What happens to a baby girl who was found abandoned and naked on the side of the highway? Why she gets adopted and grows up to be hunted by evil witch hunters of course.

There was plenty for me to enjoy in this story. First being Raye, she's gutsy, trying to be normal and so not fitting in to her "hometown". New Bergin, Wi is such a small town that everyone has known everyone since the beginning of time. Think they described it as a place you only stopped on your way through town if you were in desperate need of gas and/or a restroom. Add to the fact all the families there have Scandinavian backgrounds which means lots of big blonde blue-eyed families. Raye is an adopted only child with dark hair and eyes....yup, no fitting in that way. Oh, and she sees ghosts.... think we better keep that little fact to ourselves.

When a woman is murdered (no one can remember the last time that happened, if ever) and the circumstances around it trigger New Orleans homicide detective Bobby Doucet to get a call about his latest murder, things go from scary to seriously freaky. How can this new victim have a "brand" on them just like some of his victims? Who's doing this and now why are they in Wisconsin?

I like the story telling of the witches of 1612 and how they were hunted. An innocent young witch in training tells Raye and Bobby all about them, the Venatores Mali (Hunters of Evil), and the legend of Henry and Prudence Taggart. Won't give away any spoilers but let's say....they mean something to Raye. P.S. she wasn't the only baby girl.....

We get an insight into why these ghosts haunt certain folks. Some of the beliefs Wiccans hold. And we see a skeptic learn to keep an open mind and heart. There were a couple of times I teared up as Bobby faced his tragedy and the ghost who haunted him.

Witty dialogue and the pacing of the story was good. Yes we were given a lot to digest but we got our time to let it sink in while the characters did too. Looking forward to the next book. ( )

I picked up this trilogy hoping it would fill the Nora Roberts magical ladies trilogy space in my heart. It did not. Which, really, who but Nora is Nora, so there's that. The thing about books like this is that you have to like the tropes they're filled with, and you have to expect the pattern to be followed from book to book. I do and I do. But I also expect the author to do it well. This sounds like I'm condemning the entire trilogy and I'm not, nor am I insulting [a: Lori Handeland|17060|Lori Handeland|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1436902765p2/17060.jpg], an author I've read before and enjoyed quite a bit.

The first book [b: In the Air Tonight|9577671|In the Air Tonight (Shadow Force, #3)|Stephanie Tyler|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1288223365s/9577671.jpg|14464548] is about Raye, who can see and talk to ghosts. The main plot is about witches being murdered across the country, and Raye now being specifically targeted. The romance plot is with the out of town detective who has been investigating these murders. And the entertaining subplot is about the ghosts who need to move on. Raye's father and best friend play fairly big roles, and the out of town detective has connections to some of Handeland's other characters. This felt like a big, sprawling universe. It was entertaining and fun.

The second book [b: Heat of the Moment|6612675|In the Heat of the Moment|Kim Dare|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1247485009s/6612675.jpg|6806699] (and don't think I don't love these titles) is about Becca, another small town girl, this time a veterinarian who can communicate with animals. The main plot remains that of the murdered witches. The romance plot is with her teenaged boyfriend Owen who has returned, injured, from his military job along with his MWD Reggie. (Owen left because he "wasn't good enough" for Becca and still thinks that. I eat up that sort of plot with a spoon. Loved it.) The subplot was less distinct than the first book, having more to do with the main plot as it involves Owen's mother. But there's also some darling moments with Reggie and Becca being able to understand him, which made the book fun. There were, again, plenty of secondary characters involved, some good, some bad.

The third book [b: Smoke on the Water|1915401|Smoke on the Water|Brian Daley|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1434561190s/1915401.jpg|1917429] is about the third sister, Willow. When it opens she's a patient in a mental health facility, there because she had a vision of a man killing her, branding her, then setting her body on fire (as the witch killers have been doing) and when she saw that man she killed him first. Her only friend is Mary, the mother of Owen from book 2. The first half of this book overlapped book 2 and explained a lot; I enjoyed it even if it didn't seem to move the plot forward at all. The second half had Willow meeting her sisters and almost instantly accepting everything she'd been told about witches. The romance plot was with Sebastian--her psychologist--and see below for how much I hated that. There was no subplot. There were few other characters, so it was simple to know which ones were the witch hunters.

[Note: At 25% through the book the male protagonist (the love interest)--who is a practicing psychologist and administrator of a mental health facility--has more than once referred to his patients as "cuckoo" or some variation. He also has sexual and romantic feelings that he is slowly acting upon toward the main female character who happens to be a patient in that facility and a personal patient of his. So right now all I think is that he's skeevy and ableist and I kind of hate him. Not a great way to put forward a love interest.]

The second half of this book rushed to the ending, cramming as much sex, love, and happily ever after as it could. We're talking marriages, insta-babies, and ghost-wolf love reunions. To be honest, I started wondering if this book was finished by a different author, that's how bad it was.

So while I can recommend books 1 and 2 I cannot recommend book 3 unless you are a completist and absolutely must know what happens.

