Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong

Women of the Otherworld #3
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Published: 2004
Pages: 462

Leader of the American Coven, guardian to the pre-teen daughter of a black witch ... it's not the lifestyle twenty-three year-old Paige Winterbourne imagined for herself, and it's wreaking hell on her social life.
But she's up the challenge. When half-demon Leah O'Donnell returns to fight for custody of Savannah, Paige is ready.
She's not as prepared for the team of supernaturals Leah brings with her, including a powerful sorcerer who claims to be Savannah's father. Cut off from her friends, accused of witchcraft, Satanism, necromancy, murder... Paige quickly realizes that keeping Savannah could mean losing everything else. Has she finally found a battle she isn't willing to fight? www.kelleyarmstrong.com

Paige Winterborne was young, arrogant & quick-tempered when we were introduced to her in Stolen, but one year on, her responsibilites have matured her. I have to confess to being slightly biased against Paige (I didn't like her much in Stolen) before I started reading Dime Store Magic but her character did grow on me (and not like mould either.) She's no Elena but she's strong & sassy, has a good sense of right and wrong and is trying to drag her coven into the 21st century.

Paige's coven deserts her when the custody battle for teenage witch Savannah heats up & Paige turns to lawyer & sorcerer Lucas Cortez for help. We get a feel for the hostility between witches & sorcerers and we step deeper into the complicated world of covens & cabals. The romance that develops between Paige and Lucas feels obligatory and fake and for me doesn't really contribute in any way to the story. Quite frankly it could have been left out all together and I wouldn't have felt as though I'd missed out.

What I did enjoy was the witchcraft, spell casting side of things. I was really fascinated by Paige's search for the 'grimoires,' books which hold ancient spells, stronger magic, lost lore that would return witches to their rightful place in the supernatural world and restore balance of power.

Dime Store Magic is action packed and entertaining but it just wasn't up there with Bitten & Stolen and while I didn't enjoy it as much as the first two in the series, I'm guessing it's a useful world building read, setting the scene for Industrial Magic.

Click on the title to see my reviews of Bitten & Stolen - loved these two.



This month on The Eclectic Reader you could win Frostbitten by Kelley Armstrong OR The White Queen by Philippa Gregory OR Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink. Check this blog post for details. International entrants welcome.