thinking has no place in this book.

Enter Ethan, our hero, he combines the best of both a twelve year old girl and a jerk. Mia has to pick him up at the airport because her brother pushed the job off on her and won’t answer his phone. He’s a jerk, too. Ethan isn’t happy to see her because he has the hots for her. His first words to Mia are, “What are you doing here?” What a charmer.

After an attack in the airport parking garage by a (were)wolf with Mia tossing fireballs around, Ethan can’t bring himself to believe that it was a werewolf or even a wolf and he wonders if she’s on drugs. But still he is turned on by an injured and distressed woman while bleeding from his own wounds and barking out orders and demands.

“Besides I wasn’t the type of guy to use force with a girl, especially not this one.” -TWWCW Oh, really? He demands she tell him what really happened, asks if she’s on drugs, says she was always imaginative, asks what she is, locks the car doors, grabs her wrist, threatens to tie her up, threatens to drag her out of the car. I guess coercion is okay though.

If this isn’t enough to discourage you there is still the breakup with the jerk boyfriend, the whole werewolf problem, the obligatory sex scene, and an ending that just sort ended without much resolution to anything.

Two less attractive main characters would be hard to find, not impossible, but definitely hard.