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The Wizard Of Seattle

af Kay Hooper

Serier: Wizard of Seattle (1)

MedlemmerAnmeldelserPopularitetGennemsnitlig vurderingOmtaler
3851065,591 (3.8)6
Fantasy. Fiction. Romance. She looked like a ragged, storm-drenched urchin, but from the moment Serena Smyth appeared on his Seattle doorstep, Richard Patrick Merlin recognized the spark behind her green eyes. Serena had crossed a country to find him, guided by her determination to become a master wizard. She knew he could be her teacher??but she never expected the charismatic, seductive power that was Merlin's. Nor had she dreamed of the fire he ignited in her body and soul, a flame that burned even hotter than the powerful talent she possessed but did not yet understand. Their love forbidden by an ancient law, Serena and Richard will take a desperate gamble and travel to a long-lost world to change the history that threatens to separate them. But they risk being torn apart forever, destroyed by a cursed land...and their own fierce desir… (mere)
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Viser 5 af 5
This . . . was something! Kind of a Mad Max: Fury Road vibe, but with wizards and time travel? There are some interesting ideas here but maybe too many for one book? and like poor execution? The writing wasn't bad - actually, it was quite good (minus all the times the bad guy referred to his conquests as bitches, as in property). There are two slow-burn romances in the book and I wish we had more time developing both of those instead of all the magical realm history. Ahh well. ( )
  s_carr | Feb 25, 2024 |
I actually read “Arts Magica,” the sequel novella to The Wizard of Seattle several months ago without knowing it was part of a series. I enjoyed it very much, so I decided to go back and see how it all started. This book is a very intriguing mixture of a number of different elements. For starters, it puts a whole new spin on Atlantean mythology and exactly what destroyed the lost continent. (Hint: It was wizards.:-)) In fact, even before Atlantis sank into the ocean, it was being polluted by magical energies that were distorting plant, animal and human life. There is also an extreme form of patriarchal culture in the wizard world that has essentially seeped into the very DNA of all male wizards. This makes it nearly impossible for them to trust anyone of the female persuasion, human or wizard, and keeps them locked in a competition of sorts with other male wizards to the point that they need their own territory devoid of other male wizards in which to live. Additionally the wizard council is all male, and there are laws on the books that forbid male wizards from training female wizards, instead instructing them to siphon off the female’s power by force if necessary. Into this male-dominated society comes a male wizard who decides to buck convention by taking in a young female wizard as his apprentice. After nine years together, they realize that they have feelings for one another that go far beyond that of teacher and pupil. But in order to find out exactly what happened to create this world they now live in and to rid themselves of the stigma, they must travel back in time to ancient Atlantis and put together the pieces of the puzzle, while hoping to change history, making it possible for them to be together in their own time. Although the romance itself was somewhat muted (which I’ll get to shortly), it was a fascinating and unique story that I enjoyed.

Richard Merlin, who usually simply goes by Merlin, is a high-level Master wizard. He knows the rules of his wizard society that forbid him from training a female, but nine years ago, something compelled him to take in the orphaned teenage waif who showed up on his doorstep. He became both her guardian and teacher. Now that she has grown into a lovely young woman, she stirs unfamiliar feelings inside him that make him want more, but he knows that will most likely be impossible. He’s already broken wizard laws simply by training her, and the thought of mating her brings an uncomfortable combination of desire and mistrust. He seeks out his father’s advice to discover what fuels this long-held inability to trust females, but the male wizards on the council have long forgotten where the law and these feelings of animosity originate, only that they simply exist. Merlin is instructed to take away Serena's powers, but he knows he cannot do that to her without trying to get to the bottom of this mystery first. Therefore, he proposes that they travel back in time to find the source. I liked that Richard is clearly someone who is above all the male domination. That he took a chance on Serena and trained her, knowing it was illegal, and that he cares enough for her to want to try to figure out what happened in the past and change it speaks volumes to his character. However, by virtue of simply being a male wizard in this society, he’s very unemotional for a large part of the story. It’s something he can’t help, partly passed down through DNA and partly through how he was raised, but it did put something of a damper on the romantic feelings. Once he starts to understand the past and finds the proverbial switch to turn off the mistrust and get back in touch with his emotions, I liked him even better.

Serena is an orphan who sensed Merlin’s presence with her own powers and sought him out at the age of sixteen, looking for guidance. She’s an apt pupil, who is well on her way to becoming a Master herself, when Merlin gets the directive to take away her powers (something he doesn’t tell her at first), and suggests that they travel back in time to find out what really happened so long ago. Serena is madly in love with Merlin and would do just about anything to help him find the answers he seeks, even though she isn’t certain if he feels the same way about her. She’s a feisty young woman who is none too happy when she discovers the subjugation females have to endure in Atlantis. Because of what those women are going through and Merlin finally telling her the truth of why they traveled back in time, she begins to doubt him a little herself. But I liked that ultimately she was able to trust Merlin to not become like his ancient counterparts. She was a heroine I could definitely relate to and one that made a very worthy mate for Merlin.

