Candace Havens

Prelim Review: Dear Candace, I have one simple wish--please make a book about Linc and please find some way to have Kris Holden-Reid model as him for said book somehow someway in the promo material because Linc owned my heart. Love, Me.

This is one of the more fun paranormal romances I've read in a while. The world building is a bit iffy and seemed more arbitrary then firmly set (the Council for one seemed to have some weird laws--if the Council leader had to be married after 200 years in office, because it promoted 'stability', what's to stop a crazy megalomaniac from marrying to engender trust and then abuse his authority?) and it got annoying how often either Casey or Nick would mention how insecure Casey was.

The good news is that the humor and interesting characters made up for that. As mentioned above I love Linc, and hope there's a story for him. There wasn't a whole lot her Aunt Teddie, but when she did pop up she was pretty fabulous. The easy humor between Nick and Casey was adorable, and to be truthful I totally understood where Casey was coming from. Nick was a tease, even without meaning to.

Full review to be posted at Poisoned Rationality… (mere)

Very fun to read, with lots of behind-the-scenes and biographical info I didn't know before. It was kind of like reading a really long Entertainment Weekly article. What made me sad while reading it were the projects he was talking about so optimistically (this was written around the time that Firefly got canceled) that never got off the ground-the animated series and Ripper, which I would have dearly loved to see. But he's had lots of success since then, and I can't think of anyone in the entertainment industry that I'd cheer on more.

Quick informative read for diehard fans.… (mere)

I’ve had a few books by Candace Havens on the shelves for over a decade, and the other night I decided I had to re-read them; I remembered the broad strokes, but not much else. I started with this one, Like a Charm and it held up surprisingly well, for the kind of story it is.

Like a Charm is a paranormal romance, but really the romance is only about half the story, the rest is about the MC, Kira, picking herself up and putting herself back together after a horrific work related experience that left her traumatised and seriously ill. She goes back to her hometown and reconnects with the residents and her family, and while she’s there, the town librarian dies, a woman who was like a second mom to her. Kira is bequeathed an extraordinary inheritance, and must weight accepting it against going back to her highly successful law career.

Of course that other half of the story is Caleb. Caleb has all the requirements of a romantic hero: of course he’s hot, and he’s a carpenter, BUT only on the side, when he’s not running around the world being a highly successful investigative reporter, and of course he’s rich, although you’d never know it unless he’s in a suit. And of course he’s a gentleman of the southern variety, holding doors, paying for everything – but only in the most enlightened and charming fashion. I’m used to this sort of stuff in what few romances I read, and I accept that it’s a winning formula for a reason. But where things got really out-of-date, was the whole first time in bed scene. It was just soooo cheesy.

As is obvious, I enjoyed the non-romantic half more. It was largely an ode to books and libraries and the book-title-author name dropping was fun. It was a light, fun read that went fast.

I’ve decided to use this for the Raven/Free Square on my Halloween Bingo 2021 card. It’s full of magic and I-see-dead-people and is set in a small town run and protected by a coven of witches.… (mere)