Sandy M’s review of Vampire Dragon (Works Like Magick, Book 3) by Annette Blair
Paranormal Romance published by Berkley 5 Apr 11

Well, this is a first. And one that puzzles the hell out of me. This is the first time an Annette Blair book hasn’t blown me away, hasn’t made me laugh as much, hasn’t drawn me in as completely as all of her previous books. Very disconcerting when this happens with one of your all-time favorite authors.

I kept thinking while reading the first half that we read a lot of the same in the first Dragonelli book, Naked Dragon, particularly the way Bastien had to learn being human again. Those are very funny scenes in that book, especially concerning his “man lance” and other endearing oddities he comes up with in his relearning. But after an entire story with all of those new-found things, I guess I was expecting something a tad different with Darkwyn once he makes the transition from dragon to man. Vampire Dragon seems to mirror Naked Dragon in those little details, with only characters and place different than before. I realize the idea for this part of the series is to bring all of the dragon brothers out of their captured state to find their heart mates, but it’s a little much with each experiencing much of the same the previous dragon does. Darkwyn does buck the system, so to speak, by leaving his “classes” early to be with Bronte, thus causing some cute semantics confusion, but that also happened with Bastien before his education as well as after.

It’s not until more than halfway through the book that it picks up and goes an interesting direction. Bronte and her nephew Zachary have been hiding in plain site from their deceased mother’s husband, a mob head honcho who wants them back in the fold because they know too much. Bronte runs a vampire club of sorts, with fairgrounds and other entertainment, for real and fake vamps, and this is where Darkwyn falls at her feet after his transformation – he’s got great aim when it comes to his heart mate – and where he eventually finds employment. Later when Bronte is nearly fatally injured by a mob spy, Darkwyn’s dragon emerges, scoops her and Zachary up to fly to safety where he can begin to heal Bronte. I did enjoy these scenes quite a bit, especially Darkwyn’s shifting and healing abilities, along with his emotional upheaval in his perceived allowing Bronte to be injured.

Now that she and Zachary have been found, Bronte decides to confront the issue head on by returning to Canada where the family estate is and to locate the evidence Zachary has hidden there – there’s a whole part of the story concerning this thirteen-year-old that’s pretty intriguing and interwoven into it quite nicely. Of course, once there with evidence in hand, they’re discovered and taken to Bronte’s stepfather where a confusing and inept fight goes on between the two factions, good versus bad, and at one point I had reread the part where Darkwyn and company lose control of the situation. It would seem that for a huge, though injured, dragon, a little more effort by the bad guys should have been had before their ultimate defeat when Darkwyn rallies and it all comes to an end.

Through the entire book, Bronte wears a mask. First it’s due to her business, all employees wear masks to make it easier for her and Zachary to hide out in the open. Then Darkwyn has his own ideas why she wears it and tries to get her to remove it for him, but he agrees to take her as she is. For the time being anyway. After all the time of Bronte wearing this mask, I’d thought we’d get a little more fanfare when it comes off, but it’s the last few pages where that happens, and I feel a tad let down by that – and the fact there’s nothing special going on when she does de-mask. Just seems there should have been something more, since it’s such a big deal for so long.

All this being said, Ms. Blair’s characters are still endearing and charming, especially the Dragonellis. I did enjoy seeing Bastien again, and Jaydun and Vivica make an interesting couple. The confrontations with Killian of Chaos are nail-biters, and having their Goddess Andra thwart her at every turn is fun. With the vampire theme throughout this book, though, Ms. Blair’s humor doesn’t come through as well as it has in previous books, which is a shame, because she’s one of the best when it comes to laughs. I still had fun, however, with the story and I’m still looking forward to the rest of the series.

Grade: B-

Summary:

Welcome to Drak’s, A Place for Vampires, where nobody is who–or what–they say they are, good and evil, alike.  Learn to tell the vamps from the role players and the tourists from the mob.  Meet Darkwyn Dragonelli, man and dragon, and Bronte McBride, the Vampiress who steals his heart.

Say hello to Puck, the sarcastic Macaw; flying cats Lila and Scorch; and a twelve-year old boy with a century’s worth of memories.  Ride in a casket at the amusement park, and drink some blood at “Bite Me” but don’t forget to try blood soup, blood pudding, and blood sausage, too. Yum.

In the final, deadly, confrontation: It’s a magickal shape shifting dragon in all his furious glory and the Vampiress he loves…against the mob boss from hell and Killian the evil sorceress.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Sandy M’s review of Bedeviled Angel (Works Like Magick, Book 2) by Annette Blair
Paranormal Romance published by Berkley 3 Aug 10

Are you ready for a feel-good book? Then you need to read Annette Blair. And not just Bedeviled Angel, but any of her books will make you laugh and smile in and around the happy but serious lives of her characters. You always feel good once you’ve read the last page.

Chance is an angel assigned to look out for a number of folks who will need him at any give time, but his attention centers on Queisha, the woman he gave his life for. He’d been glad to do it at the time, has no regrets except for maybe the life they could have had together in other circumstances. Sometimes, even for angels, you may get what you wish for, albeit you may also get into a lot of trouble for it.

Pushed from Heaven by a friendly cherub, Chance finds himself ensconced in Queisha’s life just when she needs help the most. Never fully recovered from giving the babies she carried as a surrogate to their parents, unexpected events have now placed the twins in her care. Viveca from Works Like Magick assures Queisha she’ll do fine with the help she’ll send to fill in any gaps caring for the girls.

Of course, it’s Chance who’s sent and that’s when the fun starts. I love Chance. He does his best to be the angel he’s supposed to be, but being near Queisha is very hard him. So much so, he loses feathers around the house during his inappropriate thoughts and feelings about the woman.

Queisha is a terrific heroine. She’s suffered from agoraphobia since the accident eight years before when a young man died saving her life. Now with Chance’s help she’s taking her first steps beyond into a world that frightens her, but she’ll do anything for Skye and Lace.

Every character is this book is charming and full of fun. Though they have to go through heavy-duty things in their lives, they keep an upbeat attitude, don’t let those things get them down for too long. Skye and Lace are especially fun despite their circumstances. Chance builds Queisha’s self-esteem when it comes to being a mother and she’s making all his dreams come true, even though he’ll have to return to his angelic life and face the music for his short time of happiness on Earth.

He must also face the music when Queisha learns who he truly is

Annette Blair is a master at sweeping you from one emotion to the next with the flip of a page. Her humor mixed with life challenges always give you characters with dignity and laced with fun streaks. You can’t help but feel good when you’ve finished one of her books.

Grade: A+

Summary:

In a building collapse, Chance Godricson is meant to live and Queisha Saint-Denis to die, but he sent her up his escape tunnel before him, and it collapsed behind her . . . and he became her guardian angel.

