Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Do You Believe in Magic?

Is she a good witch or a bad witch?

With a flip of her raven black hair, a flash of her topaz eyes, and a shake of a stick, rumored witch Melody Seabright has cast a spell on single dad Logan Kilgarven. What else can explain what's happening to him? Logan, a television producer, can't seem to concentrate on a thing since he met his enchanting new neighbor.

Logan hopes she is bad, very bad.

When Logan agrees to help Melody find a job at his TV station, he never expects the culinary-challenged siren to land her own cooking show. Her charisma keeps things bubbling on the set, and behind the scenes, things are starting to steam up between them. Logan knows he can't resist her charms- but is there more to their attraction than the here and now? If only he had a crystal ball to show him...

Title: The Kitchen Witch
Author: Annette Blair
Series: Accidental Witch, Book 1
Start & Finished: 12/8/08
Published: 2004
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
Pages: 295 (paperback)
Genre: Romance-Contemporary

A trip to Salem, Massachusetts sparked the idea of romance and paranormal author Annette Blair’s Accidental Witch series starting with Melody Seabright’s story in The Kitchen Witch. A bit more well-known for her other witch trilogy about triplets and her new Vintage Magic Mysteries, this particular trilogy was her first foray into contemporary paranormals but fortunately not her last. As she says on her homepage, The Kitchen Witch “is a National Bestselling Series with a great deal of laughter and Magic!”

Annette Blair is an author I had never heard of before when I stumbled across this first book in her Accidental Witch series. Thanks to the title and the gorgeous cover art by Masaki Ryo, I knew it was something that I just had to read. The plot has been done before- a lot, but Ms. Blair's characters were very real that the more clichéd parts were easily overlooked.

By the end, I found myself wishing that I could see the vintage clothes that Melody wears at times as they sound so pretty! The author is very good at painting a picture in your head of what the clothes look like though. Here is a description of her "off-beat navy suit" from page 24: "The tight-waisted jacket flared provocatively at her hips, that feminine touch offset by wide padded shoulders and mannish lapels ... The slim, straight skirt, slit to her thigh, ended just above her ankles." I also kind of wish that a TV show like The Kitchen Witch (and how cute is her theme song?) existed though as most cooking shows are all about perfection nowadays and Melody was an amateur when it came to cooking!

The Kitchen Witch was a very good story even if I had hoped for more of a paranormal than I received. I wasn't that disappointed when I discovered it was a contemporary romance with very, very slight magical elements though. Each book in this series is supposed to have a more magical heroine in it, just not quite as much as her Triplet Witch Trilogy (not related at all). I hope to read the next two books in the Accidental Witch series even if Melody is only a minor character soon.

Accidental Witch Series:
1. The Kitchen Witch (2004)
2. My Favorite Witch (2006)
3. The Scot, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2006)

Links: Author Blog

Picture Explanations
Salem:
Where the story takes place
Kitchen Set: Melody convinces Logan to talk his boss into her auditioning for a cooking show which she names The Kicthen Witch... even though she can't cook!
Plastic Pumpkin: Melody pretty much adopts Logan’s little son Shane soon after they meet and even takes him trick-or-treating.

11 comments:

  1. I love the cover and this does sound like a fun, light read. I don't read much chick lit but am willing to give it a go for this I think :)

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  2. I agree about the cover. Didn't this author do another series as well? Also with a witch theme?

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  3. I've been meaning to read this book...it sounds really fun and cute. Great review!

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  4. I love the cover! And it sounds super-cute :) And I always enjoy your pictures and the explanations on the bottom on their significance!

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  5. I love illustrated covers. I keep meaning to try either one of her series as they sound like fun guilty pleasures. One of these days . . .

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  6. This sounds great. I'm going to have to check them out. I like anything magical.

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  7. yes I loved this cover and I also expected more of a magic element because I read her first Triplet Witch (which is kind of related to the third in this series actually) before I read this. I just read My favorite witch myself and I liked that one more, imho. Hunting for the third book now

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  8. Rhinoa: If I had known it was straight chick-lit, I might not have read it but I really did like it.

    J. Kaye: Yeah her Triplet trilogy was all about witches and paranormal.

    Samantha.1020: It was! Thanks :)

    The Epic Rat: Aw, thanks!

    SciFiGuy: Illustrated covers are awesome!

    Dar: The magical bits were few and far between but her other books do have more in them

    D. Shawne: I plan to read the rest of these and then read the Triplet books.

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  9. This sounds like a fun series - and her other books sound good, too. Thanks for introducing them to me.

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  10. I really enjoyed reading this one but couldn't get into anything else I've tried to read from Annette Blair and gave up on her as an author :(

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  11. It sounds like an interesting series, Jen. As always, I enjoyed reading your review!

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