ARC: Review: Maximum Witch by Jodi Redford

Title: Maximum Witch (That Old Black Magic, Book 3)

Author: Jodi Redford

Release Date: September 27, 2011

Publisher: Samhain Publishing

Category: Fantasy/Paranormal/Romance/Menage/Erotica

Type: Kindle

Click Here To Buy Now!

 

Book Blurb:

Who says getting eaten by a shark is a bad thing?

That Old Black Magic, Book 3

Willa Jameson is having one whopper of an identity crisis. Odd memory flashes that aren’t hers. A sultry voice in her head that’s obsessed with sex. Even weirder, she finds herself in the jaws of a rogue leviathan, dragged to the bottom of the ocean—and rescued by a hunky…shark?

The last thing Sheriff Max Truitt expects to find on his daily, deep-Atlantic patrol is a human—especially one who breathes underwater. Compelled to take her home, he waits for the beauty to wake up and reveal her name. Instead he’s treated to a punch in the nose, then a sexy romp hot enough to boil water.

The next morning, embarrassed by the sizzling, scandalous things the voice in her head drove her to do, Willa slips away. But if there’s one thing a determined shark excels at, it’s tracking his favorite meal.

Solving the mystery that is Willa is no simple task. When they finally unlock a dangerous secret hidden deep in her subconscious, it drives a wedge between them…and puts them in a desperate race against an evil that seeks to rain down a watery Armageddon on all mankind. 

Book Exerpt:

       What a f**king shame. Nobody deserved to have their life cut short. He should have finished off the son-of-a-bitch leviathan. Hell, maybe he still would. Not like he wouldn’t be doing the world a favor by ridding it of one less scum.

       Grim fury firing his determination, he started to turn. A small stream of bubbles broke from the woman’s mouth. He froze, disbelief seizing him.
       What the hell? He inched closer, his focus glued to her slackened lips. Was she…breathing?
       He swept his gaze lower and swore he detected the faint rise and fall of her chest. Maybe it was merely his imagination, or an optical illusion perpetuated by the constant ebb and flow of water buffeting her.
       Cursing the present lack of fingers that hindered him from performing a thorough examination, he shot a glance in the direction of the leviathan’s limp body. Not giving himself time to rethink the wisdom of abandoning his shark form while a deadly predator lay less than fifty feet away, he shifted into his human skin and pressed his middle and index fingers against her carotid artery.
       Sure enough, the steady drumming of her pulse verified his suspicions. He exhaled in bewildered shock, expelling his own series of oxygen-loaded bubbles.
       His brain immediately snapped into investigative mode and began cycling through probabilities. Could she be a water shifter? One that didn’t require gills while in human form, like him? Possibly, but something kept him from clinging too tightly to that theory. For starters, it made no sense that she wouldn’t have shifted into her alter form when the leviathan snatched her. Even with an ability to breathe under water, a shifter remained a thousand times more vulnerable in their human skin. Unless she’d been unconscious when the beast grabbed her—and what were the odds?—she wouldn’t have left herself open to attack.
       Well, whatever the hell she was, he couldn’t leave her stranded in the middle of the damn Atlantic.

Favorite Quote:

“Harrison and Reva decided it would be best to leave the six leviathan henchmen in the minivan while they ransacked the Jameson girl’s apartment. In all honesty, it killed Harrison just a little bit inside to be chauffeuring his hand-picked death squad around in a f**king minivan. The future leader of the world did not cruise in the same vehicle that shuttled soccer kids to and fro, for f**k’s sake. It was an abomination. First chance he got, he was stealing a godd**n tank.”

Review:

Jodi Redford raises the stakes … and succeeds! Can we talk about that wicked hot cover for just a second? I was practically drooling all over myself before I had read the first page. How frickin hot is that gorgeous body with that sexy tattoo? And I love how the hands are wrapped around him, but the rest is unseen. Sensual? Absolutely!

Personally, I have read a lot of books with shifters, but this is the first time I have experienced ocean-dwelling shifters and then some. You name it, seals, nymphs, sharks, seagulls (yeah, I said seagulls), mermaids, walruses, puffer fish, leviathans … makes for a very interesting cast. This story picks up where Book 2, The Seven Year Witch ends with poor Willa being led against her own will toward the ocean; a place she is deathly afraid of. Max is both Sheriff of the area and on rounds that night when he encounters Willa being dragged deep into the ocean by a leviathan. Max rescues her and discovers that she is breathing under water, but an unconscious Willa has no recollection of the feat when she comes to.

Eventually Max pieces together a few cold cases with his vast knowledge of the Atlantean population. Yep – as in Atlantis! I have to admit, I was wondering how a  witch story with the heroine in imminent peril was going to work for the third time in a row, but the Atlantis spin took everything to a whole new level. No stale reused story plots here! I also liked how parts of Book 1 tied into Book 3 allowing the components to all three stories click together. That said, with Book 2, you would be better off reading Book 1 first. However, with Maximum Witch, a reader could read it on its own and be able to understand without any gaping holes left wide open.

I do have a few questions though. How did Willa get away from being Domino’s assistant? I mean, impending danger was probably automatic for a leave of absence or something. But one day she is working and the next day she’s not; nor do we hear anything else about working for Domino. Anyone who has read the previous books knows Domino is NOT going to allow that to just happen. And what is with Boone and Justin? Blushes and what not all over the place, but nothing developed or was explained in plain text. Do we have a possible Book 4 in plotting phase? Also, Willa is best friends with Marabella, so where does she go? Wouldn’t she want to spill her guts to her best friend? Just seems like we would have seen more of Marabella during the emotional turmoil of the last few chapters. Now these questions are not paramount to the immediate story of Max and Willa, they are just little nags in the back of my head.

Now, a shifting shark? I too had my brows raised a time or two. By the end of the story – errr – more like by a very creative bathtub scene, the ever talented Max, water manipulating extraordinaire, had me begging for a Tiger shark of my own! Kudos to Redford for keeping my interest with creative spins that broke outside the box, entertaining me from start to finish.

(**book won in Twitter contest, @sknighteditor)