Now Queisha’s about to face the most difficult challenge of her life and Chance wants to be there for her. Enter Angus, a fellow angel, who knocks Chance back to earth, and to Queisha, without permission.

Will the archangels let Chance stay? For how long? And at what cost?

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Sandy M’s review of Naked Dragon (Works Like Magick, Book 1) by Annette Blair
Paranormal Romance published by Berkley 5 Jan 10

I’ve been a fan of Annette Blair’s since her first witch trilogy, and I loved every one of those books through two series. Her humor is her mainstay, something you know will be in every story and will keep you entertained throughout the read, as well as her imagination that gives you charming characters in various storylines, all of which are wrapped in magic. You cannot go wrong with an Annette Blair book.

What I love most about this book is not only Bastian himself, sexy, naked dragon that he is, but when we first meet him, he’s just come back to the human realm, once again a man after being a dragon for so many years. He has to reabsorb things that he knew as a Roman warrior.  So it’s his innocence, or, as McKenna is told, his literal-ness, that makes him so endearing. Ms. Blair’s humor helps him along; I found myself laughing out loud a number of times at his responses to situations.  Bastian’s the first of his brothers to make it back via the magic of the Goddess of Hope, so all are relying on him to defeat the Sorceress of Chaos and to pave the way for the others to follow. If he fails, all is lost.

McKenna is a direct descendant of Ciarra, a Salem witch who survived the witch trials.  Alas, McKenna has no magic and that’s why she’s in need of a handyman, pronto. She’s running against the clock to turn her rundown familial Victorian home into a bed and breakfast.  She refuses to be the one to lose it after so many centuries. She has a developer who’s hot for the land and won’t leave her be, constantly making her offers. So she turns to her cousin, Vivica Quinlann, who does possess magic and owns the Works Like Magic Employment Agency. Vivica has taken Bastian in when he arrives and now has the perfect place for him – McKenna’s jack-of-all-trades.

When these two come together, the fun starts and never lets up. Bastian loves the internet. He looks up every little thing he doesn’t understand anymore, and that’s a lot. He also speed reads, so his learning curve is quite high. Some things are still the same that he remembers from before, like the attraction to a beautiful woman. But then there are other things that confound him a little, his man lance being one. And that’s where most of my laughter came from. Bastian and his man lance are something else, first humorous and then sexy and erotic as all get-out.

Of course, there are serious moments to be had. McKenna has just lost her mother. Bastian is able to see all of McKenna’s past ancestors on the Greylock property, something McKenna has to learn to believe in on her own. The evil coming at them from both the human and the magic side is very real and they have to work together to conquer all. We don’t get to see Bastian’s dragon until the very end of the book when he can no longer control his inner beast as McKenna physically has to fight her rotten developer. Those scenes that come after when McKenna learns Bastian still lives are the best in the book. Ms. Blair can pull at the heart strings as well as she can hit the funny bone.

Secondary characters are just as wonderfully written as the hero and heroine. I especially love Dewcup, a miniature fairy who gets into trouble every time she turns around, and also Steve and Lizzie, McKenna’s friends, and their children. Scenes with these characters go from hilarious to heart wrenching.

This is a terrific start for Ms. Blair’s new series. Her writing is still invitingly fresh, especially the banter between characters no matter who they are. Her take on magic is just as fresh and very different from most of what’s out there to read nowadays. As her fans have learned from her previous series, each coming book will be a delight, will stand on its own, but will remain true and consistent to the essence of the series.

Isn’t it time you learned that too?

Grade: A+

Summary:

In Salem, human magick has thinned the veil between the planes to a permeable mist, forming a portal into the city, allowing time travelers and chameleons of the universe to enter there.

Bastian Dragonelli, once a Roman warrior turned dragon, is the first of his legion to be returned to earth, a man. So his brothers can also be saved and sent to earth, Bastian must reclaim the magick of Andra, Goddess of Hope, who sacrificed hers to transform him. He must seek his heart mate and make her quest his own. But the dark, powerful Killian, Sorceress of Chaos, who turned his legion into dragons and skewed his transition back into a man, is hot on his heels.

McKenna Greylock, the last non-magickal descendant of Ciarra, a witch who survived Salem’s hanging times, needs a jack-of-all-trades to help turn her dilapidated Victorian into a bed and breakfast so she doesn’t lose her home and her family’s centuries-old legacy.

Enter McKenna’s cousin, Vivica Quinlan, Ciarra’s most magickal descendent, owner of the Works Like Magick Employment Agency. Vivica has a gift for matching human employers with magickal employees. Like Ciarra before her, Vivica knows when magickal supernatural ancients are about to arrive. She greets them and acclimates them to life, and to making a living, in Salem.

Besides Killian’s threatening presence, Bastian’s life is also complicated by McKenna, his guardian dragon, a troublemaking fairy, and a case of culture shock. Bastian also has a problem with his man lance. It won’t behave at all the way he remembered it should.  Not at all…

Read an excerpt.

A huge thank you to Annette Blair for a fun Duck Chat here at the Pond!

Drumroll, if you please! We have two winners today. First for a copy of Annette’s Sex and the Psychic Witch, third book in her Triplet Witch series, the winner is:

AngelaT (7)

And our winner for a copy of the first book in Annette’s Vintage Magic series, A Veiled Deception, is:

teresa (2)

Congratulations, ladies! Please send your snail mail address to lighthousetagger (at) gmail (dot) com and we’ll contact Annette for you.

Sandy M’s review of Never Been Witched (Triplet Witch Trilogy, Book 3) by Annette Blair
Contemporary Paranormal Romance published by Berkley 3 Feb 09

This is the last book in Annette Blair’s witch trilogies, and though she’s started a couple of new series, I’m sorry to see this one end. These sexy and intelligent witches throughout two trilogies have been an outright blast to read. The humor and banter between all of Ms. Blair’s heroes and heroines is nearly unparalleled, only a few other authors ever come to mind when it comes to those two elements combined with enchanting characters and fun storylines.

Destiny is the third Cartwright triplet to find her hero in the most unlikely of places. Actually, in the most unlikeliest of persons. She met Morgan at the same time her sisters met their now spouses, but she and Morgan did not hit it off right away, though there was plenty of sexual tension between them. Taking some time for herself while her family and the troublesome Morgan are in Scotland, she stays at her brother-in-law’s lighthouse on Paxton Island to find her psychic path, to soothe her soul.

But her sisters are playing matchmaker and secretly give a key to the lighthouse to Morgan too. They stumble over each other the first and so begins the fun for the reader with the wit and sensuality that doesn’t let up one bit until the very end. Destiny is the sister that sees the future in various ways, one of which is painting her visions, which she’s done over the years, and it’s with Morgan that they both begin to experience those visions firsthand.

Destiny can also see and talk to ghosts, which is a good thing since two very vital spirits are currently in residence with her and Morgan during their stay. Through one of those spirits, she begins to learn a little more about Morgan and his reasons for debunking the paranormal. They both learn there’s more to Morgan than meets the eye, and his belief transformations are loads of fun though they once or twice take place during dangerous situations.

