Gwen’s review of Witch Heart (Elemental Witches, Book 3) by Anya Bast
Contemporary paranormal romance released byBerkley 6 Jan 09

There is one thing I have come to depend on with these Elemental Witches novels from Bast: I will always be entertained.  There is always something unique, something that is more than meets the eye, and something that is just plain fun to read.  Total escapist entertainment. Love that when it happens. 

Our heroine, Claire, was introduced to us in the second novel – she’s the human who helped Thomas free himself when he was held captive by demons in their plane of existence (a.k.a. Eudae).  Claire is very powerful in all four elemental magics: earth, air, fire, and water.  She’s forced to Earth because of some internal uprising in Eudae, but not before her “captor” forces a ball of demon magic into her genetically manipulated body.  A magic that can be used as an ultimate weapon on Eudae by any of the demon castes – if they can catch her, that is.

Our hero, Adam, is a fire-witch bad boy with a wickedly irreverant sense of humor and a wickedly well-earned reputation with the ladies. All covering for a heartbreaking loss before he joined the Coven. Adam is sent to retrieve Claire when she finds herself locked up in a mental hospital once she’s forced to Earth.  Adam is attracted to the heroine, Claire, despite himself – she’s totally not his normal type.  But she is brave, honest, and unvarnished – all qualities he has come to miss in people.

Bast does a good job developing the emotional side of this relationship. There’s some paranormal attraction going on, but these two characters also seem to really like each other.   The love scenes, when they finally do happen, are smokin’ hot.  I sincerely believed in the relationship and was very glad to see things evolve the way they did.   I really liked these characters by the end of the book and that isn’t something I can always say, sadly.

There is some really terrific action in this book.  It’s a pursuit novel – when Claire was forced to Earth, two of the really bad warrior caste demons managed to follow her.  These two bad guys, Kai and Tevan, are some seriously bad bad guys and chase our hero and heroine all over the upper Midwest US – mayhem and murder following them like a bad diaper rash.  Handsome, huge, and evil.  Too much fun, really.  And I actually found myself sympathizing with them there at the end – just a li’l bit.

Through Claire, her pursuers, and her captor/father (a.k.a. Rue), we learn quite a bit about demon culture on Eudae.  I expect this to take us to even more interesting places in future books.  It’s KILLIN’ me that we have to wait about a year in between these books, but I can wait if the storytelling remains as good as we have had in the first three books in the series.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes a good pursuit novel, paranormal romance, or folks that are simply fans of Anya Bast.  It’s another winner.
Grade: B

Read more reviews and information of this and other books in the series by following the series’ tag.

Summary:

With the immense powers of an earth witch, Claire isn’t destined to be a demon’s handmaiden. Yet this has been her fate since she was six, when her warlock mother brought her to Eudae. Now as an adult, she’s about to discover her true power-and how far others are willing to go to take it away…

As part of a mission with the Coven, Adam Tyrell rescues Claire from her enslavement-and finds himself immediately taken with the beautiful witch. But this charming playboy soon learns that it’s easier to steal Claire from demons than win her heart, for her life as a servant has ravaged her spirit. But with Adam determined to protect her from the warlocks who want to harness her magick for evil, Claire’s resistance starts to give way-and they find themselves in the heat of danger, surrendering to the lure of their deepest desires…

Read an excerpt.

Other books in the series:

Sunday Afternoon at the B&N Café

Almost every Sunday afternoon I flee my house of chaos for the Barnes & Noble Café. It’s a long drive for me, so usually I go to a local coffee shop to get a little uninterrupted writing time. However, I prefer the B&N Café because you have to pay for Internet access (at my little local coffee shop, it’s free), which means I don’t buy it and I actually write instead of procrastinate by checking my email, playing on Livejournal or Twitter or hunting down eBook pirates (my own private and pointless obsession).

The chairs are fairly comfortable, the staff is friendly (I’m in the B&N Café as I write this, in fact), and once I plug myself into my iPod, the auditory environment is conducive to writing. I like to try and get a table that backs up to a wall so no one can read over my shoulder, especially if I’m about to write a sex scene…which I intend to do right after I finish writing this post. Today I snagged a wall table, so today is a good B&N Café day.

