"Magical warfare and a hunky hero, fun and fast-paced"

Brenna Lindsay is far more than her day-to-day role as owner of an herbal and organic produce business implies. She is also a highly trained Wiccan priestess, a member of the Coven of the Wolf, largest Wiccan coven in the country. Something is evil in the small Indiana town where she lives, and she is determined to find out what and deal with it. On the summer solstice, she does a scrying ritual and learns that evil will reign until a warrior puts a stop to it - a warrior she sees will be in her bed in the future. After completing her ritual, she stumbles on the body of a local developer, nailed to a tree. When the new sheriff arrives, he is the man she saw in her dreams. Ty is part Native American and was trained as a shaman - and he has had dreams of Brenna.

The murder victim was up to his eyeballs in nasty doings, mostly involving drug use. But there's more than just mundane evil here - there is a rogue witch working very dark magic. Ty and Brenna and her shapshifter guards team up to make an end to it.

This isn't a particularly original concept for a novel, and neither are the characters. Brenna never came to life for me, and I found the shapeshifters annoying rather than charming (I did like Star, the wolf, a lot, however). The dialogue limps, but the plot is fast-paced. The magic is hokey and has nothing to do with real life Wiccan rituals. But if you like Charmed, you'll probably enjoy this fast- paced paranormal. The hero IS a hunk, and the love scenes are well-rendered. A lot of readers will find it a fun way to pass the time, even if it didn't leave me anxious to read more books by this author.

WARNING TO WICCANS: This book is infuriating in its portrayal of magic and witches. We don't just mutter a couple of rhyming lines and toss fireballs, nor do we call up a major storm with a few words, Charmed and its ilk to the contrary. I wouldn't mind this kind of theatrical approach to magic - it can work well - but the marriage of it and the Wiccan religion is offensive to me. I especially found a reference to Brenna being more than the usual witch who does amateurish rituals at the full moon. I wonder if Ms. Morgan would have been so quick to dismiss Southern Baptists or Catholics in that manner? In some ways the fact that he author went to the trouble to do some minimal research on Wicca makes it even worse. There are writers who handle Wiccan very well, but this isn't one of us. I especially was annoyed at the use of the sleep spell to interrogate the drug dealers. Granted, these guys were bad to the bone, but I would have preferred to see Brenna dealing with the fact that even evil people have the right not to have their will over-ridden - unless it is in defense of self or others.

Reviewed by Gillian Fitzgerald
Courtesy Sensual Romance Reviews
Posted April 14, 2004

Book 2 in the Coven of the Wolf Series

Summary

The Summer Solstice draws near. Soon the line between dark and light, evil and good, will be at its thinnest.

For many weeks, Coven of the Wolf witch Brenna Lindsay has sensed evil spreading its foul roots in her little Southern Indiana community. She notifies Drake Morgan, the Coven leader, and he sends Boris and Igor, the twin shape shifters to investigate.

On the night of the Litha ritual, Brenna performs a scrying. She foresees death - - and her future mate. That same evening the first death occurs.

Sheriff Ty Buchanan is the man in Brenna's vision. Her warrior complement. He left the big city to find a peaceful life in the country. Yet, he hasn't totally escaped his violent past. The malignancy threatening his new home is a continuation of it. And now the stakes are higher - - for the evil endangers the woman who is meant to be his.