The love scenes are extra fun in this book. Why, you ask? Huh-uh. Not going to say. Just know Morgan is having the time of his life when having sex with Destiny. I thoroughly enjoyed these two characters on their journey to finding each other. The rest of the family does make it back near the end of the book, and it’s just that much more fun when they do arrive.

These are such fun books and I’m glad I discovered them and Annette Blair. It’s bittersweet leaving these stories and characters behind, but I know more fantastic reading is ahead with Ms. Blair’s new series.

Grade: A+

Summary:

The Cartwright triplets—Harmony, Destiny, and Storm—are psychic sirens who use their magic for good and their good looks for seduction. But for Destiny, catching the attention of a paranormal debunker isn’t going to be easy.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Other related books:

Welcome back to Duck Chat!

Today Annette Blair is our guest and you’re in for a lot fun!

Annette’s witch trilogies are full of magic and loads of fun. If you haven’t read any of them yet, try one. I can guarantee you can’t read just one. Her Accidental Witch trilogy entranced readers in 2004 when The Kitchen Witch hit the shelves, followed by My Favorite Witch, and then The Scot, the Witch and Wardrobe. The Triplet Witch trilogy featured the three identical sisters of the heroine in TStWtR, Sex and the Psychic Witch, Gone with the Witch, and Never Been Witched, also became readers’ favorites when the first book was published in 2007. Annette has now taken a new direction with her Vintage Magic Mysteries series this year. A Veiled Deception and Larceny and Lace are already making the rounds. And Annette’s Work Like Magick series will be out next year, Naked Dragon the first in the series. Plus, she has a number of historicals that were published well before her paranormals became so popular. Whew! If you’re going to start reading Annette Blair, you’d better start now!

Annette lives in Rhode Island with her husband. Her love of books started when she was young and discovered a library next door to her neighborhood playground. Many books and years later, her daughter challenged her to write her own book, and thank goodness she did. What a favor she did for us, giving romanceland Annette Blair. Leave a meaningful comment and we’ll put you in the running for a copy of Sex and the Psychic Witch and  A Veiled Deception, compliments of Annette!

DUCK CHAT: Annette, let’s talk about your witch trilogies first, the Accidental Witch trilogy and the Triplet Witch trilogy. They are such fun reads. Tell us how the ideas for the series came about and then we can talk about the books themselves.

ANNETTE BLAIR: I had taken to calling myself the “Accidental Witch-Writer” because I never intended to write a paranormal, and the way I got started was, well, magic. Half an emergency root canal the Friday before a scheduled weekend in Salem MA with friends made me want to stay home and die in my own bed. But I didn’t want to disappoint my friends, so I went. I lagged behind, and popped pain meds. I never thought I’d write a contemporary. I’d said as much. But a shop called The Kitchen Witch put a plot into my head that I couldn’t let go. The Kitchen Witch  got the attention of Nancy Yost, Legendary New York Agent, and Cindy Hwang, Legendary New York Editor, and the rest, as they say, is a writing career that got shifted into high gear. Each of my witches, by the way, is more paranormal than the last.

As I was about to consider what came after Kira’s story, my next door neighbors came home from school. They’re identical triplets I’d watched grow up. They shared triplet secrets with me, so I wrote a triplet witch series. I knew they would be psychic and each would have a different strength: the past, the present, the future. Harmony, Storm, and Destiny.

DC: Did the trilogies evolve as you originally envisioned them?

AB: The Kitchen Witch was, in my mind, a stand alone. But my editors and readers wanted more. I was glad that I gave Melody two friends, Kira and Vickie. Once I knew it was a trilogy, they exceeded my expectations. As did the triplets. I fell in love with them all, and their heroes of course.

DC: If you could retire any question and never, ever have it asked again, what would it be? Feel free to answer it.

AB: I would retire: Which book is your favorite? Or which hero/heroine are? My favorite is always the book I’m working on, because I’m deep into it and excited about revealing my characters and stories.

DC: I’ve heard writers often say their stories take them in surprising directions, or dialogue flows from some unknown place. Is it the same with you? Do your characters surprise you sometimes?

AB: Expected characters go in unexpected directions. Characters pop up when I least expect them. A good example are my mysteries, because I was given a “Series Bible” with characters and situations outlined. However, surprise! Out of my editor’s ideas for a series came my own surprising characters: Cary Grant clone ghost Dante Underhill; Detective Lytton Werner aka Little Wiener; centenarian Dolly Sweet and her daughter-in-law Ethel; Chakra the cat. In Naked Dragon, I didn’t plan for a small blue guardian dragon to come through the veil with my man dragon, but there I was writing Jock who test smokes people and either approves or disapproves them depending on the color his smoke turns. Nobody else can see Jock except Bastian Dragonelli, until Bastian underestimates the power of water.

DC: The Accidental Witch trilogy starts with Melody Seabright in The Kitchen Witch and then her two best friends take over in My Favorite Witch and The Scot, the Witch & the Wardrobe. Would you tell our readers a little about each book?

AB: Melody Seabright in The Kitchen Witch is the cooking show host who doesn’t know how to cook, but she wins the hearts of her TV audience with her style and showmanship. She also wins the hearts of her producer and upstairs neighbor, Logan Kilgarven, and his son, despite her sass and quirks.

Kira Fitzgerald, a jilted witch with a twitchy wand, in My Favorite Witch, leaves her cheating jock fiancée behind only to end up working with, and falling for Jason Goddard, a playboy hockey player on medical leave. Together, they find a restive ghost, auguring crows, two little boys who steal their hearts, and a love to last forever.

Vickie Cartwright in The Scot, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a witch in denial. Shocked that she unlocks an old wardrobe that no Cartwright female before her could, she takes the contents, an antique carousel unicorn, on the Antiques Roadshow, only to catch the eye of Rory MacKenzie in Scotland whose family’s been looking for that missing piece of their history for a century. Now he knows exactly where to find it.

DC: Do you ever argue with your characters while you’re writing? Who usually wins?

AB: Must be from being a prep school department head for more than twenty years, but I always get my way, no arguing necessary. Though I do take their ideas into account, and if they’re good, I’m no fool. I’ll find the right place to weave them in.

DC: What is sure to distract you from sitting down and working/writing?

AB: Sure to distract me are three precious little beings: Travis age 5; Kelsey age 3; Laura age 2. Two grands and a great grand. I’m the Nana who gets called if one of the grands is sick, and I drop everything to pick them up and take care of them until their parents get out of work. If one of them calls and says “I miss you, Nana,” or “come play with me” I’m a puddle of mush and on my way, unless it’s Laura, who lives several states away. I have to satisfy myself with Laura’s unexpected speed dial calls, aware that she’s stolen my daughter’s cell phone again. She knows which number is Gigi’s (mine) or Poppy’s (my husband’s) and she gives us equal attention. My daughter married Laura’s grandfather last year but she has her little hand clutched firmly around our hearts. I could listen to her babble for hours, though she says, “I wuff you” beautifully. We now travel from New England to New Jersey quite often.

