Sandra C. Lopez's Blog, page 364

Review: FOREVER CHARMED by Rose Pressey

Born on Halloween and named Halloween, plus she’s also a witch—this character’s interesting already.
One night, she finds an odd magical book of mystery in the scary attic of her dead aunt’s mansion. Are ghosts living in the manor? I certainly wouldn’t put it past it.
Suddenly, two handsome strangers appear at her front door. Who are they and why are they here? And why, for the love of god, do they hate each other?
A mystical mystery surrounds the plucky, quirky witch that can never do magic right. What do you expect when in high school you were named most likely to cause a disaster? Still, her witty naiveté is a charm.
Overall, this was a cool, bewitching read. I enjoyed trying to figure out the true motives behind the two men and the whole queen-of-the-underworld notion. Story was spellbinding up until 90% into the book when, at that point, the plot started to lose its pizzazz. The ending that finally presented the official showdown with Mara, the evil witch, was very anticlimactic.
Still, I love witch stories, and this was a pretty good one.
My rating: 3.5 stars

Review: DEATH BY HALLOWEEN by David Warkentin

This is a Halloween-themed “you choose the scare” the story, just like the Goosebumpsbooks I used to read as a kid.
According to the story, I am a thrill-seeker. Halloween used to excite me, but now they’re just commercialized and boring. Now, I seek black magic and death-rising adventures. This is how I actually am, so, naturally, I chose to leave my house and try to find my spell-binding journey. I didn’t turn away from the noise; I walked toward it. But I died quickly, for some reason. It’s a good thing you can play again and again. #2: killed with my arms cut off #3: I choked on a piece of pie #4: I’m hung like a scarecrow The best one: getting kidnapped by the naked maniac After re-reading and choosing different adventures, the story becomes old and you get sick of dying. In fact, you always die. It seems that you can’t win. That sucks! They should’ve called this Always Death by Halloween. Although it was well-written and it reads quickly, the book was also a tad predictable at times.
  
My rating: 3 stars   

Review: WITCH HOLLOW AND THE WRONG SPELL by I.D. Blind

This is the story of 3 amateur witches--Medea, Cassandra, and Electra. A spell gone awry evokes something wicked.
Eric is a spoiled good-for-nothing and a newcomer to Hollow; he somehow gets in the middle of all the hocus pocus.
There's a lot of talk about Hollow (landscape, the town, the history) and story has an Old Shoppe dialogue. Ultimately, the story takes a long time to drum up interest. For instance, the first chapter is all about the witches' spell, and then it cuts to Eric and the constant babble of the town. I felt it didn't focus enough on the witches and the wrong spell. Mostly you're just muddling through it. Too bad. This could've been a decent paranormal.
This is the 2nd witch story I tried to read and it disappointed me.
My rating: 2 stars

Review: HAUNTED ON BOURBON STREET by Deanna Chase

Jade is an empath and she just moved to New Orleans, a city known for its folklore of witches and vampires. Additionally, the house she rented happens to be haunted. I love these kinds of stories!Apparently, her ghost is very erotic with the kinky dreams it gives her. I'd freak too with flying bottles swirling all around me. But what does the ghost want? Why is it attached to Jade? And that's when ghost hunters get involved. Kane is hot and not what you would expect of a strip club owner. The two begin a rendezvous in the midst of this ghost expedition. Most of the time Jade is trying to make her sex dreams about Kane a reality.
Story is basically Ghostbusters meets the Dream Weaver. It does not follow the traditional formula of a witch's tale, which was a little disappointing to me. It's an odd tale of ghosts and sex.
If this was just a ghost story (ghost hunt), then why was there a picture of a witch on the cover? That's very misleading.
My rating: 3 stars

Review: EASY BAKE COVEN by Liz Schulte

“Here’s to being single…drinking doubles…and seeing triple!” (6) Whoo!

Selene has always had a gift, and when she joined a coven in college with some of her friends, she became a witch. The “Easy Bake Coven.” Cute—cheesy, but cute.
There’s nothing wrong with being a witch. A “coven” is simply a group of friends that like to dabble in magic (not evil magic and certain rules apply, of course.) Totally harmless.
I love witch stories, but then we started getting into trolls, elves, and changelings. What the heck’s a changeling? Suddenly Selene must take back the kingdom for the elf king? I thought this was a witch story.
I guess there’s nothing wrong with it if you like fairy tale elements. It’s okay, but just not what I expected.
My rating: 2.5 stars

Review: IF YOU COULD READ MY MIND by S.A. Hunter (9 Horror Stories)

 
 #1: “Talent Show” – Karen is living in a robot world. In fact, she actually has a robot making her high-tech life much easier. Suddenly, fearing he may be discontinued, the robot turns on Karen. It started off well, but the cliffhanger ending left me half-cocked.
 
#2: “Police Transcript” – This is literally a police transcript. Boring and stupid!
 