[I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.] ( )

Always feeling like an outsider in her family and her community due to her dark hair and habit of seeing ghosts, the heroine lives with the daily curse of seeing dead people all around her. She's learned to lie and tell people she doesn't see anything but they hound her regardless. The hero is a savey detective brought up from New Orleans to investigate a homicide whose MO matching a serial killer he's hunting. Tortured with the memory of his dead daughter, the hero is relentless in his pursuit of the criminal in every single one of his cases. As a result, he's amassed quite a horde of ghosts that haunt him. Too bad he's adamantly denying the existence of such things. The two hit it off quite quickly but with the heroine fear of the hero's reaction to her 'gift' she keeps quiet about the fact that his daughter is haunting him, unable to cross over until he's happy. It broke my heart to read about how she died and the very real, bone deep pain the hero lives with everyday made me truly fall in love with his character. He was funny and passionate about helping people regardless of his own safety and he kept his pain a secret, not wanting to burden anyone with it but at the same time wanting no one to know about his guilt. I truly loved this book. From start to finish I was captured by the genuine feelings every character depicted. The heroine's troubled relationship with her father, the curse of seeing things that sometimes disturb or unsettle her. She was a real person. She wasn't superwoman- but she held her one. Plus she was so funny. This had so much of the old charm Lori Handeland's night creature books had but with the added bonus of reading some of the book through the hero's point of view. Most times it's the heroine so it was nice to sometimes see inside his mind and read about what he was thinking. I thought this book was amazing and I can't wait until the next in the series. ( )

"5 out of 5 stars! A little over four hundred years ago, while being burned at the stake two witches (a husband and wife) do one final spell that sends their triplet baby daughters into time in hopes of finding a place when witchcraft won’t be a crime and they’ll be “safe.” The spell works ….

Throughout her life, Raye (Rachel) has been able to see and speak to ghosts. However, when she was five year old, and overheard her adopted father talk about how he didn’t like it and wanted to “send her back,” she learned that talking to ghosts wasn’t normal and did everything in her power to stop. Now at the age of twenty-seven she might still hide her “gift” but knows that it won’t go away.

One-day Raye’s “normal” life suddenly changes when a unique murder happens downtown and homicide detective Bobby (Robert) rushes into her life. In some ways things go from bad to worse while in others things get better but as sparks start to fly between Bobby and Raye other forces try to keep them apart, can they work things out between each other or will their pasts mess up what they want for their futures?

This unexpected paranormal thriller hooked me with Raye’s sarcastic personality, its fun witty plot, its suspenseful ways, and the growing relationship that Bobby & Raye share. Spectacular!"

Read more of my review and THREE TEASERS here: http://frommetoyouvideophoto.blogspot.com/2015/06/idolizing-in-sisters-of-craft-... ( )

Received via NetGalley from St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest and completely unbiased review.

Also posted on Silk & Serif

I don't even know where to start. I have a long history as a teenager with an interest in occult literature, folklore and YA Novels. I at one time adored witch books because it was a world where magic was real and dreary, mundane world could melt away to give birth to one where anything was possible. In The Air Tonight surprisingly transported me to a world where magic existed on a smaller, more realistic scale. The main characters were people I could identify with regardless the fact that we live in completely different worlds. I work in a boring office or a fast food joint on the daily, I am in no way a cop or a kindergarten teacher. I am a chunky white girl who has absolutely no Haitian ancestry or adoration for children (seriously, put me in a small room with kids for an hour and bad things happen), yet the characters were ones I could relate to like old friends.

I want to include here that I adored the fact that the main character did not have parents. She didn't complain, victimize herself or place blame on others. She said "so I was abandoned and unwanted, but that doesn't make me worthless". She moved on with her life: bad ass!

Obviously, as a romance book, there were sex scenes. I was a bit leery of sex scenes concerning magic. Would it be like A Discovery of Witches where her powers go amok? Or would it get over the top like The Trouble Maker Next Door? Would I be skipping up to fifty pages of sex in this book to get back the story line? Nope! The scenes were tasteful, realistic and to the minimum. Once the main character and the hero get together it doesn't take over the book, and we still have concentration on the mysterious killer who marks his victims with a brand.

The crime mystery portion of the book is fantastic as well. I don't want to spoil it for readers, but it includes an ancient order and prejudices. Handeland keeps most of the huge breakthroughs until midway or near the end of the book with breadcrumbs for the readers to lead themselves to the killer. I love a romance with a bit of real mystery writing.

Finally, I want to include that although this is a book about a woman who finds her heritage as a witch, there is only sprinkles of "witchery" throughout. Refreshing! Bobby and Raye must figure out who is killing witches the old-fashioned way. No need for crazy spells, incantations or telekinesis! Raye also must hide her ability to see ghosts from Bobby, who has his own dark past with psychics.

This book will appeal to readers who enjoy paranormal romance, witch or occult novels, fun novels and simple mystery novels. Well worth the read if you want something paranormal without too much saturation. ( )