*This title will be released on February 1, 2011*
 | Title: Visions of Magic Paperback: 368 pages
Source: Author |
Book Description
In the ten years since magic has reemerged in the world, witches have become feared and hunted. For weeks Shea Jameson has been haunted by visions of fire. When she unintentionally performs a spell in public, she becomes one of the hunted. Her only hope is Torin, a dangerously sensual man who claims to be her eternal mate.
Review
The concept behind The Awakening series is excellent. Millennia ago, witches grew powerful (and arrogant) enough to unleash a deadly threat to the earth and the price for containing that threat was binding their powers and memories for over 800 years. Flash forward to today to a young woman who finds out she’s the first witch to awaken since that time.
The world building in VISIONS OF MAGIC is the best part of this book (even better than it’s stunning cover). For Shea, finding out she’s a witch, is akin to finding out she’s a rabid dog. Imagine if the Holocaust and the Salem Witch trials were revived in modern times and you’ll have a pretty good idea of the sentiment towards magic and witches in this book.
Witches are universally feared and loathed. Neighbors accuse each other, special divisions in the government exist to track down and imprison suspected witches. The fortunate ones are sent to prison camps, some are burned at the stake, and others are sent to a Dr. Mengele-like character for experimentation. It’s a truly horrific reality and one that Hastings captures in all too vivid detail
Helping Shea to survive and escape from those who are trying to kill her—or worse—is her Eternal, Torin. He is a being created from the Sun bound to aid and protect her through her Awakening and ensure her ability to prevent the threat from once again escaping to our world. So he’s crazy hot, literally the guy is made of fire. And since this is a PNR (and a particularly hot one at that) the way Torin helps Shea awaken is through sex magic. Lots and lots of it. Unfortunately, I thought some of the descriptions got a bit redundant.
And with the start of any planned series, I expect there to be storylines that don’t all get wrapped up in the first book, but between the president’s secret plans to see witches receive equal rights, another Eternal’s various efforts to help a wrongly accused witch, and a group of Guardian Witches who make up the resistance, there were a lot of other stories going on and none of them were resolved in VISIONS OF MAGIC.
Overall, VISIONS OF MAGIC isn’t quite as amazing as it’s cover would lead you to believe. The alternate world that reimagines a Nazi/Salem like persecution of witches was alarmingly intriguing, and the basic mythology strong enough and novel enough to support a new series. Hopefully future books won’t leave quite so many unresolved side plots. I enjoyed this enough that I’m looking forward to finding out.
Sexual Content: Lots of graphic sex.
My Rating:
3/5
Good - A fun read with minor flaws. Maybe read an excerpt before buying.
Click HERE to read an excerpt
Previous books in the series:
- N/A
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hmm, I like the concept..I might just give this one a try! Thanks for the great review!
ReplyDeleteFroggy
Froggarita's Bookcase
Froggy - The concept is very cool, but it was the world building that really made this a good read.
ReplyDeleteI have heard a lot of good things about this book. BTW Great review. Can't wait until I get a chance to read it myself. :)
ReplyDeleteDanielle - Any guess who Regan Hastings really is? She's a bestselling author using a pen name...
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I was under the impression that it was a UF instead of a PNR. Still excited to read it though.
ReplyDeleteoh, I guessed right about who it is (and no I can't tell) . I read the first 2 chapters of the book and can't wait to read more .
ReplyDeleteShera - The cover looks UF, but the romance was a HUGE part of the book which is why I went with that classification.
ReplyDeleteSharon - Good for you (I have no idea). Only a couple weeks left until it's out :)
You were kind. The sex wasn't graphic. It was lukewarm. And this isn't UF. It's PNR. I'd agree w/ the reviewer.
ReplyDelete