SPELLBINDER

Author: Melanie Rawn ISBN: 0765315327 10/2006 PARANORMAL Publisher: TOR
Note: Takes place in the present, but is "A Love Story with Magical Interruptions"

There is magic in the big city...literally. New York City has a small, and by preference discrete, population of witches and wizards who live and love and go dancing just like everyone else. Holly McClure is one of them, a successful writer who tries to ignore her heritage, except when the local Magistrate needs her special gift in his coven. Holly is far more interested in Evan Lachlan, the handsome federal marshal who works with her best friend, assistant district attorney Susannah Wingfield. But trouble is coming to the City in the form of a black coven run by a murderous psychopath, and deputy marshals and ADAs are powerless to deal with that kind of crime. The danger to Holly is extreme, for her special gift is the power of her blood to strengthen and bind any spell, for good or for evil. Holly's passionate love affair will be derailed by those who want to drain her for their own purposes. In the end it will be magic against magic, and Holly McClure will have to risk all for life and love.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

The quote in the front of the book says it all, "A Love Story with Magical Interruptions." That is the best way to describe SPELLBINDER, and, oh, what a love story this one is.

This book is achingly beautiful. Not Legends of the Fall beautiful, but a little bit Breakfast at Tiffany's beautiful. No pun intended with the name Holly, by the way. Something tells me that may not be the description the author would expect, but that is what it is. The love story is magnetic, heart-wrenching, and powerful enough to shine so bright it brings tears to my eyes. There is more magic in that than anything else between the pages.

I confess that the need for the Wiccan aspect is overshadowed by the love the main characters possess for each other, but it is significant and brings me full circle to why I really am impressed with this book. Even when good is battling evil and the drama reminds me of a B-movie, I never lose sight of the joy and love the characters find and hold on to. All the biblical and religious references (not preachy, mind you) point to the same forgotten thing, and it's a lesson we all can use, whether the intention to teach a reader is the author's purpose or not.

Simply put, SPELLBINDER is beautiful, in descriptions, dialogue, characters, and plot.

Shannon Johnson