SPELLBENT packs a lot of story in the first 50 pages. An
evening that starts as a lovely, lusty way to end a drought
for Ohio farmers ends with a nasty battle Jessie Shimmer is
ill-equipped to win.
After her mentor and lover is swallowed by a dark portal,
Jessie barely survives killing a demon only to face censure
and shunning by the community she depends on to help her
find Cooper, or what's left of him.
She is left to seek on her own while the Governing Circle
uses all its power to keep her from finding him. They are
going to a whole lotta trouble to block one half-trained
partially-limbed talent from finding (and rescuing) her
lover.
In the process Lucy Snyder introduces us to a number of
engaging characters including Cooper's brother, a man
missing part of his soul, a dilapidated house full of
college guys with pot in the basement and her neighbor, Bo,
ordinary in every way except the size of his heart.
Jessie is a heroine unlike any I have encountered. Her naive
belief in doing what is right despite the cost fits a common
fantasy theme, but her bull-headed determination (and the
help of a highly educated ferret, Palimpsest) drives her to
acts above and beyond what you might expect. Even after
losing an eye and most of an arm, Jessie is more than the
sum of her somewhat depleted parts. Using her partial
training in Ubiquimancy (the use of at-hand ingredients and
deep instincts to create magic) and whatever tools and
allies she can gather she keeps on one step, one hour at a
time learning enough to go after Cooper and bring him home,
and taking on the biggest monster of all, dark deeds hidden
in a powerful man's past.
I am SO looking forward to Lucy A. Snyder's next book. I'm a
sucker for kick-ass heroines, and Snyder has a talent for
binding a reader into a story until, at the end, you just
don't want to let go.
In the heart of Ohio, Jessie Shimmer is caught up in hot,
magic-drenched passion with her roguish lover, Cooper
Marron, who is teaching her how to tap her supernatural
powers. When they try to break a drought by calling down a
rainstorm, a hellish portal opens and Cooper is ripped from
this world, leaving Jessie fighting for her life against a
vicious demon that's been unleashed.
In the
aftermath, Jessie, who knows so little about her own true
nature, is branded an outlaw. She must survive by her wits
and with the help of her familiar, a ferret named
Palimpsest. Stalked by malevolent enemies, Jessie is
determined to find out what happened to Cooper. But when she
moves heaven and earth to find her man, she'll be shocked by
what she discovers—and by what she must ultimately do to
save them all.
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