Anthology - Hot Ticket

In following my goals for 2007 I have been reading one anthology per month. I seem to find a draw to this type of book and so I have many in my TBR pile. My Anthology read for the month of February was a bit of a disappointment. The best of the bunch was Deidre Martin's Same Rink, Next Year and that one just got a B.

Lucky Charm by Julia London: In this story we get to know a baseball player that has been in a slump lately and he blames it on a radio talk show host who has been bashing him on the airwaves. Parker Price decides that enough is enough and decides to confront Kelly O'Shay. He heads over to her radio station and they meet, but instead of dislike they find themselves attracted to each other and start seeing each other. Parker's game improves and he thinks Kelly is his source of Good Luck. All in all the story was interesting and well rounded, which I find rare in a short story and yet it still had a rush feel to it. B-

Same Rink, Next Year by Deirdre Martin: This one was the prize of the group and lead me to pick up Martin's latest full length story Chasing Stanley (which was a disappointment). In this story a yearly tradition is broke by the arrival of a snowstorm which causes David Hewson to spend more than one passionate night with the concierge of the hotel his hockey team stays in every year. Tierney O'Connor waits with baited breath every year for the Herds (the hockey team) to arrive at her hotel. The promise of her yearly sexual encounter with the hunky Goalie, has her on tender hooks but this year the team is stranded at the hotel for several days giving the couple time to get to know each other. Although they are reluctant, at first, to break the mystery of their encounters, the promise of more to come has them exploring what could happen. B

You Can't Steal First by Annette Blair: I honestly picked up this book for Annette's story. I know Annette from my reading group and she is a very charming lady, but although her Salem Witch series was one I enjoyed, this story was difficult to get into. We met Tiago in My Favorite Witch. He was a character that begged to tell his story and although we discover that he is this sensitive, lovable person and not the womanizing, panty stealing playboy he portrays himself to be, the relationship he has with Quinn is so complex, it was not something that fit into a short story format. Quinn gave Tiago her virginity when she was just a teenager. She was the rich girl and he was from the other side of the tracks. He disappears on her, while she was thinking they had a future together. She let her father rule her life and when she is forces onto Tiago's Hot-Ticket Express to Spring Training train ride by her closest friends she finally discovers the truth behind what happened all those years ago. C

Can't Catch This by Geri Buckley: This one was the killer of th book. The casual encounter between Lindy Hamilton and Josh Weldon at a football game left me wondering what was it that drew her to him other than his good looks and for someone with such a terrible track record with her other relationships, what did Josh offer that made him different? If at the end of thebok I cannot see that chemistry, that reason for the love they declare for each other, the story has failed. The story takes place mostly at the football games and although Josh keeps saying he has fallen for Lindy, there is just no 'zing' in the encounters. This one just didn't do it for me. D-

Grade: C

The Scot, The Witch and The Wardrobe by Annette Blair

Last of the original Salem Witch series. This is the story of Victoria Cartwright who swears up and down that she is NOT a witch but she speaks in rhymes and when she does... something is bound to happen!

She should have had a clue when she was the first to have been able to open the Wardrobe that has been passed down through generations. When she does, what does she find? A unicorn, OF COURSE! (How could a carousel unicorn fit in a wardrobe is beyond me!)

Rory MacKenzie recognizes the Unicorn when Vickie appears on TV at an Antique roadshow. The Unicorn was crafted by his ancestor and it is said to be what will end a family curse. So Rory heads off to America to verify that the unicorn is the real deal but what he finds is that Vickie is what REAL is all about. The only problem is that she distrusts him and he doesn't trust himself around her!

The banter between these two is to die for, but the constant self doubt in Vickie eventually gets to you, she definitely has self image issues and, although Rory is constantly trying to reinforce his feelings for her, she is a no go. I found that the triplets appearance in the book really didn't move the story along but kind of stood in the way of the smooth storytelling. Outside this book I would have loved the triplet's characters, but they really just stood in the way on this one.

This one is a great read though, and worth the time to pick it up. Rory is just a dream and although Vickie didn't do it for me much, I still really loved the witticisms that distinguishes this series as a whole!

Grade: B

My Favorite Witch by Annette Blair

I'm all about reading a series in order and the great part of this Salem Witch series is that the three books have already been released and I have them all! Yeah me!!

We met Kira Fitzgerald in The Kitchen Witch. She babysat Shane at one point in the story and was well known to be the REAL Witch in the bunch. When we start the book Kira is putting behind a very bad relationship where her soon-to-be husband was caught in bed with Kira's younger sister. She has decided that she needs to move away for some time since her parents don't know why she has dumped the minor league ball player a few days before the wedding. Since she really can't cope with her family's doubt in her judgment - not that she blames them since she was just days away from marrying the toad that was Charlie - she accepts a position as Assistant Event Coordinator to the Pickering Foundation.

Jason Pickering Goddard is laid low when he severely injured himself carousing with a blonde bombshell and almost lost his livelihood as a hockey player. He has sworn off women completely and is struggling to get back on the ice. His doctors are not very hopeful, they have actually deemed it impossible, but he is focused on his physical training and won't let anything in his way back to his dream.