DC: In the Triplet Witch trilogy we get to know Victoria Cartwright’s sisters from the third book in the original series. Harmony, Storm, and Destiny are some very sexy heroines. Can you tell us about them and their heroes?

AB: Harmony senses the past in that she can read whatever she touches that’s old. She’s psychometric. So when she walks into King Paxton’s haunted castle, she can tell that the ghost haunting it is causing the turmoil in the air, which makes his renovation crew argue. Actually the Gussie the ghost made everyone argue since she died. Enter Harmony and everyone calms down. Work can get done. He can get rid of the family horror show faster with everyone getting along, so he hires Harmony to hang around while she searches for all the vintage clothes she wants. The big deal here is that King was born in the castle, so she can read him, and don’t think that she doesn’t take advantage of that.

Storm senses the present and whenever she’s near Aiden Quinn, she hears a baby crying. He won’t go with her on a trip to follow the sound so she seduces him into his motor home and out of his clothes. Then she takes out the purple fuzzy handcuffs. When he’s spread eagle in his skivvies and expecting her to, er, hop on, she waves, walks away, gets into the driver’s seat and drives away, paying attention to the sound of the baby crying in her head. Meanwhile, Aiden is almost glad for the reprieve, because he’s got a hell of a secret that he doesn’t have to bare so soon.

Destiny senses the future and paints what she sees. Problem is when she and Morgan Jarvis get stuck sharing the same lighthouse, her paintings start to make sense. Add to the mix the ghost of a child, a lighthouse keeper, and an angel named Buffy, and havoc seems to take over. Oh, Morgan also has a secret, plus he’s a paranormal debunker, and he’s trying to debunk Destiny. He has a past to face, however, before he can look to the future, and Destiny is determined to help him, no matter how incompatible they are and how hunky he’s looking.

DC: What has been your favorite book cover from all of your releases and why?

You don’t expect a one title answer, do you? The cover of Sex and the Psychic Witch ties with Gone with the Witch because my witches seem so alive, seductive, and mysterious on those covers. However, the cover for Naked Dragon is drool worthy. This series is hero centric, and the stud on that cover will stop you in your tracks.

DC: How about your least favorite cover? Why?

AB: Thee, I Love is my least favorite because it’s historically inaccurate. It depicts an Amish schoolteacher with deep cleavage and flowers and lace on her short purple gown, her legs are bare, her hair down, and she has no Amish kapp on her head. The cover is colorful, attractive, but wrong, wrong, wrong!

DC: You have a new series in the works, Vintage Magic Mysteries. Please tell us how this trilogy came about.

AB: Well, the mystery series was presented to me on a silver platter, so to speak. My agent asked if I wanted to write a Prime Crime mystery series for Kate Seaver at Berkley. Cindy Hwang is my editor for my Berkley Sensations, so that was a surprise.

Evidently mystery editors (at least Berkley Prime Crime) have these “Blue Sky” meetings where they think up mystery series, and they came up with this one where the heroine would be a fashion designer, come home from New York for her sister’s wedding, solve a mystery and stay to open a vintage dress shop. And oh yes, Madeira Cutler can “read” vintage clothes. She touches them, kind of zones, and sees things that happened while people were wearing them. If you’ll remember, in Sex and the Psychic Witch, Harmony was psychometric; she could read vintage objects and know about their pasts and their owners. I guess that’s why they thought of me for this project.

I didn’t know if I could write a mystery, so they asked if they could send the mystery bible. I said sure. They set it in Virginia, I changed it to Mystic, Connecticut. I’m a New England girl. As a matter of fact, I literally live between Salem MA and Mystic CT. Each is about an hour away. They made Eve, her best friend, a math scholar and since math scares me, I made her a computer whiz, because I have a similar background.

Once I made the bible my own, they asked me to write a chapter. So I did, and, lo and behold, they bought it. A Veiled Deception came out of that first chapter and it got an RT TOP PICK when it was released this past January. Many of the characters are my own: Dolly the 103 year old. Dante Underhill the Cary Grant clone ghost. Naming Madeira and her siblings after wine; that’s mine. Detective Lytton Werner, aka, the Wiener, he’s mine, too. Oh, and the former morgue turned funeral chapel carriage house, that’s mine too. My husband and I rented that building for twenty years and yes, there were horse stalls for the horses that pulled the hearses and there were caskets and “stuff” when we moved in. But Maddie’s family, her FBI hunk, her English Professor father and her witchy aunt, those were in the bible. Between the blue sky story.

DC: The first two books in the trilogy are already on the shelves, A Veiled Deception and Larceny and Lace. Would you tell us about them?

AB: A Veiled Deception is the first in the series, so it introduces Madeira Cutler and her family: Her mother was a witch? Home from the New York fashion world to plan her sister’s wedding, Madeira Cutler becomes a sleuth when the bride is accused of murder. Turns out, Maddie can “read” vintage clothes and follow their clues. What other gifts did she inherit from her mother?

Larceny and Lace, second in the series, takes place once Maddie opens her Vintage Dress Shop in town. She has two murders to solve in this story, because it begins with an intruder in her shop who’s trying to steal bones from a body drawer, left over from the old morgue. Seems somebody thought an abandoned building was a good place to hide a set of bones. We learn a lot more about Detective Werner in the second story. She and her best friend Eve really lead him a merry chase.

Excerpt from Larceny and Lace:

“I find that it is vital to have at least one handbag for each of the ten types of social occasion: Very Formal, Not So Formal, Just a Teensy Bit Formal, Informal but Not That Informal, Every Day, Every Other Day, Day Travel, Night Travel, Theater, and Fling.” —Miss Piggy

Chapter One

If I hadn’t asked my New York cronies to mention my grand opening in their national fashion magazines, I might be able to breathe as if I weren’t wearing Scarlett O’Hara’s corset.

Thirteen days before Halloween. Thirteen days to open Vintage Magic, my dress shop for timeless classics and designer originals.

What was I doing to make it happen? Driving home to Mystic, Connecticut, from New York after working out my contractual two weeks’ notice, rather than forfeiting the bonus I needed to turn my building into Vintage Magic.

As I drove, grinning witches and twinkling pumpkin lights mocked me. I needed a tucking miracle.

My name is Maddie Cutler, well, Madeira, a former New York fashion designer, and I can fix anything, with the possible exception of cloning myself. So you can imagine my frustration two weeks ago at having to hand my shop’s renovation reins over to my father.

Harry Cutler, staid academic, planned ahead. His oldest daughter, creative free spirit—that would be me—did not, which is how I got myself into this.

