Thursday, March 31, 2016

Suddenly Spellbound

Series ~ Ivie McKie, #2
Author ~ Erica Lucke Dean
Publisher ~ Red Adept
Published ~ 26 January 2016
Genre ~ Fantasy | Romance
Pages ~ 200

My Rating ~ 2 bites

Sorceress Ivie McKie is a Kindergarten teacher and, after a bad couple of experiences, has decided to retire from her short-lived foray into the arena of magic. This suits her fiancé, veterinarian Jackson Blake, quite well, but her back-from-the-dead father who wasn’t dead at all, but a dog then a cat, won’t let her just be happy. He’s determined to settle a debt with an archaic practice and he’ll do anything to make sure it happens.

I’m going to start off by saying I loved book 1 in this series, Suddenly Sorceress. It was quirky and funny and quite a fun adventure. Which makes my disappointment in Suddenly Spellbound all the more heartbreaking. Everything I loved in the first book is missing here. The book is well-written, but I can’t get past all of the shitty behavior. Ivie is a Class A moron. She trips along from disaster to disaster with not brain one in her head. Letting her dad rule her life is another thing that irritated me and it’s this daddy thing that leads me to the thing that pissed me off the most.


Ivie’s dad is the one with magic in the family. Because he’s been in animal form for so many years, Ivie makes excuse after excuse after excuse for him every time he does something weird or dangerous. But when he asks her to do a spell and lies about what kind of spell it is and she blindly agrees despite promising Jack she wouldn’t do any more magic, the result is her father and his “apprentice” giving Ivie a magical roofie and magically violating her. They took away her free will with magic (the roofie) and lied the entire fucking book about it. They used magic to manipulate her and even though Ivie knew something wasn’t right, she kept allowing her dad to do shit to her magically. I am so not ok with this. In fact, I almost just stopped right there, but decided I should hang in and see if Ivie rips her dad a new asshole about this shit. Nope. That is NOT what happens. Ivie continually lies to Jack about the shit that’s going on, completely disrespecting him and their relationship, all the while drooling over the “apprentice” all because of the magical roofie. On top of all of this, toward the end, there are more instances of Ivie being a total moron and it ends in a cliffhanger. I will not be reading any more in this series. I’m completely soured on the whole Ivie and Jack relationship now and I wash my hands of them. 

7 comments:

  1. Oh OUCH, Carol! You didn't pull any punches reviewing this book! But I think that is why you have so many followers who respect your views. I know I do and still do. I am sorry this story affected you so horribly. I am surprised because we generally have similar opinions on the books we have both read. Having said that, I didn't read the 'dream rape' the same as you did at all. Fact is, even though Ivie was under magical influence, she was able to stop the dream before that happened. Which I read as a strength to her character.

    I do agree that Angus was a twisted and manipulative SOB who was only out to save his own hide. I have also known people like Ivie who seek parental approval no matter the cost to themselves. So, I had no problem identifying with Ivie's character through all of her blind acceptance to her fate. I do hope Angus gets his comeuppance in the end though. So I will be continuing the series. :)

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    1. You're right. I believe in calling it the way I see it. Sometimes, over time, my view of a book will change, but I haven't run across one since I started reviewing. At least, not yet. We do have similar tastes in books, but it was bound to happen that we'd divide on a book eventually.

      Ok, maybe I missed something but I thought they went all the way in the so-called "dream" becasue I remember how shocked I was. But anyway, I'm not talking about the "dream". When I say rape, I'm talking about what Angus and whatshisname, did to Ivie with that first spell. They stripped away her free will and raped her in my eyes. And they thought it was ok! That it was for her own good! So much wrong here. No, no, no. No more for me.

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    2. I understand what you are saying, Carol. Angus is the villain in this story. he lied to Liam about Ivie as well. I really feel like Liam thought he was rescuing Ivie from a bad relationship. Angus is an asshat and should be stripped of all his magic. But even that is not enough in my eyes. He will never be able to make restitution to Ivie for what he has done. Angus is a true snake in the grass.

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  2. The cover is so cute, it is a shame that the story turned out so bad. Especially if you enjoyed the first book in the series. I don't blame you for quitting the series. I hope you have better luck with your next read.

    Melanie @ Hot Listens & Rabid Reads

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    1. I love the cover! Yeah, I'm sad about how it turned out, but I've enjoyed several other books by the author, so I'll check out new books by her. Just not the next one of this series.

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  3. The cover for this one is so cute with the goat on it! I hate ti when that happens, you love the first book and then the second book falls flat. I am sorry to hear everything you loved about book 1 was missing here.
    That part about the magical roofie and them magically raping her, I can understand why you had an issue with that. And how she keeps making excuses for her father and then the lies. I don't think I would enjoy this book either with those things you mentioned.

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    1. Many people enjoyed it, but it was just off for me. And the cover is cute. :)

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