August 20, 2006

A Fistfull of Charms

I read this book on the way to CA. This is the latest story in the life of the witch Rachel Morgan. This was a really good story. Nick, her previous boyfriend, is essentially the centerpoint of the story (though it's not about him and Rachel.. it's about what Nick did). When all is said and done, Rachel tells Nick goodbye, which I was glad to have wrapped up. In the course of the story, Jenks returns to Rachel and Ivy's business (which also pleased me) and Rachel casts a spell on him to make him 'human sized'. OK, it's not a spell. It's actually a black magic curse. One of the sub-arcs in this book is Rachel's increasing 'growth' as a witch. If you'll recall, she started out as a not so great earth witch, and then found out that she could tap ley lines, and has been improving in ley line magic ever since. It turns out that she's pretty unique in that she can also activate demon magic. This story forces Rachel to utilize some demon magic, and she struggles a lot with the fact that she's a "good" witch using "bad" magic. Lots of questions around how things are black, white, and grey and what they mean to Rachel's self-image. Having Jenks human-sized allows to really delve into his character a lot in this book and during the course of the story, we find out that he will soon be dead thanks to the lifespan of pixies (however, I think the spell might have affected this). It was really neat seeing how the team dynamic worked when Jenks was the same size as the rest of the team. Another major sub-arc in this book is the relationship between Rachel and Ivy. I won't give it away, but let's just say that Rachel and Ivy move their relationship along a bit and instead of what you'd expect it's Ivy who freaks out and Rachel who like the new place their relationship is in. We also get to find out a bit more about Ivy's backstory and why she is the way she is in regards to relationships and her denying herself the bloodlust. If you're a fan of the series, this book is a must read and you'll thoroughly enjoy it.

Posted in at 18:11:45