Muted conversation fills my ears, since I don’t have my ear buds in yet. So does the gurgling sound of the café staff making coffee. The scent of that coffee fills my nose, along with the faint aroma of the woman’s perfume beside me. I can also hear the clinking of change at the register, the beeping of machinery, the sound of a child crying in another part of the store.

Today I’m wearing a comfy black sweater with black running pants and fuzzy red socks. On a totally different topic, Limecello gave me a list of possible subjects to write on and one of them was about my favorite kind of socks. You’re probably all just dying to know that I prefer slipper socks and wear them most of the time in the winter. As a full time writer, I can get away with that. Comfort is my first priority. A fashionista, I am not.

Back to the topic at hand, I get a lot of writing done at the cafe. I write for a while, then stop and think, staring out over the top of my laptop with my eyes unfocused. I’m not really seeing anything because I’m deep in thought, thinking about the scene I’m writing or how I need the next part of this particular chapter to show something significant about a certain character, set up for an upcoming battle or black moment, or show how the relationship between my hero and heroine is evolving. I do a lot of staring and thinking when I write.

That doesn’t mean I’m not aware of my surroundings. On the contrary, I’m hyper-aware of everyone around me. I think most writers are. Writers observe. They take in all people and events around them and consider them. For a writer everything and everyone around them is potential inspiration or story fodder. . Today there’s a woman next to me who is dressed in a stylish fawn colored sweater dress and expensive looking thigh-high boots (her perfume smells expensive too). She’s reading a stack of books on divorce. I can’t help but wonder about her, who she married and why they’re divorcing. I can’t help but make up stories to fill in the gaps about what I don’t know about her. . What about that man in his mid twenties in the corner who is pounding away on his laptop like me? Writer? Or grad student?

And there’s clutch of women in the corner that’s obviously a book club since they all have the same mass market paperback on the table beside them-with the title I can’t quite make out – and who are clearly having a wonderful time and not talking about books.

The man at two o’clock is flipping through a book by Mike Huckabee and has Sean Hannity sitting jowl-to-jowl with Michael Savage (books by those men, I mean, not the actual men). He keeps furtively checking out the well-heeled women who is reading the books on divorce.

The chess players are here again. They’re here every single week-the same people scowling down at the boards, scratching their heads and trying to figure out their next move. Another group of women are in the corner. It’s a study group for library science, unless I miss my guess. I can tell their relationship is tentative and new (probably the first time they’ve studied together) because of the nervous chatter and the self-conscious laughter. It’s the kind of communication one engages in when one is not totally sure. . It strikes me every week how many people come here to do things other than drink coffee and consider their purchases. People come to study, write novels or dissertations. They use it as a library, pulling books up next to themselves along with a pad of paper and pen to take notes. The woman on my other side is angry that so many people are making noise (the noise culprits are the library science group and the two tables in front of us who have struck up a conversation about football) and is hissing into her cell phone about how people should be quieter here. of one’s audience.

Except, of course, this isn’t a library…it’s a bookstore. Me? I just put my ear buds in and turn to my sex scene….

*P.S.-  Anya, because she is awesome, has very kindly offered to give away an autographed copy of her recent release Witch Heart to one lucky commenter. Not that you wouldn’t have stopped by to chat with her anyway, right?

Gwen’s review of Witch Blood (Elemental Witches, Book 2) by Anya Bast
Contemporary paranormal romance published by Berkley 4 Mar 08

This second book in Bast’s Elemental Witches series was quite good.  I found myself staying up far too late to finish (5am! I’m too old for that).  It centers around a community of witches called the Coven (the good guys) and warlocks called the Duskoff Cabal (the bad guys) and the demons they summon (bad guys summon, that is).  Several facts about the origin of these witches is revealed in this book and it leads to some fun scenes in an alternate plane (plain?) of reality.

