Author: Linda Wisdom
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Publication Date: March, 2008
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Description: Jazz can't decide whether to scorch him with a fireball or jump into bed with him.
Jasmine Tremaine, a witch who can't stay out of trouble.
Nikolai Gregorivich, a drop-dead gorgeous vampire cop on the trail of a serial killer.
The sizzling love affair between Jazz and Nick has been off-again, on-again-for about 300 years. Mostly off, lately. But now Nick needs Jazz's help, and while Jazz and Nick try to figure out their own hearts and resist their ever-increasing attraction, they must steer clear of a maniacal killer with super-supernatural powers. They are surrounded by a hilarious cast of oddball paranormal characters, including Irma, the chain-smoking ghost who haunts Jazz's sports car, Dweezil, her ghoul of a boss, and Fluff and Puff, a pair of bunny slippers with sharp teeth and short tempers (watch your ankles)!
My Thoughts: With 50 Ways To Hex Your Lover, new to me author Linda Wisdom introduces her series starring a feisty witch named Jazz and a vampire named Nick who have been in an on then off relationship for several hundred years. Unfortunately, most of it has not been good and the last time Jazz and Nick were together several decades ago, he had her arrested. Understandably, Jazz is a tad cranky when she and Nick cross paths. He is definitely the last person, dead or alive, she wants to deal with and I was given a very good idea just how angry she is with him when she conjures up fire balls and wooden stakes ready to end his existence mere seconds after laying eyes on him again. Jazz doesn’t need any more trouble. Her temper and bad behavior have gotten her in trouble with the Witches Council and she was banished so she is trying to walk the straight and narrow. I was very intrigued to say the least.
Fortunately for the future of this story, Nick doesn’t give up so easily and continues to try to persuade her to help him track down who is responsible for several vampires going missing. I liked Nick and his persistence. I liked that he and Jazz have an extensive history and they always manage to find their way back to one another. Jazz has a lot on her plate already and the last thing she wants is Nick back in her life. In addition to hiring her witchy services out to disarm curses and her job as a driver for a limousine company she has to deal with Irma, a chain smoking nag of a ghost, who haunts Jazz’s T-Bird, her ghoul boss, Dweezil, who walks a very fine line between good and evil and her carnivorous bunny slippers, just to name a few. On top of that, her boss insists she is the only one who can drive his best customer (because he pays in gold bars), who also emits an odor so noxious that Jazz has to throw away the clothing she wears when she drives him. For Jazz, having Nick show up again after all these years is like the final straw for her. Of course, Jazz eventually agrees to help him, especially when she discovers that the most evil and foulest of creatures she thought had been destroyed in the ‘30s is actually still around.
I would have liked a little more background history with Jazz (and whatever names she used throughout the years) and Nick. How they met, more detail about her banishment and the relationships with her sister witches Stasi and Blair, how Nick became a vampire and his history with the Protectorate. There were a lot of references and inferences to these issues and a lot of jumping back and forth between past and present, but it left me with more questions that pulled me out of the story many times. Even still, these issues did not keep me from wanting to know more and connecting with the characters.
My Final Verdict: Overall, this was a good start to a series that has three more books and one short story. Jazz and Nick will return in the next book, Hex Appeal and Stasi and Blair will each get their story. I am hopeful more will be revealed and explained as we go forward. If you like your vampire heroes to be hot and your witch heroines to be smart, feisty and full of snarky attitude, with vibrant supporting characters throughout that threaten to take over the whole story, then I recommend 50 Ways To Hex Your Lover as a good place to start.
No comments:
Post a Comment