Scan barcode
yogicath's review against another edition
5.0
This is book one of the Midlife Magic and Mates series and the main characters are best friends Molly, Ali, Missy and Steph, who get together for Molly’s forty third birthday. One of them has received an ancient grimoire, delivered to her when she was expecting something completely different. She brings it to the party and they decide to look through it and get each other to try saying a spell for fun. Molly is feeling her middle age spread, with a muffin top ad greying hairs, plus a business, a gym called Pump and Juice, which is in a rented building which is falling apart and not as busy as she hoped. It was what she put all her money and efforts into, after getting divorced some ten years ago. One of the women plies her with vodka, as the others also drink and they decide to place candles all around, to get the mood set correctly. When Steph starts to talk in rhymes and other strange things begin to happen around Molly, the group soon learn that magic is real and they are all part of a dangerous and ancient prophecy, which no one will tell them about.
Only Ali is still married, but the others think she should have kicked her cheating husband to the curb long ago, as well as the quack of a therapist she believes every strange word of! Molly has had a bit of a dry spell in the romance stakes, but avoids talking to the attractive gym user, Ryker Davis, finding herself all overcome and running away out of embarrassment. She starts to find when she asks people something, they seem forced to answer truthfully, even shocking themselves sometimes, as they say things they never wanted to say out loud! The arrival of an ancient looking and bent over old woman, Essie, a witch, soon has all four of them being tested for their magic and having to undergo intensive magic and fighting training. She learns that the man she has been so attracted to, is the wolf shifter alpha of all magical beings in Ashpoint. With them suddenly finding out they are witches, although two of them still have no powers, they also find out about the fact that shifters and witches are sworn enemies!
Essie as Ryker tasked with helping the women prepared their bodies for the prophecy and the enemies they will face in the near future. He has members of his pack sparring with each of the women, bringing discord within the pack, as he gets so close to the witches. For Ryker, his attraction and need to be with Molly is easy, as he realises she is his fated mate. As alpha, he has to fulfil some old and dated restrictions before he can inherit his grandfather’s whole estate and he makes a deal with Molly, helping her out with her gym when she is desperate, whilst her participation in his life helps him even more. But those who dislike Ryker’s interaction with the witches, soon bring danger to all of their lives, but mainly targeted at Molly and Ryker, with one of them wanting his position as alpha, but too scared to face off against him themselves! The women soon get pulled in by the High Priestess of the witch’s coven, Greta, but her demands on them don’t seem like what their magic should really be used for. Once she forces them to be inducted into the coven, they soon find out that what she wants from them is darker than any of them expected and she insists they do everything she asks of them, without question.
They are new to magic, but even they know something is wrong with this life! Molly’s connection with Ryker brings another huge shock to the tale and makes her act in a certain manner, mainly because of previous heartache and the fact she thinks he will never want her due to that, and he needs something she can’t provide him with, to fulfil his family legacy as alphas. The book ends with a surprising twist, that brings shock to Molly and should have made Ryker happy, but she is advised to not tell him anything. The four women have suddenly come into their powers and magic, at a time of great danger and prophecy. Their lives are never going to be the same and they have a lot more surprises to come. I look forward to reading the next book in the series and seeing what happens between the witches and shifters. I received an ARC copy of this book from BookSprout and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.
Only Ali is still married, but the others think she should have kicked her cheating husband to the curb long ago, as well as the quack of a therapist she believes every strange word of! Molly has had a bit of a dry spell in the romance stakes, but avoids talking to the attractive gym user, Ryker Davis, finding herself all overcome and running away out of embarrassment. She starts to find when she asks people something, they seem forced to answer truthfully, even shocking themselves sometimes, as they say things they never wanted to say out loud! The arrival of an ancient looking and bent over old woman, Essie, a witch, soon has all four of them being tested for their magic and having to undergo intensive magic and fighting training. She learns that the man she has been so attracted to, is the wolf shifter alpha of all magical beings in Ashpoint. With them suddenly finding out they are witches, although two of them still have no powers, they also find out about the fact that shifters and witches are sworn enemies!
Essie as Ryker tasked with helping the women prepared their bodies for the prophecy and the enemies they will face in the near future. He has members of his pack sparring with each of the women, bringing discord within the pack, as he gets so close to the witches. For Ryker, his attraction and need to be with Molly is easy, as he realises she is his fated mate. As alpha, he has to fulfil some old and dated restrictions before he can inherit his grandfather’s whole estate and he makes a deal with Molly, helping her out with her gym when she is desperate, whilst her participation in his life helps him even more. But those who dislike Ryker’s interaction with the witches, soon bring danger to all of their lives, but mainly targeted at Molly and Ryker, with one of them wanting his position as alpha, but too scared to face off against him themselves! The women soon get pulled in by the High Priestess of the witch’s coven, Greta, but her demands on them don’t seem like what their magic should really be used for. Once she forces them to be inducted into the coven, they soon find out that what she wants from them is darker than any of them expected and she insists they do everything she asks of them, without question.
