Maureen Child, More Than Fiends

More Than Fiends

Maureen Child

Signet, Jun 2007, $14.00

ISBN: 0451221273

On her thirty-second birthday in La Sombra, California, life turns upside down for Cassidy Burke as she feels she has entered hell without a hand basket. It starts with the return of Logan Miller, who left her pregnant when she was sixteen; he wants parental rights to their teenage daughter Thea and would not mind conjugal rights with Cassidy too.

Soon after Logan's run home, Cassidy meets a strange elderly woman who informs her that she has demon dusting as part of her DNA make-up. Initially thinking she met a nut or a prank, she reconsiders when she suddenly becomes super strong. Soon Cassidy demon duster begins spraying people with a specialized cleaning solution that turns selected people smoking. At the same time businessman Devlin Cole makes it clear he wants her. However, a fiend kidnaps Thea so while Cassidy comes to the rescue she wonders what will happen on her thirty-third birthday as she cannot cope with this one.

MORE THAN FIENDS is a humorous romantic fantasy starring a reluctant superhero whose apprenticeship raising a teen maker her question how hard can it be to become the greatest American superheroine dusting demons. Told by Cassidy in a wise cracking chick lit style, the story line is fast-paced satirizing the recent Buffy imitation novels that have come out of late. Sub-genre readers will enjoy Cassidy's thirty-second month long birthday bashing as she learns first hand that A FIEND IN NEED is a pest.

Harriet Klausner