#3: “That Terrible Thing” – Sarah’s grandmother just died, and she’s stuck in her old, creepy house—a house that may be haunted by a ghost or a monster. At first, I thought Sarah might’ve dead because of “that terrible thing,” but I guess I might’ve been wrong. I couldn’t really tell due to the weird ending.
 #4: “Muppets” – I liked the guy’s abrasive and crass manner in which he spoke—it was raw and realistic. He’s a guy on the loony meds and he hates it. I enjoyed the summary-account style of his story. He basically tells it the way it happened—how he was a police officer and how he got discharged by killing a whole bunch of guys. He was doing “God’s work” after all. The dash of humor made it extra enjoyable.
 
#5: “Trap House” – Confusing story that I couldn’t finish. End of that.
 
#6: “Chimney Sweep” – Waking up bound, tired, and naked. Yikes! Now, there’s a great way to start a nightmare. But what else could make it worse? How about being punished by Santa Claus for being on the naughty list? Now that’s a good one!
 
#7: “Pocket Change” – Boy with magical pants? Eh.
 
#8: “The Hidden” – A LONG European bore! I skipped damn near all of it.
 
#9: “Dry Leaves” – Was this even a story? Or was it a chapter from another book? Couldn’t tell.
 
 Out of the 9, only 2 stories were pretty good. But mostly they weren’t worth reading.

My rating: 1 star

Review: DON’T LOOK BEHIND YOU by Billy Wells

 
This book is a collection of horror stories and tales of vengeance.
Could a boy’s strange, new toy be coming to life, like Chuckie, in “Witch Albert”? Could a murderer on the run be suddenly conscientious over fire safety? Could an imaginary being help a young girl with her mother’s brutal beau in “Charlie”?
The details do not start to get gruesome until we reach the cannibal story in “Who’s your Daddy?” Most of the characters are sick, and there is a sense of mystery and fright in some tales, especially in “Caller from Hell”. One thing I noticed was that the stories all seemed to have the same MO—bloody explosion of human flesh and bone caused by the savage eating of the bodies. Yuck!
Overall, the writing style was nice, and I liked the sarcasm; however, there was some redundancy and repetition throughout. Also, the stories got kind of predictable about ¼ of the way in the book.
Intriguing, humorous, and full of irony. Stories are short and quick.  My rating: 3 stars   

Review: PICTURE THIS: A WITCH’S HAT by Annette

The limericks were playful and cute. Illustrations were somewhat repetitive because you had the same boy in the same room with the same cat on the bed. It seemed like I was looking at the same picture over and over again. Obviously the focus was more on the boy’s exaggerated expressions—really that was the only thing that changed. Interesting how the boy was drawn 3D-like, like in a Pixar animated movie. However, the character looked a bit stiff.
 
My rating: 3 stars

Review: KEEP ME GHOSTED by Karen Cantwell

Sophie Rhodes has a spirit friend A.K.A. a ghost on her shoulder. She goes to a job interview and realizes her new boss has one too. So they both have ghosts? Initially, I thought this was a lame concept. Talking to ghosts? C’mon! Although it would be cool to walk through walls.

I thought Sophie was more of a psychic. Was she? And why was it that she and Dr. Callahan can see and talk to ghosts?
I honestly expected more of a psychic mystery. Well, Sophie’s no psychic, but there’s definitely a mystery with Callahan, his ghost, and his office.
Marmaduke (Sophie’s ghost) is a haughty British gentlemen that talks too much; Moonflower (Dr. Callahan’s ghost) doesn’t like Sophie or the potential romance brewing between her and the good doctor. She is the “dark phantom” that can wreck a room with her spirit energy.
With the help of her spirit guide and a spirit medium, Sophie will crack the case.
An okay read with a somewhat alluring mystery.
My rating: 3.5 stars

      

Review: A TALE OF 3 WITCHES by Christiana Miller and Barbra Annino

As a huge fan of the TV show, Charmed, it was no big shock to why I wanted to read this book.
Just like the title suggests, this is a story of 3 witches.
Witch #1: Mara, who has a daughter with a mortal that worries that his baby may be the anti-Christ. Mara can communicate to ghosts, like her Aunt Tillie, the former super witch.
Witch #2: Stacy is a little more reluctant to her witch destiny. According to her grandma, she is “The Seeker.” Unlike Mara, she gets feelings and images of the dead.
Witch #3: Gus, a male witch, who relishes the fun gifts of a warlock.
 One day, Tillie receives a letter asking for her help, but since she is dead, she sends Mara in her place. As a tarot reader, Mara sees “chaos and disaster” on this pending trip. Instantly, there is a magical connection between Mara and Stacy. But then the danger comes when a mysterious stranger checks into the B&B. What was Samhain? The Devil? And why was this being stealing souls?
Together, all 3 witches realize that they must banish this evil before it’s too late.
Like Charmed, this book had drama and funny quips, but it was a little less action-packed. I would’ve appreciated it more if we had been more involved in the personal lives of each witch (we hardly heard anything from Gus – it was mostly from the POV of either Mara or Stacy).
Still, it was a nice, quick novel, and it inspires me to continue reading the series.

-Somebody tell Aunt Tillie is dead
-The Thief who Stole Midnight
-Every Witch Way but Wicked
-Opal Fire
My rating: 4 stars