The silver lining? I passed my departing construction crew near Mystic Seaport. Finished. Finally. And only three weeks late.

The flaw in the fabric? A faxed report from the construction crew’s night watchman. A rash of bumps in the night and running feet into the early hours of the morning. Note from said watchman: The Mystick Falls police are getting ticked at being called every night “with no perp to show for it.”

I did not need anymore grief from my old nemesis, Detective Sergeant Lytton Werner, also known as “the Wiener,” thanks to a certain third-grade brat—that would also be me.

My complicated relationship with the local police aside, did the bumps in the night worry me? You bet your French knickers, they did. Why this sudden interest in a building that had been boarded up and left undisturbed for more than half a century?

I hoped never to find out.

Tomorrow I’d start moving in my stock and setting up my displays. How long could it take? I’d only been collecting vintage my whole life. Oy.

As I turned onto Bank Street, I heard raised voices in the distance, which anyone who’d passed the playhouse across from my shop heard at one time or another. Broderick Sampson, the curmudgeon of an owner argued with everyone. Just another sign I was home.

I pulled into the crowded lot behind Mystic Pizza to view my building from across the street. I had always admired the original copper weathervane, a ship in full sail time-coated a soft green, but I loved the new Victorian streetlamps brightening my parking lot, and the spotlit old-fashioned tavern sign hanging above the door: Vintage Magic in bold white on a dark eggplant-colored shield. Behind the shop name stood a pale lavender side silhouette of a woman who could be Jackie O., the sixties being such a popular vintage.

I finally uncrated my crying kitten, who would rather have been riding shotgun from the armrest, and she came to make her own assessment.

I refused to stress over the parking-lot debris marring the scene: empty wire reels and a mountain of boxes at my front door. You’d think the crew would have cleaned up.

The yellow fur ball purred and curled against my solar plexus chakra, an intuitive move on her part. She had the uncanny ability to calm me. Because of it, I’d named her appropriately. “What do you think, Chakra? Beautiful?”

She approved with a soft meow.

Genuine delight washed over me.

No more weather-ravaged, raw wood shack, though we hadn’t replaced a splinter that didn’t need it. No windows existed on the building’s main floor, but I didn’t want sunshine fading my vintage treasures, anyway.

We’d replaced the people door, but the huge, tall, front-facing double doors beside it, built for horse-drawn hearses, were now sealed . . . though the same could not be said for a similar door at the side of the building.

In front, however, their sheer size in lavender with eggplant crossbeams, made the sage building pop. Magical colors, according to Aunt Fiona, lawyer, godmother, and witch. Sage: the herb to clear negative energy and the color for prosperity; lavender for harmony; purple for wisdom.

In this incarnation, Vintage Magic oozed character and charm, leaving its days as a morgue, then a funereal carriage house, to the history books.

I moved Chakra from my lap, drove across Bank Street, and pulled straight into my smooth new tarmac parking lot.

I had yet to see the transformation inside.

Between the New York job and condo to sublet, I hadn’t been back in the last two weeks. But the minute both were done, I’d packed seven years of my life into a funky rental and beat my ETA by an hour.

As a result, Dad, Aunt Fiona, Eve, my best friend, and Nick, my hunky Italian boy toy, weren’t here, yet. They were due soon to crack open the secret room with me; secret being relative.

Dolly Sweet, friend and centenarian, who’d deeded me the place for the price of taxes, forgot to tell me about the second-floor storage room, its doors cut so seamlessly into a wall, I’d missed it on my pre-ownership tour. Like the rest of us, Dolly couldn’t wait to find out what she forgot she sold me.

Sure, reports of bumps in the night made me think twice about viewing even the bottom floor alone. But this was my building and I was the only one who hadn’t seen its transformation.

Besides, I had four things on my side. A key. A can of mace. Spiked heels. And a watch cat. Who could ask for more?

I was going in.

The key my father sent me slipped into the lock like a knife through flan, or cheesecake, or tiramisu. Hmm. I forgot to eat today. Forgot to sleep last night, too, I was so busy packing.

My stomach growled as I stepped inside, the scent of fresh paint filling me with a giddy Christmas-morning rush. Chakra jumped from my arms and hit the floor with a whomp to scope out the place.

The panel of switches and dimmers behind the enclosed stairway, near the door to my horse-stall dressing rooms, allowed me to flood the room with a soft wash of indirect pale pink light. I’d asked for a hint of art deco in the mahogany trim and it looked sensational, better than my sketches.

Crazy-quilt ideas for finishing touches, decorating, displays, and shop layout filled my mind.

I grinned as I perused my linen-paneled, three-thousand-square-foot dream-come-true. Vintage Magic.

The mahogany, waist-high hearse stalls against the back wall remained intact and set the style, while a cart of matching movable lower walls awaited placement along the front and sides. I’d be able to see my customers in whatever fashion type or designer nook they perused.

Unexpectedly, the wind grabbed the front door and slammed it.

I jumped and Chakra howled.

A metallic clank hit the floor above us.

My heart skipped a beat. Chakra flew into my arms, her fear becoming mine as I shivered in my Jimmy Choos.

Scrap! A bump in the night and no watchman in sight.

DC: How do you feel your male or female characters have evolved over your career? Do you think you write them differently now than you did when you started?

AB: Well, I like to think that I write both better. My editor told me that Bastian Dragonelli, hero of Naked Dragon, is her favorite of my heroes. I believe my heroines are stronger yet more whimsical. I think that my heroes are no longer entirely Beta but have more Alpha tendencies.

DC: Is there a genre you haven’t tackled but would like to try?

AB: I guess I would pretty much like to try every genre, eventually. I always have ideas for other genres.

DC: What advice would you give to your younger self?

AB: That’s easy: “Start writing romance when you’re home with your first baby, not when they’re both in high school, silly girl.”

DC: Your next trilogy is the Supernatural Employment Agency series, which will be out next year. Where did this idea for the series come from?

AB: Basically, they came from my “idea” that the veil between the planes is made thin by human magick, and that a witch must be a key character in the series, and they took off from there.

This is a series of situation comedies about supernatural beings and the mortals who hire and fall in love with them. The supernatural characters, according to their particular abilities, will change form, employ super strengths, libidos, vision, hearing, etc. They’ll shape shift, orb, fly, and make themselves and objects appear and disappear, shocking the hell out of their employers.

This is my official description for the Works Like Magic Novels: “They’re the chameleons of the universe—the magical, supernatural ancients—time travelers and shape shifters: dragons, angels, mermen, pirates—each with their own unique magickal talents. They’ve fought armies, advised kings, and even appeared to die for their beliefs, or their crimes, but they all end in Salem, where mortal magick has thinned the veil to a permeable mist and formed an entry portal in time. Whether the travelers were banished, came looking for secrets from their own pasts, or arrived by mistake, it’s a well known fact that it’s not easy going back, so once they arrive, they need a life and a living.

