 A powerful sorcerer, Derek is determined to get to the bottom of why she pushed him away and ran three years before. He also wants her help. A coven needs training to face a demon and his army of minions. Oh sure. It’s amazing what sweet things a guy will offer to get back into a woman’s heart, and into her bed. Only in this case, she knows he never left her heart, and in her bed is exactly where she wants him to be. Unfortunately, her bed’s already made, and she’s close to losing her soul. And not even Smith & Wesson or Derek Stormwind can fix that. |
A witch, who owns a gun shop, has pushed away the man she loves and hasn’t seen him in three years. Not a bad way to start a new series, especially when in the first paragraph he’s walking back into her life, right at her and poor Ruby can’t believe her eyes when she sees the man she still loves. She was the one who forced their separation three years earlier, putting a spell on him that drove him out of her life without putting up a fight. Now he’s back and needs her help. There’s an energy fault line that’s weakening and he needs her to teach the local coven to help fight against the demons that may be trying to get through the weakened point from the Underworld. Ruby is a strong witch who hasn’t ever really tapped into her full power potential. She agrees to help the witches, the main focus being to direct Light power to help defend against the Darkness that wants to come through. Ruby’s been trying to keep a secret though: she’s not the full Light witch she once was and is battling a piece of Dark magic that’s made its way into her soul. A tragedy in her past drove her to practice with both Light and Dark sides and now she’s starting to pay the price. Derek won’t have it, and he’s back for good to help Ruby and find out why she sent him away.
As is usually the case with any book 1 in a new series, it took me a fair number of pages to really “get” the characters, understand their abilities and the world they’re living in. Fans of Joey W. Hill’s Vampire Queen (VQ) series will recognize a few mentions of characters in that series that Derek has had contact with. So the world Joey writes in is the same, but SOMETHING ABOUT WITCHES has a very different feel to it from the VQ series. Not present, the strong dominant/slave theme that runs throughout all the VQ books. But, make no mistake, the incredibly hot sex scenes that Joey writes so well are still here. Ruby and Derek have a very real and deep connection and it comes out in the way they’re drawn together and in their sex scenes.
There’s high emotion throughout the whole book, both in the bedroom and out.
For as much as Derek is an alpha, rugged, gun-slinging hero, Ruby stole the show for me. She’s just so troubled and fighting a darkness in her that can only be somewhat soothed by pain; pain that’s both sexual and emotional. She finds that release with another man when Derek’s gone for the past three years and when Derek finds out…it doesn’t go over well. A tragedy from her past, that impacts Derek, has her tapping into Dark power, but her grief at the time overruled everything and now she’s paying the price. For much of the story, she’s balancing on that fine line of going completely into the Darkness and losing her soul forever and trying to stay her true self. One of my favorite, most intense scenes is when Ruby comes clean to Derek about everything she’s been keeping to herself. What happened all those years ago when she up and forced him away, why she’s fighting for her soul and how it involves him. Even reading this long scene between them was emotionally draining and a long time coming for Ruby. She was always the girl who growing up, had a mother that was emotionally abusive, and she had no one that worried about her, or cared about her – except for Derek.
In short, he did the oblivious-Derek thing, which made a woman fall for him like a toddler hitting a trip wire, the detonation just as fast. In the space of time it took him to put a fistful of candy bars on the counter and reach for his wallet, Ruby had seen grocery clerks decide they’d give up indoor plumbing and chocolate for him. And he never noticed his appeal, always infallibly courteous and warmly attentive.
It was enough to make a woman want to shoot him. Or keep him chained and naked on a cot in her basement so she could ride him like a carnival ride with the “on” lever stuck in a permanent up position.
Ok, wow. She really shouldn’t have gone there.Derek, as an immortal, has known Ruby since she was a baby. He knew earlier on that he and Ruby were connected and he watched out for her as a little girl, never doing anything more than care about her until she was in her early twenties. Only then did he start to “woo” her and they fell in love. His job, the best way to describe it is as an enforcer, or a cop, for the Light, takes him to many realms where time can pass differently. He would be out of Ruby’s life for months at a time and one horrible night when she needed him most he had been gone for nearly a year. Watching them reconnect now from basically page 1 was very satisfying and I enjoyed their relationship – the high emotion, the hot sex, the connection they have together; it all worked. Derek is everything Ruby needs him to be, tender with her one minute and butting heads the next. He even makes getting dressed after sex just as sexy, if not more, then getting naked:
“Derek, I can dress myself.”
“But you’re not going to.” He put his hand on her leg, found the pocket of the duster with the other one, withdrew a cloth. As she held her breath, he pressed it between her legs, cleaned and dried her. Then he re-pocketed the cloth and picked up the panties where he’s left them folded over his thigh.
“Step in.”
He dressed her from head to toe. Panties, jeans, socks and shoes. Threading her arms back into her bra straps, he hooked it and adjusted the cups, his large palms fitted around the breasts to shift their weight to their proper placement, as deftly as she did it herself. Then the shirt, a quick brush of his thumbs over her nipples again, evident through the thin cloth. Pulling her hair out of the collar for her, he reclaimed his coat, turned and moved back toward the stump.One thing that sometimes bothers me in paranormal books is when an immortal falls in love with a human, and by books end something happens that has them both living forever, happily of course. Sometimes that works, sometimes not. Even though Ruby is a witch, she’s very much human and that issue is talked about and dealt with at the end that worked for me. There’s no easy fix, no magic can work around the human/immortality issue, but as a reader, I’m glad it was addressed and I like how it was handled.
This is a great start to Joey W. Hill’s new Arcane Shot series. We get a small introduction to the leads of book 2, and…whew, can’t wait for that one! Talk about two strong personalities that are going to clash. Ruby and Derek have a great connection and love story, the world we’re taken into is filled with magic, both scary and beautiful and I was left feeling satisfied with Ruby and Derek’s story, and excited to see where Joey W. Hill takes us next.
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
Joey W. Hill: Webpage | Facebook | Twitter
Buy Here: Amazon.com | B&N
*Book received from publisher for review*
I really enjoyed this one too!! I thought it had a nice dark edge and a well built world. Can't wait for the next one!
ReplyDelete