The Particulars: Paranormal Romance, Freya’s Bower, ebook

The Grade: B-

Source: Purchased at Fictionwise

Cora Phillips has witchcraft in her blood, but she’s convinced she inherited the recessive rather than the dominant trait. Her mother and sister are the real heiresses to the Lune tradition; Cora has neither the interest nor the inclination to take up the Dragonkeeper mantle. Years ago, she left the New York City Witch lifestyle to the other women in her family, and said goodbye to all the velvet and lace. However, during a moment of insomnia-induced insanity, she agrees to come back to celebrate Christmas/Winter Solstice with her family.

It comes as a shock to all three women when Cora, through clumsy fumblings to “get in touch with her goddess” at her sister’s urging, calls a pair of ancient dragons into her meditation circle.

Cora swears it’s a mistake. Her mother swears it’s the correct course of events. Eventually, every Dragonkeeper issues the call to mate. Problem is, nobody expected Cora to summon even a single dragon, let alone two.

Before long, the dragons’ guardians come knocking, literally, and ruin any hope of politely apologizing and returning the creatures.

This is another book that I have wanted to read for years, but never got around to. I purchased it at Fictionwise a couple of months ago.

I enjoyed the story. It was interesting to read about Cora and her adamant disbelief in magic, while her mother and sister didn’t hide the fact that they are witches. It took a couple of pages before the story hooked me, but once I was hooked I kept on reading. The worldbuilding was intriguing, with witches and Dragons and Shamans. I liked the characters. From Cora’s skepticism, to Diane’s cheerfulness. I smiled when Diane told Cora to stay away from Salim, but didn’t explain why. I liked the way the hints to the characters secrets were scattered through the story.

I felt that the story had a lot of potential, but that due its length, it felt a bit short. Maybe it was because of the length, but I didn’t feel that the characters grew emotionally. A bit more worrying was the fact that I didn’t feel that there was an romantic subplot until the end of the book. This might be because of the fact it is the first book in a triology, though.

Will I get the rest of the books in the series?

Probably. I think the story would have benefitted from being published in an omnibus with the other stories.