DIME STORE MAGIC.

DIME STORE MAGIC by KELLEY ARMSTRONG.

Paige Winterbourne is a witch. Not that you'd notice - no warts, no green skin, no cute little wiggle of the nose whenever she casts a spell. No, most of the time she's just a normal twenty-three-year-old girl: works too hard, worries about her weight, wonders if she'll ever find a boyfriend. Okay, so she does have an adopted teenage daughter, Savannah, who wants to raise her black witch of a mother from the dead. And who is being stalked by a telekinetic half-demon and an all-powerful cabel of sorcerers. But, other than that, Paige has a really ordinary life. That is, until the neighbours find out who she is, and all hell breaks lose. Literally ...

..... From the outer back cover.

FIRST SENTENCE (from the prologue): Todd adjusted his leather power seat and smiled.

MEMORABLE MOMENT: "Is this what you call having things under control, Paige? Dead people wondering around mortuaries? Mobs of strangers on your lawn? A sorcerer in your house, dragging a half-dead man into your basement?"

K and I have been great friends for a number of yours, we have similar views on so many things and yet I was beginning to think that books wasn't one of them. The third book that K has kindly sent me, it has to be said that this is the only one I really liked - no, not liked, loved.

The third book in the Otherworld Series (I now have to read the first two) and what a good read it was. Not just a fascinating plot but great characters, once I'd started reading I had to keep going until I'd finished.

I think the plot worked well on many different levels. On the one hand you had the, lets face it, rather standard tale of a witch but what made it so interesting and compelling for me was all the other sub-topics that came up as a result - prejudice, the difficulties of being seen as being 'different', parenthood and teenage angst, amongst them.

Character wise, I loved discovering some new types of 'supernaturals' (Necromancers were certainly new to me) and I found Paige and Savannah fascinating in their different approaches to witchcraft.

Funny, at times gory and with an element that brought tears to my eyes (the grief stricken Savannah trying to resurrect her mother was heartbreaking) I can't wait to start reading books 1 and 2.