Review: A Breath of Magic by Teresa Medeiros

Breath of Magic (Lennox Family Magic #1)

by Teresa Medeiros

Published February 1st 1996 by Bantam

Precocious Puritan and aspiring witch Arian Whitewood spends her lonely nights dreaming of magic and excitement. She gets more excitement than she bargains for when she crash lands straight out of a witch hunt into the 20th century and the arms of Tristan Lennox, a reclusive billionaire. Arian blows through Tristan's climate-controlled existence like a breath of magic, only to discover that the spell he weaves around her heart is more compelling than any enchantment.

Genre: Adult, Romance

Publication Date: Feb 1st 1996

Publisher: Bantam

Format: Mass Market Paperback, 400 pages 

Series: sort of, but not really

Source: My own copy

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My Review

It's been forever since the last Teresa Medeiros book I've read. I forgot how much I enjoyed her storytelling and her characters. :)

A Breath of Magic felt more like a breath of FRESH AIR after so many 'bad' or simply 'ok' adult books I tried this week... I laughed SO hard with it! Really, I can't stress how much fun I had reading it. :) It really came at the best possible moment for me.

Arian is the French daughter of an unmarried woman in the 17th century and never met her father. She's sent to live with a stepfather in the middle of a bunch of Puritans.... which would be okay, if not for the small fact that, uhm, she's a witch. A WHITE witch, sure, but a witch nonetheless. And all is evil in the eyes of the Puritans. Arian finds herself in the middle of an Inquisition, just about to drown when she utters a last-minute spell to try and make time stop, but that actually sends her 300 years in the future, in her flying broom.

Tristan doesn't believe in magic, but, ironically still has some inner hope to find it in the world. Which is part of the reason why he promises a million dollars to whoever proves to him that there is such a thing as real magic out there. Tristan is getting fed up with all the charlatans when, out of freaking nowhere, a girl dressed as a nun appears flying/crashing a broom up in the sky. When she falls/lands right into the middle of the contest. He saves her, and sends her broom for examination, certain that it must had some gadget that made it fly. But while his team of researchers find themselves busy trying to prove it was NOT just a broom, Tristan is about to find himself believing in magic again... and also in love.

Tristan could be very bossy and demanding and rude sometimes, but he constantly made up for it, so all was well. He wore his past wounds as an armor around his heart, but it was very satisfying to see Arian slowly melt it away.

Speaking of Arian, she had everything that could have made me dislike her as heroine, but, surprisingly, did not. I actually LIKED her. And you guys must know by now how bitchy I can be. :P She was smart, but kind and pure in a way that was BELIEVABLE and fitting, not coming out as stupid or over-the-head as they usually do in romance books these days. She was genuinely good and naive. But still strong-willed and determined. Authors, take note of this. Your characters don't need to be total losers/pushovers in order to be good/kind-hearted. 

Their romance was also pure and so, so adorable. There were very few sex scenes, only a couple, as a matter of fact, but they were so... gentle and nonexplicit and just, well, romantic. (I'm very eloquent today). They were heart-warming in their simplicity and candor, and very much perfect in their context. This was a real love story. I liked it immensely. And I'm most certainly NOT a romantic. Yes, I am slightly astonished myself. O.o

I was also charmed by the lovely secondary characters! Copperfield, Tristan's (only) best friend and Indian lawyer. Sven, the poor bodyguard, former manicurist/hairdresser, turned goat. Hilarious! I wish they had books of their own. XD

Miss Medeiros, you managed to write a real gem! One that still remains modern, even after sixteen years!!! I congratulate and thank you for such a feat/treat. :) It will come out a bit cheesy, but it was simply... magical. Really, just enchanting.

