The Corporate Witch

by Amy Difar

Mildred Poisonapple may be the granddaughter of the powerful matriarch of her clan, but her spells go awry and she lacks her grandmother's power. So she tries to make her own way by commuting to the big city to work at Modern Witchcraft, Inc., a huge corporation that represents everything her traditional grandmother hates about the modern world. When her boss wrongly blames her for an incident at work, her job goes from barely tolerable to completely miserable.

Things start to change when she meets a handsome Mundane one day on the subway. Despite the vast differences in their worlds and her grandmother's disapproval, Mildred pursues the relationship. Things are looking up in her personal life, but Mildred's new confidence has also put her on a collision course with a power hungry witch at work.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction

346 pages, Paperback

First published June 25, 2011

About the author

Amy Difar was born and raised in New York, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. Her college thesis won a writing award, which led to her taking on technical writing work in addition to programming.

Writing fiction has always been her passion, beginning with 'mission reports' that she wrote for the enjoyment of her role-playing group. She finds herself drawn to particular characters and enjoys telling their stories, allowing them to dictate the genre of the book. She is also fascinated as to how magic would fit into the world as we know it, so contemporary and urban fantasies are her main interest.

Her hobbies include listening to varied music, from goth, techno and metal to Celtic and Native American. She also loves to watch television and movies that make her laugh and she can't resist a good, dark beer.

She loves animals and enjoys spending time with her four-legged friends, including a one-eyed kitty and an epileptic dog. Having spent years observing the cats and trying to discern their true thoughts, she enjoys giving them a voice in some of her books.

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolutely delightfully entertaining read. Even if you're not normally a fan of urban fantasy, anyone who has worked a corporate job of any kind and/or dealt with the uncertainties of falling in love will really enjoy this book.

Mildred Poisonapple is a bad witch. She's not evil. She's just not very competent, which is one of many reasons why she's working for a company that mass produces supplies for the witch community instead of working in her family's home business. Like many corporate drones, she's miserable.

Then Mildred meets Peter and things begin to change in both her professional and personal life. Anyone can relate to the story that follows, albeit without the spell casting. Mildred deals with backstabbing, duplicitous coworkers, well-meaning but interfering family members and difficult potential in-laws in a way that's both entertaining and makes you empathize with her.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a slice-of-life novel with a very engaging lead character.

By the way, earlier I referred to this book as "urban fantasy" but that's only in the broadest sense of the word. The books I commonly think of as "urban fantasy" tend to have much more action than this one, with the world or a community often at risk. "The Corporate Witch" is more of a delightful blend of corporate commentary and modern-day comedy with dashes of a rom-com and urban fantasy. Actually, I think the fact that it doesn't perfectly fit one narrow-niche genre is one of its strengths but I don't want people mistakenly thinking it has the same level of action as a book in the Dark Hunter series or a Patricia Briggs or Ilona Andrews novel would.

The bottom line is that if you want an entertaining read about modern life with a dash of fantasy, definitely read "The Corporate Witch."

[Lydia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mildred Poisonapple is a young witch from a traditional family trying to make her way in the corporate world. Her decision to work in the modern, corporate world, is a source of tension between Mildred and her grandmother, but its not the biggest stress in her life. When she runs into trouble with co-workers and her boss, toeing the line between her two worlds becomes nearly impossible.

One of my only problems with the book was how quickly Mildred and her love interest got serious, it seemed a bit rushed and forced. With that being said, I enjoyed the book. Although the pace was not as fast as I am used to, I finished the book quickly without losing interest.

I do look forward to reading future works from Difar.

[FLbookgirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

fluffy, humorous, does not develop relationships between main characters, but it kept my interest enough to finish it.

[josepha.barabe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Follow up

I really enjoyed this book, and learned about corporate witches and the hard work they do. Now a follow up book about traditional witches and what they get into.