Enter Vivica Quinlan. She’s a young witch a big heart, a sense of humor, a good head for business, and a centuries-old legacy from an ancestor who survived the burning times of greeting and welcoming the ancients. Through “Works like Magick,” her small, discreet, supernatural employment agency, perfect for those who are more—and less than—human, Vivica actualizes the time travelers with all the legal trappings. She fits their talents, strengths and skills to each challenging job requirement. A perfect fit isn’t always easy to achieve, but it’s a skill for which Works like Magick bears a sterling reputation. And when the traveler fits the job, and finds love, in a way no mortal could, the results are often more than magick—they’re downright magickal.

DC: Naked Dragon, out in January 2010, and Bedeviled Angel, out in August 2010, are the first two books. Can you give us a smidge of a sneak peek?

AB: I’m going to give you the poem that begins each as a sneak peek.

Naked Dragon:

On the Island of Stars, on a plane beyond ours, A legion exists.
Romans. Knights. Males with fight.
Cursed. Exiled. Warriors still, breathing fire for sport
Casting shadows on the ground from the air, wings spread,
Bearing scales of gold, some silver, some red.
Dragons who hoped to be blessed with unlikely redress,
Humanity returned and put to the test.
But trapped by an endless lava sea, this army of dragons seems doomed not to be.
One sliver of hope, a risk: bound moons shade white magick from black.
One dragon per phase might be turned and sent back,
But who could be spared to make way for the rest? Who best?
The alpha stepped up to save his clan. Their protector nodded and chanted her plan:
“Shed horns, spines, claws and webbed wings. Shrink scales, spade and tail—”
The counter spell came in a lightning bolt. Bastian roared as he took the jolt.
But aborting now would mean certain death. No wasting time, not even a breath.
“Knight to beast now back, again. Send this man to the plane he began.”
Bastian roared as he twisted to shift from dragon to man in the steam from the rift.
Soothed by his mentor with a dragon tear, a magick so rare,
Hope grew, despite the scent of death in the air.

* * *

Bedeviled Angel:

Two souls touch
A moment sublime
Wrapped in chaotic time
While Angels stand behind

Through fate’s delay
Wild events convey
Paths leading away
While Angels walk beside

No turning back
An undeniable fact
A life-lesson lack,
Tho’ Angels have your back

DC: If you were a book, what would your blurb be?

AB: Sassy and snarky, she’ll make you laugh, cry, and end up with a heart full of hope and the belief that life is good.

DC: What would be your “voice’s” tagline?

AB: “Magic stories with Heart.”

DC: You Can’t Steal First is your novella in the Hot Ticket anthology with Julia London, Dierdre Martin, and Geri Buckley, and will hit the shelves next month. Would you tell us about it?

AB: My story, You Can’t Steal First, is about Tiago and Quinn who met when she beat him up in the sandbox. He was from the wrong side of the tracks. Her family owned the tracks. They were each other’s first, but the next morning, Tiago was gone. Now, thirteen years later, he’s a big name Red Sox player on his Hot Ticket Express (train) to spring training, and she’s been tricked into going along for the ride. There’s no right or wrong side this time, they’re riding the tracks, and they’ve got a lot of catching up to do.

Excerpt from You Can’t Steal First:

Tiago looked down at the station platform, from the parlor car in which he stood, at Quinn Murdock, all prim, and proper, and appalled, as beautiful as ever, even dissing his train.

His heart raced at the implications–Quinn, for three days, neither of them on the wrong, or right, side of the tracks, but square in the middle.

Maybe, he’d get some long-overdue answers.

Maybe . . . they’d finally kill each other.

Quinn stepped away to read the plaque on the railroad car, and the sun came out and gilded her hair to copper. Then the wind lifted it around her face, and Tiago could swear he caught its scent. He remembered the silk of it sliding between his fingers. His body remembered as well.

“Mickey Mantle?” Quinn asked, the sudden set of her lips enhancing his hard reaction. She stepped back and read the names of the baseball greats on several railroad cars. “You wouldn’t!” She turned on her gofers, and they stepped collectively back. “I told you about Tiago in confidence!”

Tiago’s heart skipped. Thirteen years, and she still talked about him?

“Please!” Quinn said, “Tell me this moldering old excuse for a locomotive is not Tiago’s Hot-Ticket Express to Spring Training!”

“This is not Tiago’s Hot-Ticket Express to Spring Training,” Charm Boy lied as ordered.

Tiago braced himself, as much against the train’s first halting surge as against the razor-sharp blade of Quinn’s presence slicing open his sorry past and threatening to make him bleed.

“Let’s get you on board,” Charm Boy said. “Damn train’s starting to move.” Despite Quinn’s protest, the man shoved her, ass-up, onto the train while Tiago bit off an objection to the familiarity.

Quinn gave her attention to fighting and cursing the ham-fisted jerk behind her, so she didn’t know who stepped out and caught her hand to keep her from falling on the tracks–couldn’t know that touching her again revved more than the Amtrak engine up front.

“Traitors,” she shouted as she turned, retrieved her hand, and caught her balance, still focused on the tricksters who got her here.

Charm Boy sprinted beside the train and tossed two suitcases in after her. One hit the floor at her feet, split, and belched enough gauze and spandex to make a hooker proud.

The second broke the bones in Tiago’s left foot.

“Effing-A,” Quinn said as she fell to her knees, rescued a rippling cellophane halter top, and shoved it back in the bag’s gaping belly. She rifled through the rainbow of bare-flesh wet dreams, and with rising anxiety, she checked the second bag, a street-walker’s shoe store. “Where’s my underwear?” she shouted. “Derek, there’s no underwear!”

Her male gofer grinned, saluted, and stopped trying to keep up, and as the distance grew between them, he rubbed his hands together at a job well done. Quinn’s female contingent caught up to him, and they high-fived each other.

Quinn screeched when she saw, and about gave Tiago a stroke when she leaned out the door. “Loserrrrrrs!”

The losers grinned, nodded, and waved.

Tiago caught the death-defying tigress around the waist and hauled her back in, against her will, his heart racing over her stunt, her scent, her lush familiar curves. “Damn, but I forgot what a pain in the ass you are.”

Quinn Murdock–the only woman who ever ran away from him–in his arms again. Tiago held her against him, eye to eye, her feet about six inches off the ground.

“Son of an effing bustard,” she snapped. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Put me down you dumbass gorilla.”

Tiago chuckled. “I missed you too.”

The pointed toes of her biker-type knee boots made hard contact with his shins.

He set her down. “Son of a– A few more bruises, Hot Stuff, and I’ll end up shining the bench at spring training.”

“Turn your back on me, and you won’t make that cut. Despite her bluster, Quinn stepped away from him to come up against the undulating Pullman car at her back. Tiago’s heart skipped when the chasm between the platform and the car opened and closed beneath her, as if trying to suck her down and swallow her whole.

