Book 41, 2018

Blonde with a Wand by Vicki Lewis Thompson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I only had a few chapters to read in the book I'd taken to the office, so I brought it home yesterday and finished it. The book was Blonde with a Wand by Vicki Lewis Thompson. Main characters were witch and coffee shop owner, Anica Revere, along with playboy and stock market whiz, Jasper Danes.

While on a date with Jasper, Anica has decided this will be The Night. Her plans are scuttled, however, when she encounters one of Jasper's old girlfriends, whose story of meeting Jasper sounds very much like how he and Anica hooked up...right down to the tale of woe that Jasper told to gain sympathy. Convinced that Jasper is nothing but a jerk, Anica ends the date and heads home. Jasper follows her and won't take no for an answer. In response, Anica draws her wand and turns him into a cat. Immediately horrified by what she's done, Anica scoops Jasper up and takes him home so she can undo the damage. Unfortunately, casting a harmful spell has caused her to lose her magic. Now, Anica must rely on her sister, Lily, and a witch and wizard from the Council to help her.

For his part, Jasper maintains his human mind while in cat form, and he is initially terrified of the changes that have befallen him. He blames Anica for his predicament, yet he knows she's his best hope of being returned to normal. When Jasper begins changing back to human, for short periods of time, it's up to him to figure out how to reverse the spell that Anica used.

The more time the two spend with one another, the more they become attracted to each other. There may be hope for a relationship yet, that is, if Jasper can be returned to a man full time, and if Anica's nosy neighbor doesn't succeed in forcing Anica into getting her "new" cat to the vet to be neutered.

A lite, paranormal romance that I found amusing, lovely, and annoying at various times. Jasper was an utter ass at the beginning, but it was heartening to see how he was able to acknowledge that he'd been a jerk, and even to realize how he'd driven Anica to lash out when he kept pressing her after she'd walked away from him. Anica's neighbor needed a bitch slap. It's one thing to advise someone to get a cat altered; it's quite another to barge into the apartment, past Julie, the woman who was house-sitting, and literally snatch the cat to take it to the vet. I understand it was a plot device to put Jasper in a position of being fearful and intimidated by someone larger than he, but all I could think was, if someone tried to do that with one of my cats, they'd be getting a face full of claws, and I'm not talking about the cat's claws.

Favorite lines:
♦ "Hey, if you want to go all Harry Potter on me and play let's pretend, can we go up to your apartment and do it in comfort?"
♦ "You're the one who turned a man into a pussy."
♦ "Somebody's been reading too much Harry Potter. If anyone around here could cast spells, you'd think they'd update the plumbing." / / Julie grinned. "It's obnoxiously old. I keep expecting Moaning Myrtle to come out of the toilet."

A cute story, for the most part. I was pleased that Jasper had his epiphany, but that he and Anica fell in love over the course of a week, during which he was a cat for the most part, was pithy. I also didn't care for the resolution. It seemed needlessly dramatic, and some things were never resolved at all, such as Julie's firm belief that Anica was a witch. Hm. I'll give this one four stars, the writing was stellar, even if some of the plot was trite.

****