I grew to love the heroine, Isabelle, by the end of the book.  She is feisty, sarcastic, and rational enough to acknowledge how she feels and act on it.  I like the hero, Thomas (head of the Coven), though I never really warmed to him like I did Isabelle.  Perhaps that was Bast’s intention – to keep Thomas somewhat aloof and cool – and I can say she succeeded to an extent.  (The hero from Book 1, Jack, was the opposite.  LOVED him and all his fire (snort).)  The romance between Thomas and Isabelle developed thru the course of the book and it was fun to watch – Thomas’s declaration of love was really beautiful and made me very wistful.  (Hint to the guys out there – take tips from the way Thomas did it – it was downright beautiful and romantic and the right way to do it.)

This world is becoming increasingly complex and interesting.  The introduction of the alternate reality was an interesting twist toward the end of the book.  I didn’t like the re-introduction of a key character back into the normal plane of reality, though.  It seemed rushed.  The story and drama is interesting and resolves relatively satisfactorily, though it is left hanging somewhat because of the nature of a series.  (See my Ponderings post for my thoughts on that.)  The secondary characters, with the exception of the villain(s), don’t play as important a role in this book as in the first.  The HEA is very nice, if a bit rushed at the end.

I would recommend this book to fans of Bast and paranormal romance.  It’s enough of a love story that perhaps some mainstream romance fans may even like it – not too much ’woo woo’ in it.  Witch Blood can stand on its own, though I recommend reading the first book because it was so much fun and will make this book that much more enjoyable.

Grade: B  (would have been higher if the ending hadn’t been so rushed)

Blurb: A water witch, Isabelle Novak has always led a chaotic, nomadic existence. But her life spins out of control when her sister—her only friend and emotional anchor—is killed by a demon. Driven by grief and a desire for revenge, she turns her back on the Coven and the rede they hold sacred: Harm thee none…

When Isabelle first encounters Thomas Monahan, she’s running on pure rage and sorrow, channeling her pain into power—and trying to freeze the life out of a warlock she holds responsible for her sister’s death. Together, they form an uneasy alliance to hunt and destroy a demon of tremendous power. As head of the Coven, earth witch Thomas must thwart Isabelle’s dark impulses, but his very presence stirs deeper desires she never knew she had…

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:
 Read my review here.

Gwen’s review of Witch Fire (Elemental Witches, Book 1) by Anya Bast
Contemporary Paranormal Romance released by Berkley Sensation 5 Jun 07

Witch Fire is the first of a new series by Anya about witches, warlocks, demons, and presumably other things that go bump in the night.  Oh, and romance, of course.  This outing is set in present day Minneapolis, Chicago, and New York.  The main characters are an air witch, Mira Hoskins, and a fire witch, Jack McAllister.  There’s a large cast of secondary characters – Anya is setting us up for more books in this series and for lots of conflict that will be juicy to resolve.

The “long lost orphan who doesn’t know her own powers” chestnut notwithstanding, this was a very fun book.  Anya has created a very credible alternate reality.  The witches are powerful and fallible (always an interesting combination); the premise and details are unique, the story pacing and arcs are satisfying; and the erotic scenes are hot but don’t overwhelm the romance or the story.  All in all, a class A effort (and I’m pretty picky).

I really liked Jack and Mira by the end of the book and wanted more.  I love a good series – gives me a chance to get to know a world and its characters.

I recommend that my fellow paranormal romance fans buy this when it comes out next week.  Here’s hoping it’s the start of something wonderful.

Grade: B+ (it was too short)

Summary:
.
Mira Hoskins doesn’t know she’s a natural born witch who possesses the rare–and powerful–element of air. She also never expected to find herself tied to a mahogany bed frame, captive to a man who aches to fulfill her every desire and let loose the magick that dwells inside her.
.
Heat emanates from elemental fire witch Jack McAllister. The Coven, a governing authority of witches, has sent him to protect Mira from a band of warlocks who drain witches of power and life. Long ago, he saw Mira’s parents murdered by this same dark magick. He’d like to quell his guilt and offer her everything she deserves. But she’s the long-lost cousin of his boss–making seduction off-limits.
.
With Jack’s strong guidance, Mira is luring forth her inner magick. But his sense of duty is quickly swelling into insatiable hunger. They warned him about the natural attraction between air and fire. Now he risks being consumed by the woman he shouldn’t want–but can’t stay away from.
.
Read an excerpt.