A bunch of magic

79. Dime Store Magic – Kelley Armstrong

In the Otherworld there are two major female protagonists – there’s Elena of the first two books and werewolves, and there’s Paige the witch. Paige is introduced, along with several of the characters in Dime Store Magic, in Stolen. She’s just been thrown into a large amount of responsibilities after the death of her mother. Paige is now taking care of the young witch Savannah who was imprisoned with Elena in Stolen. Savannah is a totally big deal to everyone in the Otherworld because she is so powerful and also is not in control of her powers. And Paige is a good witch and Savannah is wanted by the not-good magic peeps and so there’s like conflict there and stuff. The cabals of the Otherworld make a big splash in this one, including Lucas Cortez of the Cortez cabal. He’s there to help! Or is he…

I’ll be honest as usual, I find Paige to be uninteresting. She’s scattered but thinks she knows everything and she and Savannah seem more like roommates- and it was a bit of an obvious set up with Lucas, but at the same time it felt forced. There’s an odd lack of chemistry with the characters considering this book involves witchcraft. It’s like when someone tells you a show is really good, but to avoid the pilot. In the Otherworld, if Bitten and Stolen are the first two seasons, Dime Store Magic reads like an ill-advised spin off series.

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Ozma was also a big deal based on being powerful, despite being very small.

80. Counterfeit Magic

This one’s a novella, so it’s real short, which helps me since I’m not the biggest fan of these witches. And it involves a supernatural fight club. Like in Angel. Or Thor: Ragnarok. Or one of those things that happen when you have an inventive and bored special effects crew. Has this been a challenge on Face Off? Can your make up survive supernatural fight club and will anyone be able to talk about it?

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Finny and Ozma’s “no, we weren’t just fighting” faces.

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Seconds earlier.

84. Industrial Magic

The other early full length Otherworld witch book involves Paige’s more bureaucratic and diplomatic sides. Yes. A new style of coven sounds like a great idea, but if only she had brochures or a Power Point presentation. Thankfully, that is not the main focus of Industrial Magic and there are more characters who are more interesting who show up; even Lucas becomes more interesting in this one because we find out some backstory about his family disagreements. Phew. No offense to Paige, but in this case even though there are maybe too many characters in this one, they are a bit of a blessing. They require action.

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Ozma and Finny required lettuce-based action.