Early Review: White Witch by Trish Milburn

White Witch
Trish Milburn

Expected publication: March 1st 2012 by Bell Bridge Books

Witchcraft Is Her Family’s Business.No One Quits The Family And Lives To Tell About It. “Jax” Pherson has power, enough power to know her future will end in service to the dark coven her father controls. Unless she can stay hidden in a small community in the mountains of North Carolina. She must find a way to live without magic and deny the darkness she feels welling up inside her—the same dark power that fuels the covens around the world. All she wants is a normal life. A boyfriend. Friends. Some place to belong, but all too soon Jax’s barely begun new life hangs in the balance when she discovers that the boy she’s attracted to is sworn to kill her kind. He’s a hunter with good reason to kill everything that goes bump in the night. Even the most fleeting use of her power is tantamount to signing her death warrant and will bring both hunter and coven down on her. But can she walk away when her friends are threatened by an old evil? Something created by the magic of witches? Jax’s only hope of survival is to convince the boy she loves to forget everything he’s ever been taught and help her find a way to fight the covens. To believe there is some good in her.

Genre: Young Adult, Supernatural

Publication Date: March 1st 2012

Publisher: Bell Bridge Books

Format: eARC, 188 pages 

Series: yes

Source: Netgalley

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My Review

Sixteen-year-old Jaxina Phearson, a.k.a. Jax Taylor just wants to be a normal girl., with a normal life, normal friends and a normal school. But she is as far from normal as a person can get. She's a witch, running away and hiding from her coven. They want her to grow up to kill humans, getting revenge for all the witches that were killed by humankind in the past. But Jax doesn't want to kill anyone, she just wants to control her powers and dark impulses and live her life. The problem is, nobody leaves the coven and lives to talk about it.

So, she leaves Miami and heads over to the mountains in North Carolina (after making sure to leave fake trails to Alaska, so her family won't find her). There, she intends to start her new life. She has a trailer, a used car and was just enrolled in her new school (even if she had to use mind control on a tourist so she would pose as her mother and guardian). Everything looks peachy, until she meets a hunter. A human hunter with a bloodstone that can kill supernatural beings in his hand. She's able to hide from him, but, surprise, surprise, his name is Keller and he goes to the same school she's now going to. And he's the most attractive guy she has ever set eyes on. And he seems to think the same about her. 

Jax has trouble reigning her powers in, disturbed as they are by her very strong attraction to Keller, and even more because of all the bullying she's receiving at school, for being the (super pretty, super perfect) new girl. The darkness inside her wants to be freed, and Jax needs to control it, else she might murder her bullies. And the more she uses her powers, the bigger the trail left for her family to find her gets. Or for Keller to discover what she really is.

When I saw Sherrilyn Kenyon's praise on the cover of this book, I knew I had to read it. I mean, I'm a super fan of hers, so I should trust her judgment, right? No. Not really. I don't know what she was on when she read it, but I wish I had some, too. This book is filled with stereotypes. Completely. 

From the Mary Sue perfection of the main character (flawless long blond hair, beautiful clear blue eyes, killer body and face, everybody wants her, poor thing wishes she wasn't so pretty...blah,blah,blah), to her lovely 'weirdo' best friend/sidekick, who automaticaly isn't jealous or hates her like every other girl at school does, to the impossibly handsome 6'4" (couldn't this 16 year-old be a bit taller? >.> ) ADOLESCENT everyone wants, wanting her. Oh, and, obviously, he's her 'natural enemy', so they can't be together. Which is the same as saying they fall in love with each other from the very beginning. 

*sighs* I apologize if I sound bitter, but I'm a bit tired of always reading the same thing. What's wrong with a bit flawed heroine? And even a bit flawed hero? Sure, this is fantasy and we don't want to read about ugly people, but how about something more believable? How about friends that take a while to really become friends with you? And a couple that doesn't turn out to be star-crossed lovers? Sure, it's much less dramatic, but every relationship has hardships, I just think that they don't have to be doomed from the very first page. O.o

What I did like (and found to be very creative), was the story of all the undocumented killings in Salem, and how the witches got so mad they turned against mankind. That was just brilliant. 

If you like your YA with witches and lots of supernatural and high school intrigue, you'll enjoy White Witch.

*I received an eARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*