His grandmother has convinced/coerced him into giving the Pickering Foundation 6 months of his time. She has teamed him up with a witch of an Event Coordinator that has him jumbled in knots from the first moment he saw her casting a spell against her ex-boyfriend.

The book is just 298 pages but it holds a wallop of a punch. From ghost searches, bee attacks, crow counting, ice skating and many, many rabbit holes, this book just keeps you glued from page one. There is this chemistry between Kira and Jason that just pops off the page from the moment you open the book. I find it funny that the characters appear to want to be flawed (Jason has a kissing issue and has a phobia of commitment while Kira has an issue with Jocks in general and is avoiding commitment as well), yet they are not. These issues are normal issues and might have popped up in anyone's life if they had the same life experiences as these two. These two were just two people that had to find their way to each other at their own pace. And this is where I find the only fault in the book.

It took them FOREVER to find their way to each other. We were 20 pages from the ending and neither of these knuckle heads could see more than desire when they looked at each other. It was so obvious to the reader but they just could not see it. It wasn't even that they were in denial, it was not even there as a possibility. I would have liked to see a bit more struggle on their end to accept the feelings of love. I also would have liked to see the relationship consummated much earlier in the book. They had done everything except the deed and I found it a bit too much to believe. Don't get me wrong, their trips into the rabbit holes were very entertaining but darn, just get it over with!! LOL!

One more thing I need to throw in here is how much I LOVED the use of quilts by Kira. Lots of people associate quilts to elderly grandmothers, and I appreciate that Kira who was a 'bewitching' woman was a quilter. Quilts are a wonderful heritage to leave to your children but to leave them the ability to MAKE quilts is a gift that will last longer than the threads themselves.

Grade: B+

The Kitchen Witch by Annette Blair

When I started reading Annette Blair's The Kitchen Witch I was mostly looking for a light funny tale. I was a bit surprised to find something more heavy than that. I find it somewhat difficult to review this book because I have mixed feelings about it.

The first part dragged a bit and I kept getting distracted every time the word 'cajones' got thrown into the mix [Cajones means boxes while 'cojones' means balls (Like in 'You sure got big balls to do that')] but then I got to the middle of the book and I just read right over everything and it just became a page turner, keeping me up late and getting me up early until I finished it. Let me give you a bit of a run down about the book.

Logan Kilgarven recently moved back home to Salem after a difficult marriage that left him a single father of an adorable 4 year old called Shane. He is determined to leave his past as a juvenile delinquent / troublemaker behind and create a stable future for his son, who already suffers from abandonment issues. He has taken a job as producer at the local TV station (WHCH – I love how this looks like WITCH), but management is not very keen on single fathers and so he finds himself relying on his neighbor and his mother for babysitting. When he finds himself in a bind he resorts to asking his downstairs neighbor, who is rumored to be a witch, for help.

Melody Seabright is as far from being a witch as can be. She might associate with them and might playact the role but she doesn’t look very Witchy from Logan's point of view. Melody has her own set of problems though. She suffers from indigestion from all the crap she has eaten from the silver spoon she was born with. Her father thinks she is a failure and she is starting to believe it until Logan agrees to set her up for an interview as the host of a cooking show, if she agrees to baby-sit for him. The only problem is that she doesn't really know how to cook. This does not stop her from getting the job when she pitches a fabulous idea to the station manager. The Kitchen Witch show is born and who better to host it than the sexy Melody, who appears to bewitch everyone she meets.

I find it funny that I found the first part of the book slow when in truth you had the funny instances happening in the beginning and the attraction starts to take form at this part as well. I think the problem was more the structure and layout of the story than the story itself. Like I mentioned, the 'cajones' thing really bugged me - sue me! I'm Hispanic! But also the story seemed a bit disjointed and I felt I was being pulled all over the place when it skipped a few days here and there. For example, something would happen that would take up a page of storytelling and the next paragraph would move forward a few days. This editing stops around mid book and the rest of the story just flows.

Blair has a talent to just through in certain comments when the characters are sparing that has you laughing and just shaking your head. The woman does have an undeniable wit!

I also think that when the funky jumping around stops you are allowed to connect with the characters and you actually start caring what happens to them. Melody is a sunshine and her energy just smacked you in the face. Regardless of her insecurities fostered by her issues with her father, she came through as a strong woman with so much caring and love that you have to cheer her on all the way.

Logan was the character with the issues! He's determination to become a stable care giver to his son had him all out of place and made him miss the most important part of being a good parent was to give unconditional love and check your fear of screwing up at the door. I kept wanting to slap him over the head! I think Mel's realization that she was loved was unnecessary in the book because she was not the flawed character. I never got the feel that she was doing anything to please her father, or to prove him wrong. I found her always going after something more for herself and to prove herself strong enough to succeed despite the lack of support. Yet Logan seemed to have received lots of support over the years and he yet he couldn't stop trying to prove himself worthy to his son.

So, now you know how difficult it is for me to review this book and grade it because, although I had some issues with it, I ended up really enjoying it. I guess that is the whole point of reading, to enjoy yourself. And if when you close the book you find yourself smiling, you could call it a success.

Grade: B-