Kelley Armstrong, Dime Store Magic

Dime Store Magic

Kelley Armstrong

Bantam, May 2004, $6.99, 414 pp.

ISBN: 0553587064

Paige Winterbourne has spent much of her twenty-threes years of life in trouble with the Elders who felt her defiant ways made her unfit to succeed her highly regarded mother as head of the American Coven of Witches. However, nine months ago, the Elders and Paige no longer had time when her mother was murdered. Paige "adopted" a young teen witch Savannah Levine who also saw her mom die. Conversely Savannah's dad, the powerful sorcerer Kristof Nash, wants his child that he ignored for years as he recognizes the evil potential.

Besides the common thread of mourning their losses, Paige knows that Kristof dabbles in malevolence and will use his offspring in the dispute against witches and others. Kristof will do anything to obtain control of this "weapon" including murder and framing Paige as the culprit. Her best hope to stop Kristof is attorney Lucas Cortez who is a sorcerer and everyone knows that sorcerers and witches are like oil and water so why does she think he is such a hunk.

DIME STORE MAGIC is a terrific contemporary fantasy that makes sorcery and witchcraft seem genuine in a world filled with computers even if it is unbelievable that a witch would ever depend on a sorcerer. The action-packed storyline is fast-paced and provides strong characterization especially the heroine, the villain, the hero, and the teen target. Fans will want to be BITTEN by the Armstrong aura that mystically leaves the audience wondering how their time was STOLEN by an author with the magic to engage the reader in one sitting spells.

Harriet Klausner