Sandy M’s review of Bewitched by Sandra Schwab
Historical paranormal romance published by Love Spell 1 Apr 08

I know a love potion in a romance story is not new ground, but when Sandra Schwab gets hold of a worn-out plot like that, she breathes new life into it. This author never disappoints me. Her books are always innovative and, of course, romantic, and her characters are alive and real. Bewitched is no exception.

When we first meet the main characters, they don’t like each other at all. To Amelia, Fox is the usual nose-in-the-air nobleman and as cold as a fish and he doesn’t care for her impertinence and lack of hostess skills required of a prospective wife. Though they both try to give second chances to the other, there is no spark between them whenever in each other’s company. The mystery starts soon enough when Amy’s guardian is blackmailed by a cryptic stranger who demands the couple be given a potion for nefarious reasons held close to the vest for quite some time. Suddenly we have two different characters utterly in love with one another and things really begin to move toward an ending full of treachery and magic.

Their romance is fun and flirtatious, but Amy begins to have flashbacks of a time when she didn’t care for Fox, and when she fully remembers, she now doesn’t know what is real, especially her love for him, and what is not. In between all of this she has also fallen in love with Fox’s family and when she finally figures out it’s evil magic at work and what it wants, without her powers there is only one way to protect them all and she doesn’t hesitate to put herself in peril to do so. The magic components and scenes described in this book are unique and filled with complexity and tension. Of course, when Fox finally realizes what has happened to them, his reacton is totally different than Amy’s, giving us a whole new layer to the story.

Once again Ms Schwab has given us a romance filled with joy and strife, characters you fall for right away and root for when things go awry, and a storyline with writing so different from anyone else. It’s the little extras in her books that make you keep turning page after page.

Grade: A-

From the back cover:

     Sweet passion…  After a magical mishap that turned her uncle’s house blue, Miss Amelia Bourne was stripped of her powers and sent to London in order to be introduced into polite society—and to find a suitable husband. Handsome, rakish Sebastian “Fox” Stapleton was all that and more. He was her true love. Wasn’t he?

     … or the bitter taste of deceit?  At Rawdon Park, the country estate of the Stapletons, Amy began to wonder. Several inexplicable events suggested that one sip of bitter punch had changed her life forever—that this love, this lust, was nothing but an illusion. She and Fox were pawns in some mysterious game, and black magic had followed them out of Town. Without her powers, would she be strong enough to battle those dark forces and win? And would she be able to claim her heart’s true desire? Magic potion or no, what she felt for Fox was a spell that could never be broken.

     Read an excerpt.