"Desy and Armand are back!"

Desy is up to her ears in problems in her second outing. Her P.I. partner is separated from his wife, and confesses feeling for her. She's trying to catch a cheating wife who seems to be moonlighting as a Dominatrix. And to make things worse, the local Witch King is a nutcase and the covens want her and her lover and magical partner Armand to take him out. Desi would rather concentrate on work, but Warren the Witch King isn't about to permit that — he wants her as his Queen. And he is willing to kidnap her to accomplish that. As if that weren't enough, her elderly aunt is head over heels in love with a widower and having a very non-platonic affair.

What's a apprentice witch supposed to do when Warren kidnaps a local coven leader? And what about that dominatrix she's been following — especially when the hidden camera reveals that the latest client isn't taking no for an answer? And how about learning that best friend and partner Nick is separated from his bitchy wife — and confesses feelings for you? Poor Desy is up to her neck in trouble.

In this second book, Desy and Armand are as appealing as ever, and the first person narration really adds to the humor and suspense. Desy is a terrific heroine, with a sarcastic wit and a sense of irony about her newfound life as hereditary Wiccan Queen and private investigator. Armand still comes off as a watered-down Jean Claude, but you gotta love a hero who cooks like an angel and makes love like he'd take a gold in the Sexual Olympics. Once again, I have the same minor issues: too much sex (even though it turns out to be integrated into the plot pretty well) makes the love scenes repetitious, and there isn't quite enough plot to make this book truly suspenseful. A secondary plotline and some red herrings would do wonders, because the ending is a foregone conclusion. A bit more story and fewer lovescenes, so that they don't all blur together in the readers mind, would lift this from a B to an A+.

Once again, I'd like to point out that Wicca is a religion, not just a magicakal system. There is no High Queen of the Witches. I grant this is fantasy fiction, but Wicca is real, and its practitioners face a fair amount of discrimination in America from those who view us as Satanists or nutcases.

Sensuality Rating: Erotica hot with lots of graphic, monogamous sex.

Reviewed by Gillian Fitzgerald
Courtesy Sensual Romance Reviews
Posted August 8, 2004

Sequel to Something Wicked

Summary

He wants more than she's giving—he wants all of her.

She wants to slow things down.

Powerful witch Armand Bellamy moved from Paris to the Motor City to pursue Desdemona, sassy PI and reluctant sorceress. As Desy sleuths cases of jewelry theft at a riverfront hotel and of a crafty real estate agent suspected of adultery, she foresees neither the upcoming conflict with a sanity-impaired Wiccan Priest nor that the winding road of her relationship with Armand is paved with a six-foot-one blond-haired, blue-eyed speed bump.

Nick Sage, Desy's business partner and best friend since childhood, separates from his wife—and is intent on claiming Desy as his own.

Hang on. It's going to be a bumpy ride.