They are new to magic, but even they know something is wrong with this life! Molly’s connection with Ryker brings another huge shock to the tale and makes her act in a certain manner, mainly because of previous heartache and the fact she thinks he will never want her due to that, and he needs something she can’t provide him with, to fulfil his family legacy as alphas. The book ends with a surprising twist, that brings shock to Molly and should have made Ryker happy, but she is advised to not tell him anything. The four women have suddenly come into their powers and magic, at a time of great danger and prophecy. Their lives are never going to be the same and they have a lot more surprises to come. I look forward to reading the next book in the series and seeing what happens between the witches and shifters. I received an ARC copy of this book from BookSprout and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.
prayforariot's review
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
katyanaish's review against another edition
1.0
I don't know why I finished this. Morbid curiosity? But it was really bad.
It is hard to say what the biggest flaw was, so I'm just going to share a couple that, imo, were boat anchors on what could have been a cute idea.
1 - The characters all have the intelligence and emotional maturity of a bucket of dried paint.
And this is supposed to be a paranormal women's fiction book, so that's a hard fail. There's so much whining, and stupidity, that I couldn't stand it. There's also hugely inconsistent leaps around, in terms of character choices, and about 3748502 times more angst than is justified.
This point leads directly to...
2 - They are horribly, horribly TSTL. All of them.
So, they find out magic is real, and they have it. Random assholes insist that they are trained. They don't ask for explanations, or anything. These are 40-something women who within like 24 hours of meeting the woman demanding they be trained, are meekly doing what they are told with no questions. They meet the high priestess who is a complete, cartoon-ish bitch... and still no questions, they do as they are told. They are inducted into a coven within a couple weeks, tops (see point 3 below), without being told what that means, what they are committing to, even really getting to know the coven. Then they are informed that they are now basically slaves and have to hurt people, because high bitch says so, with some growly "I own you now" -style speech. Do they ask questions? Stand up for themselves? No. They just do it.
3 - There is no firm indication of timeline, but as best I can tell, this entire book happens in 3-4 weeks (prior to the last chapter).
Sometimes it felt like we were maybe jumping ahead in time - most definitely when Molly and Ryker first hook up in the garage... The next chapter seemed like a jump ahead to their relationship being way further along. But then Molly says something about her timeline to being evicted, and no, apparently it has been, at most, a couple days? So these people went from "we can never be together" to "omg I think I love you" to "we need to never see each other again, for your own good" in like a week. Fucking exhausting, high school level angst. The coven/training timeline was very much the same.
It all led to melodramatic, confusing, and far TSTL storytelling. I'm definitely bowing out here.
It is hard to say what the biggest flaw was, so I'm just going to share a couple that, imo, were boat anchors on what could have been a cute idea.
1 - The characters all have the intelligence and emotional maturity of a bucket of dried paint.
And this is supposed to be a paranormal women's fiction book, so that's a hard fail. There's so much whining, and stupidity, that I couldn't stand it. There's also hugely inconsistent leaps around, in terms of character choices, and about 3748502 times more angst than is justified.
This point leads directly to...
2 - They are horribly, horribly TSTL. All of them.
So, they find out magic is real, and they have it. Random assholes insist that they are trained. They don't ask for explanations, or anything. These are 40-something women who within like 24 hours of meeting the woman demanding they be trained, are meekly doing what they are told with no questions. They meet the high priestess who is a complete, cartoon-ish bitch... and still no questions, they do as they are told. They are inducted into a coven within a couple weeks, tops (see point 3 below), without being told what that means, what they are committing to, even really getting to know the coven. Then they are informed that they are now basically slaves and have to hurt people, because high bitch says so, with some growly "I own you now" -style speech. Do they ask questions? Stand up for themselves? No. They just do it.
3 - There is no firm indication of timeline, but as best I can tell, this entire book happens in 3-4 weeks (prior to the last chapter).
Sometimes it felt like we were maybe jumping ahead in time - most definitely when Molly and Ryker first hook up in the garage... The next chapter seemed like a jump ahead to their relationship being way further along. But then Molly says something about her timeline to being evicted, and no, apparently it has been, at most, a couple days? So these people went from "we can never be together" to "omg I think I love you" to "we need to never see each other again, for your own good" in like a week. Fucking exhausting, high school level angst. The coven/training timeline was very much the same.
It all led to melodramatic, confusing, and far TSTL storytelling. I'm definitely bowing out here.
goblinqueen13's review against another edition
When I picked this book I was looking for a book that empowered women in their 40s to love who they are in this stage in life. What turned me off of this book is the woman acted like she wasn’t enough until she cast a spell to make her look/feel/act younger. Complete opposite of what I thought I was going to get out of this book.
alh18's review
Just wasn't interested, don't like books that put a lot of emphasis on appearance and wanting to be younger and I'm not really into the fantasy type books. I thought I'd try it but I just didn't find it something I wanted to return to. Life is too short to read books I dont feel liks going back to :)
More...