“Get your sweet ass away from there.” He offered his hand, but Quinn’s eyes narrowed to sparks of fiery emerald, so he grabbed her by the waist and lifted her off her feet to set her down in a safe spot between the car doors.

He brought her bags over as well. “Got any tassels in there?” he asked, catching a flying scrap of silk like a line drive to second. Then he pressed a button to shut the doors and cut the whirlwind trying to suck her wardrobe into oblivion.

Quinn snatched the silky scrap from his texture-testing fingers.

“Leave it to you to call your employees losers,” he said.

She shoved the scrap in her pocket. “They’re not my employees. They’re my friends.”

“You have friends?”

She placed a fast boot heel on her belching bag to nail a diaphanous strip of pink champagne and keep it from floating away.

Tiago grinned. “With all that leather you’re wearing, I keep looking for your whip.”

“You wouldn’t know haute couture if it bit you in the butt.”

“Stop it, you’re turning me on.”

“Bite me.”

“There you go again.”

Quinn tried to toss her hair over her shoulders, an assertive, attention-getter she’d used as a teen, except that her long nutmeg “wings” had been clipped, likely for the boardroom, and there was no length left. Short, stylish, and businesslike, her hair fell longest around her face where it curled beneath her chin and met like the inside point of an inverted heart, framing her features into a sassy, sexy whole while showcasing the sweet, sublime line of her neck.

She firmed her spine and raised her chin.

Twice as hot as the designer-chic curves revealed by the calfskin outfit she’d been shoe-horned into that morning, Quinn Murdock had never looked better, except for maybe the first time he saw her . . . in the sandbox.

They were five.

She gave him a black eye.

It was love at first smite.

DC: If you had never become an author, what do you think you would be doing right now?

AB: I’d still be a Development Director at the prep school where I worked for more than twenty years, until I left three years ago to write full time.

DC: You’ve written a number of historicals. Will you be writing any more in the future?

AB: I love historical romances, so yes, I’d love to write more. There are two rogues I never wrote, Hunter Elijah Wylder’s story and Myles Quartermaine’s story, and I have a sequel in mind for The Butterfly Garden. Yes, definitely more historicals, if I can.

DC: Do you prefer writing contemps/paranormals over historical or vice versa?

AB: I can only write the stories that I fall in love with. It really doesn’t matter which genre. Some authors choose according to the brevity of research, but I believe that contemporaries take every bit as much research as historicals. However, I am really shocked at how much I enjoy writing my first-person cozy mysteries.

DC: What else is on the horizon for Annette Blair?

AB: I have four books out this year and three scheduled for next so far. I hope to write more Vintage Magic Mysteries and more Works Like Magick Novels. I’d like to hit the New York Times and maybe win a Rita.

Lightning Round:

- dark or milk chocolate? – milk
- smooth or chunky peanut butter? – smooth
- heels or flats? – Heels if I didn’t need new knees; flats because I don’t have a choice
- coffee or tea? – tea
- summer or winter? – summer
- mountains or beach? – beach
- mustard or mayonnaise? – mayonnaise
- flowers or candy? – flowers
- pockets or purse? – purse
- Pepsi or Coke? – Coke
- ebook or print? – print

Because they’re still a lot of fun:

1. What is your favorite word? – “Yes.”
2. What is your least favorite word? – “No.”
3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? – Creatively: Peace, art, movies, a writing retreat with good friends. Spiritually: Nature in its glory; a beach, a cathedral of trees, a full moon. Emotionally: a house full of family, my grandchildren talking, laughing, singing, watching them discover life in all its aspects.
4. What turns you off creatively, spiritually or emotionally? – Creatively: exhaustion. Spiritually: intolerance. Emotionally: War.
5. What sound or noise do you love? – The birds in the morning (especially when I’m on my way to bed after writing all night).
6. What sound or noise do you hate? – An alarm clock.
7. What is your favorite curse word? – Scrap!
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? – Artist/painter.
9. What profession would you not like to do? – Pope.
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? – “Good Books. Welcome. Your mother and father are waiting.”

DC: Annette, thank you so much for being with us today!

Sandy M’s review of Gone with the Witch (Triplet Witch Trilogy, Book 2) by Annette Blair
Contemporary Paranormal Romance published by Berkley 6 May 08

I so enjoy Annette Blair’s books.  They’re just plain old fun.  They have some of the snappiest banter I’ve ever read.  And they’re as sexy as hell.  For those days you have no idea what you want to read, crack open one of Ms. Blair’s books and you’ll be smiling for days to come afterward.

And even start at the very beginning of Ms. Blair’s witch books.  This is her second trilogy and even though the first three books, her Accidental Witch Trilogy, The Kitchen Witch, My Favorite Witch, and The Scot, the Witch and the Wardrobe, are not that closely related to this second set, there are some overlapping characters, but you just don’t want to miss all the fun to start with.  When I finish one of these witch books, I always think there’s no way the author can top that in her next one.  And she always proves me wrong.  I actually like Gone with the Witch the best of the bunch so far.  The sexual playing and tension starts right off the bat between Aiden and Storm, along with a great mystery brought on by the fact that Storm hears a baby crying whenever she’s near Aiden.

He refuses to believe this baby has anything to do with him, especially because he’s a wanderer, crisscrosses the country in his motor coach when he’s contracted for jobs as an antiques restorer.  Storm, on the other hand, is sure to her bones that this child she hears is definitely his, and knowing that she won’t get any cooperation from Aiden, she devises a plan to abduct him in his own home on wheels so they can gallivant around the country to solve this mystery.  Of course, it’s the quick and snappy repartee between them and the unexpected trouble they find along the way that makes for the aforementioned fun in this book.

Aiden and Storm are both such likable characters, and with all that sexual playin’ around in the beginning, I wanted them to get on with the deed and quit teasing me.  But what fun would that be? It comes soon enough and it’s worth waiting the extra chapters for.  They each have their own reasons for being independent loners, wanting and looking for love but afraid to really find it.  But when everything is finally out in the open, when their lives take a decidedly huge left turn when they make discoveries they could never imagine, they find love, much more than they ever dreamed of.  Ms. Blair even had me in tears a few times near the end of the story at the results and reactions of these discoveries.

Don’t wait for a rainy day to read Annette Blair’s books.  Don’t even wait for those times when you need a distraction from life.  Take that distraction now and enjoy yourself like you haven’t in a very long time.  Give yourself over to the romance and the love you’ll find in the pages of her books.  You’ll be hooked in no time at all.

Grade:  A+

Read other reviews by following the Triplet Witch Trilogy tag.

Summary:

In his presence she hears a baby crying. Abducting him is the only way to follow the sound and find the child. Her scheme includes his luxury motor coach, seduction…and four pairs of fuzzy purple handcuffs.

