Book Babblings

Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong 

The Nitty Gritty: Reeling from the loss of her mother and the loss of a powerful black witch Paige Winterbourne has taken on the task of raising Savannah and running the American Coven.

Paige's life is a balancing act. An act that she believes that she is doing well. Until the woman responsible for her mother's death send her custody paperwork. Outraged Paige plans to get at the half demon alone.

Till Leah confesses they have the backing of Savannah's father behind them. Paige enlists the help of a human lawyer who winds up as fertilizer all over main street and Paige is the suspect.

Opening Line: "Todd adjusted his leather power seat and smiled." 

The Good: I actually like Lucas. He is long suffering, sweet, intelligent and for the most part honest. I have to admit that I am partial to nerds and Lucas is a glasses wearing nerd who happens to be a lawyer. That is beyond sexy to me. Lucas is opened-minded and hard working. He is one of the best male protagonists in the fantasy genre that I've read. He was the star of the book for me. Its saving grace.

The Bad: I hate Savannah. I hate her with a white hot passion that I didn't know existed. I mean I like Bella Swan from Twilight more than Savannah. She snotty, condescending, cocky, mean, a total brat. Everything I hate for a child to be.

Here is a kid that should lucky someone wants to put up with her. Instead she abuses the generosity afforded to her. She abuses the magic that she had been entrusted with. Without a thought or care for the consequences to her actions. She just doesn't care who she hurts to get what she wants. In one scene she unleashes a confusion spell that gets Paige slapped around like a rag doll and Lucas stabbed. Does she even act like she is sorry? Nope. Does Paige or Lucas punish her? Nope. They just talk about it among themselves and they move on. Her little tantrum at the end of the book just did it for me.

This chick needs a padded room and a straight jacket and I would be too happy to supply both.

I don't know if I like Paige. She is so flighty. Not in the fact that she can't sit still but in the fact that she is scared of everything. Freaks out about everything, and is just so...I can't even keep going. Paige is so stuck in her ways she can't even see that Lucas wanted to help her from the beginning.

And of course I'm still trying to come to terms with white authors having interracial dating/hook ups/marriages with characters of color. Especially when those characters of color are the only splash of color in a book. Its really frustrating for me because its just like they are including these characters just to include them. They aren't taking the time to understand said characters ethnic and racial background before they throw a white girl at them.

Honestly this book could have lost 150 pages and still have been boring. It was a book about a supernatural custody battle in the middle of a Tampax commercial. It was a simple plot that she tried to make interesting with all the little twists and turns when frankly she should have come up with a different, better plot.

My hope for the series: So I am still trying to find something that I like about Armstrong's female protagonists. I can't stand Elena and I'm starting to not like Paige, but I really like the concept of the series. So I'm hoping the females get better.