Bewitched by Darynda Jones

Bewitched (Betwixt & Between, #2)

by Darynda Jones

Forty-something Defiance Dayne only recently discovered she comes from a long line of powerful witches. Added to that was the teensy, infinitesimal fact that she is what’s called a charmling. One of three on the entire planet. And there are other witches who will stop at nothing to steal her immense power, which would basically involve her unfortunate and untimely death.

 

No one told her life after forty would mean having to learn new lifeskills—such as how to dodge supernatural assassins while casting from a moving vehicle—or that the sexiest man alive would be living in her basement.

 

Whoever said life begins at forty was clearly a master of the underappreciated and oft maligned understatement.

Reviewed by EBookObsessed on

5 of 5 stars

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Darynda Jones shows that the magic just begins at forty in her newest paranormal women’s fiction.

Bewitched begins right after Betwixted or should I say several months after Betwixted. Because of the amount of power Defiance used at the end at the end of Betwixed, it dropped her into an enchanted coma for a few months. After she wakes from her Snow White slumber, she tries to convince everyone that she lost her powers in a big burnout of magic. She does this because while she was imitating Rip Van Winkle, she felt something malevolent try to get to her. She knows that someone is coming for her charmling powers and she doesn’t know how to protect her friends and family when it finally arrives. She hopes that if she doesn’t use her magic, maybe it won’t be able to find her.

Problem with that is her BFF Annette has been preparing to open their Private Investigator/Finders of Lost Things venture, Breadcrumbs Inc., and has been announcing Defiance’s magical abilities for anyone to find on Facebook.

Defiance also has spirits following her home both evil and adorable but malevolence doesn’t just come in magical form. Banging on her front door is someone who wants Defiance to raise someone from the dead…you know, someone he accidentally killed and he’s pretty insistent that Defiance helps him…or else.

Everything about this series appeals to my fantasy loving heart. We have magic, shape shifters, ghosts, hilarious humor and a great cast of characters who support Defiance. And while she didn’t learn about her magical gifts until she was 44, it keeps coming back to her either subconsciously or when she is under pressure. This way Defiance doesn’t fall completely into that clueless group of fantasy heroines who suddenly find out of the supernatural world and run around waving their hands. She does keep walking into bad situations and has, on occasion, been rescued by the really hot wolf shifter living in her basement, but we’ll forgive her because…well, Roane. Hell, I would get myself into trouble just to have him jump in to save me.

The series also has a nice balance of breadcrumbs being dropped for the overall series arc but enough answers in each story to keep us from being completely frustrated. I am looking forward to the next story.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 10 October, 2020: Finished reading
  • 10 October, 2020: Reviewed