Like a Charm
by Candace HavensSign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of this book.
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 152)
Read in March, 2008
I adore Candy and I’ve enjoyed her other books, but this one... I’m not sure I ever quite figured out what it was about. The heroine, Kira, is a high-powered contract attorney who has a mental and physical breakdown when a friend steps off the top of one of Atlanta’s high-rises. Her mom, a hippie born too late for the movement, collects her and takes her home to west Texas to recuperate. (Sweet, Texas isn’t as far west as I’m used to, since it only takes 3 hours to get to Fort Worth, i...more
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Read in March, 2008
I picked up this book because I had an Amazon gift certificate burning a hole in my pocket and it was recommended for people who like the Shanna Swendson series (that started with Enchanted, Inc.). I was disappointed. There was potential in the story, but I kept getting distracted by the actual writing, which was mediocre. If Havens had a better editor, it probably could have come out pretty good; as it was, the red pencil in my head was cutting out and re-working huge passages because they f...more
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Read in January, 2008
I didn't realize it right away when I ordered this book, but Kira Smythe is the character who is a close friend of Bronwyn in this author's other series. Then I got confused. This book starts with Kira's arrival back home in Sweet, Texas after a tragedy related to her job as a lawyer in Atlanta leaves her needing time to recover. As the book goes along, you learn that Bronwyn is also newly-arrived in town, and the two have yet to meet. Two male characters are introduced, and you already know...more
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An enjoyable romp through a small town that has a library that has pretty much any information that anyone wants. Kira Smythe has escaped from this small town (and her hippie parents) and has become a big city lawyer but has had a breakdown after seeing a former client plunge to her death from a rooftop. She returns to the town and discovers that after the death of her beloved friend the librarian she not only inherits the library but also its resident ghosts. The story is even more fascinati...more
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I remember why I gave up this author after the first book in the series this book is spun off of. Since it was a stand-alone, I decided to give her another chance, but the book didn't deliver. Corporate lawyer Kira Smythe returns to her hippie parents and hometown of Sweet, Texas after a client commits suicide when Kira loses her case. She begins to heal as she meets up with old friends and new, including a new love interest. She also discovers that she has the ability to see and interact wi...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
anyone who wants a taste of an otherworldly book without the trashy romance aspect.
This book had a bit of something else...a special "spark." The main character was a list-maker and a librarian. So the beginning of every chapter had the call numbers and library information on a certain book - this was a treat to see. And the end of some of the chapters had the List that the character was working on. Very interesting. A great read. I look forward to reading the other books in this series to see if there are any "sparks" in those, also. The characterization...more
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Read in May, 2008
The cover of this one almost turned me off, but since I'd read 3 of Candace Havens's books before, I decided to give it a shot. I'm glad I did. This one is my favorite from her yet. It's set in the same place as the Bronwyn (awesome kick-@ss witch that gaurds the British PM) books, and follows one of the minor characters from that series.
Kira, a lawyer working in Atlanta, goes back home to Sweet, Texas, to re-evaluate life after a client's suicide. While there, she inherits a library and all...more
Kira, a lawyer working in Atlanta, goes back home to Sweet, Texas, to re-evaluate life after a client's suicide. While there, she inherits a library and all...more
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Read in May, 2008
I liked this book even more than Candice's other books about characters from Sweet, Texas. I love Kira, though. I find myself identifying with her much more than I do with Browyn (as much as I like her) maybe because I have always had my nose in a book my entire life and always been told I look like I belong in a library.
Anyway, this book is about Kira leaving the world of corporate law and returning home for some healing. After her return home she inherits the local library but finds out th...more
Anyway, this book is about Kira leaving the world of corporate law and returning home for some healing. After her return home she inherits the local library but finds out th...more
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Read in March, 2008
This backstory tells how Kira Smythe, one of Bronwyn's best friends, transitioned from high powered lawyer to the Sweet librarian, discovered she could talk to ghosts, and found true love.
I much prefer the straight-forward first-person account to the diary form of the Bronwyn books. This book confused me a little, since it is slightly interspersed with the Bronwyn trilogy but doesn't necessarily seem to add up. In addition, Bronwyn doesn't show up for 200 pages. But it's an interesting read ...more
I much prefer the straight-forward first-person account to the diary form of the Bronwyn books. This book confused me a little, since it is slightly interspersed with the Bronwyn trilogy but doesn't necessarily seem to add up. In addition, Bronwyn doesn't show up for 200 pages. But it's an interesting read ...more
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So I quite liked this book. VERY clean, which is unusual for an adult fiction book, and had some fun little magical/fantastical elements thrown in.
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This was a fun read because the charactor becomes a librarian! And not just any librarian. No, she's a librarian of great power, able to check out books to the living AND the dead and a whole bunch of other stuff. Her no-longer-living patrons help her out by finding books she needs and making them appear on her desk. Very jealous of that power.
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Read in February, 2008
This was a fun and well-paced paranormal romance/chick lit that I read in practically one sitting. The main characters have been featured in Havens' other series, and Bronwyn does a cameo appearance or two in this book, but I liked this one a lot better then the recent Bronwyn adventures. I definitely recommend this.
And it's standalone, so if you haven't read anything else by this author, this is a good one to pick up.
And it's standalone, so if you haven't read anything else by this author, this is a good one to pick up.
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Read in March, 2008
This was a great read. Some of the characters are familiar from past books but it's not really a sequel or prequel. Definitely can read alone.
It was great to read about Kira Smythe and seeing her realize it's all up to her to keep the library of Sweet, Texas open. For someone that doesn't think she is necessarily "special", she sure finds out that she most definitely is!
It was great to read about Kira Smythe and seeing her realize it's all up to her to keep the library of Sweet, Texas open. For someone that doesn't think she is necessarily "special", she sure finds out that she most definitely is!
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Read in April, 2008
This book was terrible. The only reason I read the book is because the main character is a librarian from Texas and lives in a paranormal town. However, there wasn't any good romance, she saw the dead, she was still sick when the book ended, and didn't know what she wanted. The plot never resolved or progressed. It was just a book of words and not acomplishing a story.
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LOVED this book! very cute and I loved the warm and fuzzy feeling I got at the end!
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