Just finished Reading – Dime Store Magic by Kelly Armstrong

This is the third in the ‘Women of the Otherworld’ series, the first two being Bitten and Stolen which concerned the exploits of the only female werewolf (long story) Elena Michaels.

Dime Store Magic concentrates on a character introduced in Stolen – the 23 year old witch Paige Winterbourne and her 13 year old ward Savannah. Witches, along with Sorcerers, are a different species in Ms Armstrong’s universe – not to be confused with human Wiccans. They have real power (unlike their human counterparts) but Paige finds herself way out of her depth when Savannah’s mysterious father tries to reclaim her in order to use her burgeoning power for his own ends.

Kelly Armstrong’s writing skills are certainly improving with each novel. Her first novel Bitten was often a little raw but her excellent central character Elena made it more than readable. Here we find again an excellent central character in Paige as well as a host of well drawn, three dimensional and most importantly believable otherworldly characters to compliment this novel. Still a little clunky in places it nevertheless moves along at a reasonable pace, is funny, sexy and disturbing in turn and is chock full of snappy dialogue. More than anything else it’s a fun read. It’s certainly light reading but not fluffy – and more than a little gruesome in places to be honest. If you’ve read and enjoyed any of the Anita Blake series by Laurell K Hamilton then you’ll like these books too.