Laced with Magic by Barbara Bretton (Book Review)

Title: Laced with Magic
Author: Barbara Bretton
Publisher: Penguin

First sentence: Did you ever have the feeling that you were exactly where you were meant to be, that the fates had finally got it right and the rest of your life was going to be clear sailing?

My synopsis: Chloe Hobbs was a woman with many hats - she was the owner of a knit shop called Sticks and Strings, defacto mayor of Sugar Maple (417 residents) and a sorceress-in-training. She was also half human and in love with Luke, acting sheriff of Sugar Maple and the only 100% human in residence there. For many, many years Sugar Maple had been the home of witches, vampires, were families, spirits, fae - you name it, Sugar Maple had it. A protective spell had been placed over the town by a descendant of Chloe's that kept it safe from human's detection as long as a Hobbs woman walked the earth. Chloe was the last of these women and the spell was starting to falter. She was almost 30 and was yet to have a child. When she met Luke, she was hoping that would solve this problem. She didn't count on Isadora and Karen.

Karen was Luke's ex-wife, and the mother of their deceased daughter Steffie. Until she arrived in town looking for Luke, claiming that Steffie had tried to contact her from beyond, Chloe didn't even know that Luke had had a child. Combine this with the fact that the protective spell around Sugar Maple seemed to be failing and Karen was in for an eye-opening experience.

Isadora was the fae's leader, if you will. Chloe had banished her as she threatened to take Sugar Maple beyond the mist into another dimension. The townspeople were torn over whether to support Isabella or Chloe. Unfortunately, Chloe, being only a sorceress-in-training, did not have strong enough spells to keep Isadora banished forever. She (Isadora) also makes her presence known in a big way. But where does Steffie fit in with all this and why is she trying to contact her parents?

My thoughts: What a fun book! This is a sequel to Barbara's book - Casting Spells. I would recommend reading the books in order, but it is not a necessity. I have not read Casting Spells yet, but it is in my TBR pile (and definitely moved closer to the top). Barbara's easy style of writing kept the story moving along very quickly. It was told from the viewpoints of Chloe, Luke, and Karen and intermingled very well together. I enjoyed these characters immensely and all the talk of knitting had me wanting to put down the book and pick up my needles - almost! I wanted to finish the book more. (I am definitely going to do a little stitching tonight though!) I really enjoyed the character of Chloe - how her half-human side tries to relate to her half-sorceress side. The ending took me by surprise and also brought some tears to my eyes! Best of all though is that it seems there will be another book to look forward to! Thanks Barbara! I really enjoyed this one!

I almost forgot - at the end of this book was a great little section on knitting tips and tricks, some stitches/patterns and some great websites for charity knitting!

Please visit my blog tour post to find out all the different ways to learn about Barbara and to read an excerpt of this book. If you missed her guest post - be sure to visit! It was very entertaining!

Thank you Dorothy from Pump Up Your Book Promotion for arranging this blog tour and allowing me to be part of it!


Laced with Magic
Publisher/Publication Date: Berkley Trade (Penguin), August 2009
ISBN: 978-0-425-22752-7
352 pages