The unexpected triplet, and a rebel because of it, Storm Cartwright is a Goth with attitude, who has a powerful psychic gift. She can sense the present. Every time she’s near Aiden McCloud, she hears the sound of a baby crying, sure the baby is his and in need, that only Aiden can lead her to the child.

He’s dazzled by Storm, yet the sassy, sexy triplet won’t stop talking about a crying baby and a trip to find the child. He refuses to go with her and tries to leave in his RV without her.

To follow the sound and find the child, which she can only do with Aiden beside her, Storm uses a seductive trap and drives the luxury motor coach, herself, because Aiden is shackled to his bed by four pairs of fuzzy purple handcuffs.

While Storm follows the sound of the crying baby, something magical happens between her and Aiden. Will she be able to keep the magic alive once she finds what she’s looking for? If she finds it… Whatever happens, this journey will change them forever.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Sandy M’s review of Sex and the Psychic Witch (Triplet Witch Trilogy, Book 1) by Annette Blair
Contemporary paranormal romance released by Berkley Sensation 7 Aug 07

I became an instant fan of Annette Blair’s witches with her first book, The Kitchen Witch, back in 2004. Her humor and wit just poured out her witches in every book of that first trilogy and she has not lost her touch one bit starting with Harmony, the oldest of the Cartwright sisters.

The quips and banter between King and Harmony begins early, in Chapter 2, and doesn’t let up, only dims a little during serious, tension-filled moments and zooms right back to full intensity within pages. As much as I liked the previous trilogy, I’m having more fun with the Cartwrights because their magic is used out in the open and blatantly as compared to the subtle witchery in the first three books.

Harmony is at Paxton Castle to help the resident ghost move on and leave the current owner in peace. King refuses at first to admit he has a spirit harassing him at every turn during his remodeling to sell the albatross of a home, but begins to think differently when the sexpot witch shows up and a calm and serene atmosphere takes over the place.

Along with guiding the apparition to its final resting place, Harmony has also decided to loosen up Mr. Ramrod-Straight-as-a-Board — the man is wound tighter than a spring and doesn’t know the meaning of a good time. He can’t keep his eyes and hands off of her, however, even if he’s not in the market for a lasting relationship. Harmony falls for King immediately and decides to totally enjoy her time with him, no matter how long it is. Loving him for a short time has to be better than not at all.

These characters are a huge breath of fresh air. They’re upfront with one another, no secrets, but they still have the capacity to hurt one another during their unorthodox relationship, and do. Conversely, they also apologize and try to make their mistakes with each other right. They don’t let the hurt fester and grow to turn into a big walk-out scene for one of them to go crawling to the other for forgiveness later on. The secondary characters, including the aforementioned ghost, are all just as fun and witty in their own way. Well, the ghost needs an attitude adjustment, but that’s why Harmony is there!

You will laugh out loud through most of this book. Be warned, though, you will also get a little choked up here and there as the result of a couple of unexpected happenings. If you haven’t read Annette Blair, you are truly missing out on a wonderful experience.

Grade: A+

From the back cover:

     The buyer for her family’s vintage clothing and curio shop, triplet witch Harmony Cartwright-who brings peace to everyone in her sphere-has the ability to read ancient objects and their owners, even their deepest darkest secrets. Now, a Celtic ring depicting a man’s empty embrace becomes a psychic mandate that leads her to Paxton castle on an island off the Salem, Massachusetts coast.

King Paxton has inherited a haunted money-pit of a castle he must sell before he’s cursed with more of the bad luck that plagued his family for generations, but out of nowhere, a leggy blonde walks in and quiets his disgruntled construction crew and wailing ghost. When King throws her out, chaos returns, so he brings her back.

Read an excerpt.

Lawson’s review of Sex and the Psychic Witch (Triplet Witch Trilogy, Book 1) by Annette Blair
Contemporary paranormal romance released by Berkley Sensation 7 Aug 07

Though this is a new series by Blair, it ties in with her last book The Scot, the Witch and the Wardrobe. This first book is about Harmony Cartwright, one of the Cartwright triplets. They’re also witches and they own a vintage clothing and antique store in Salem, Mass. 

Harmony and her sisters Destiny and Storm are going through a garage sale, looking for things for their store when Harmony finds a gold dress and knows she has to have it. Upon further inspection she finds a ring sewn into the dress and gets a vision about Paxton Castle and knows she’s got to go there for some reason.

Harmony convinces her sisters this is what she must do, it’s a psychic mission, and toddles off to Paxton Castle. In high heels and hot pants with a suitcase full of message tees such as “Orgasm Donor”. No joke. There she intrudes into the life of the current Paxton Castle owner, King Paxton.

King doesn’t like having his life interrupted, but Harmony’s arrival quiets the ghost that haunts the castle, so he puts up with her, though he suspects there’s more to her reason for showing up on his doorstep than her claim to be searching for vintage clothing. King believes Harmony after a couple of mishaps that there’s a ghost haunting the castle, and spends most of the time thinking about how to get into her pants. Not that Harmony isn’t thinking the same things as well.

Eventually an intervention is needed on both sides, magical and male. Harmony’s sisters arrive to help with the magic and King’s best friends, Aiden and Morgan, help King realize that he’s got a giant stick up his ass and he needs to change his ways and accept Harmony in his life.

There’s a lot of cute things in this book, and it knows it. Makes me think of reviews of “Six Feet Under” I read a time or two. It’s precocious, witty, and perhaps strives to hard to achieve that which is called good because it’s rather self satisfied and wants too much to bask in its own brilliance. Or something like that.

Harmony is alright, King is kind of a mess, and the other two triplets and the two friends are going to get their tales told in the next two books in the series. Is there good chemistry? Yes, though it seems that all these people think about is sex. Especially when the triplets are all apparently stacked and wear tight little tee shirts, hot pants and stilettos. Or maybe just Harmony does, it was a little hard to tell.

Self-satisfied cleverness aside, it was a funny story, had some interesting things to say about relationships, letting go and embracing the future. There is a time line thing that bothered me, but I read the ARC, so I hope it was caught in the final (having to do with King doing something 17 years ago when he was 17 but now he’s 37. . .) and that something came out of nowhere and didn’t really seem necessary to the story.

King’s friends did seem to have more potential to make decent alpha males and hopefully those stories won’t want to bask in their own cleverness as much as this one did.

Grade: C-

Summary:

Introducing the Cartwright sisters-Harmony, Destiny and Storm-triplets and unstoppable seductresses.

Harmony, the buyer for her sisters’ vintage curio shop, can read objects and learn of their former owners. Now, a Celtic ring leads her to a castle on the coast of Massachusetts. King Paxton’s money-pit is cursed, and he hopes that this leggy blonde can help him find peace with an angry ghost, a disgruntled renovation crew-and his own heart.

Read an excerpt.