There is also a sweet secondary romance that I enjoyed as well. Tremayne is a young wizard from Europa who came to Atlantis to visit a distant kinsman. Relations between male and female wizards in Europa haven’t yet deteriorated to the point they have in Atlantis. He disdains the way the women are treated there and falls in love at first sight with a female wizard named Roxanne. Little does he know, though, that she’s fallen victim to some of the human men on the continent who have been told by male wizards that if they take a female wizard by force, they’ll gain some of her power. Of course, this, along with the general distrust between the sexes, puts a major roadblock between Tremayne and Roxanne that I enjoyed seeing them work to overcome along with Merlin and Serena’s help.

My only real complaint about The Wizard of Seattle is that because of all the mistrust that’s going around within both sexes, Merlin and Serena’s romance is pretty slow to take off. It’s obvious that they care for one another, but they don’t even kiss until a long way into the story. Therefore, it takes quite a while to get to the actual romance. It helped that there were two different couples to root for, although Tremayne and Roxanne’s romance is even slower building, which is understandable given all she’s been through. However, I did like the payoff that occurs when both couples finally discover a twist with their powers that shows that male and female wizards were meant to be together all along, but trust is a key ingredient in being able to harness this power successfully. Otherwise it was a very interesting story with lots of intriguing elements. I would certainly recommend it to fans of fantasy romances who don’t mind a story that’s a little heavier on the fantasy and lighter on the romance. ( )
  mom2lnb | Oct 16, 2018 |
Well, I checked this book out on my nook from the library, thinking it was more of a fantasy book. I realize that it's a romance/fantasy book and I actually enjoyed it. The aspects of time travel intrigued me as well. All in all, I anxiously read to the finish, and I would consider other books by this author. ( )
  gma2lana | Sep 16, 2011 |
This book was an impulse buy for me in the check out line of the grocery store a few years back. I like magic, I like Seattle--this seemed perfect! Honestly, I didn't even turn the book over to read the back before I bought it. If I had, I would have seen the steamy harlequin romance picture there and probably would have put this right back on the shelf. This is definitely a romance novel and not a fantasy novel. Yes, the main characters are nominally wizards and yes, they do inexplicable things, but I doubt many fans of fantasy would include this novel in that genre. And yes, the story is partially set in Seattle, but nothing happens to distinguish the setting from any other city in the world--I don't think it even rains. The story goes that a male and a female wizard in present day Seattle fall in love, but for some reason it's taboo for male and female wizards to fall in love. So they decide to go back in time to Atlantis before it disappears so that they can attempt to fix whatever happened to cause this taboo and then go back to present day and live happily taboo-free ever after. I'll give the author points for coming up with an elaborate scenario that would somehow induce wizards to not want to marry each other, but she would've racked up a few more points had this scenario been remotely believable. If I try to set aside my hope that this might have some merit as a fantasy novel and just look at it from a purely harlequin romance perspective it still doesn't rank highly, although I have to admit I've never read anything in the genre to which I can compare this. The steamy bits of the story were all between the bad guy and his mindless "brood mares," which, to me at least, was just gross. The main romance was so obvious from the beginning and so poorly developed throughout, it made me wonder why they even bothered with the steamy picture of these two on the back cover. All of this on top of a very weak supporting cast. Although I wasn't completely bored while reading this book, the highest compliment I can bear to give this is that it could've been worse. ( )
2 stem stubbyfingers | Nov 23, 2008 |
#28, 2004

This was a surprisingly good book. I've had it on my shelf for about a decade, having received it (as an uncorrected proof) when I was managing a bookstore years ago. It's classified as a romance, but there were some interesting fantasy/time travel elements which I enjoyed. The basic plot (with a few spoilers) centers on a wizard and his female apprentice in the modern day - as the story goes along, we find that he is breaking wizarding law to teach magic to a woman - that "women of power" were outlawed several millennia in the past, for a reason that is not entirely clear. In order to find out why, and perhaps change things so that she will be allowed to practice magic, they travel back in time together to Atlantis. My main criticism is that the characters are a bit Mary-Sueish - red hair, sparkling emerald green eyes with fluttering lashes, that sort of thing. I also have a bit of disatisfaction with the way they handle the repercussions of their time travel. They *do* make a significant change in the past, and I don't think it was handled very "realistically" with regards to the present day when they return. Basically, they do something big enough that it should have (IMO) made the present day pretty much unrecognizable. ::sigh:: Oh well. Others might not feel the same, though. I guess that's the problem with (and part of the fun of) time travel. Anyhow, it was an enjoyable read. I'd recommend it to anyone wanting a bit of fluff with a somewhat more substantial plot and social message than offered by the typical romance novel. ( )
  herebedragons | Oct 20, 2005 |
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Fantasy. Fiction. Romance. She looked like a ragged, storm-drenched urchin, but from the moment Serena Smyth appeared on his Seattle doorstep, Richard Patrick Merlin recognized the spark behind her green eyes. Serena had crossed a country to find him, guided by her determination to become a master wizard. She knew he could be her teacher??but she never expected the charismatic, seductive power that was Merlin's. Nor had she dreamed of the fire he ignited in her body and soul, a flame that burned even hotter than the powerful talent she possessed but did not yet understand. Their love forbidden by an ancient law, Serena and Richard will take a desperate gamble and travel to a long-lost world to change the history that threatens to separate them. But they risk being torn apart forever, destroyed by a cursed land...and their own fierce desir

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