Sunday, April 29, 2012

Review: Twice Cursed by Jacqueline Paige

by Jacqueline Paige
Release Date: February 15, 2011
2011 Whiskey Creek Press LLC
Ebook Edition; 226 Pages
ASIN: B004SCRMR0
Genre: Fiction / Paranormal
Source: Review Copy from Bewitching Book Tours

3 / 5 Stars

Summary
Maddy is the oldest witchling to ever attend the Hidden Cove Academy, having been cursed as a teen; she’s forced to have a solitary life outside of her own magical community. With her magic so dangerously unpredictable, she rarely takes the chance on mixing with the general public.

From one harmless trip to a museum she finds herself spellbound yet again by an invisible boundary, caused by a three hundred year old curse, dictating that Maddy must stay close to the stunningly sexy Colin.

Being stuck with a tall, dark, incredibly lick-able stranger can’t be all that bad, right? Until they discover if they get too close the spirits bound with the curse will take over their bodies ... at the same time if they’re too far from one another the curse will kill them both.

Will the curse's secrets be unravelled in time or does certain death await them both?


My Thoughts
Twice Cursed was a nice, light paranormal read that I greatly enjoyed.  The characters were fun and interesting, and although I really liked the concept of the story, I really felt like it didn't live up to its full potential and was somewhat slow at times.

Maddy has been under a curse for over twelve years of her life and not even the most experienced and powerful witches have been able to reverse it.  What is so frustrating for Maddy is that what used to be normal and easy is not difficult and dangerous and she is rarely seen in public as a result.  Furthermore, she is still classified as a 'witchling' at 27 years old and is still not considered a full member of the 'witch' society. This aspect of the story required some effort on my part not to be too sarcastic and skeptical as I could see where this was going the minute I met the character involved in the so-called curse.  I personally thought it was somewhat unbelievable, especially at how easily it was solved in the end, and felt let down at the solution as there was this big build up but no real blow-up over it that was satisfactory.  The potential for there to be so much more was definitely there but it didn't really go anywhere and I was somewhat disappointed by this.

As Maddy entered her second curse, this time involving Colin, a man descended from a long line of witches himself, but having no power of his own, the relationship between the two was sweet and considerate and I enjoyed it a lot.  The attraction and intensity between them was very well written and the resulting steamy love scenes were definitely interesting, especially as they kept being interrupted by the objects of their curse who kept trying to possess them.  Again, I felt like there was so much potential here that didn't really develop and while I was happy with the result between Colin and Maddy, I would definitely have liked to have seen a bit more in the way of action.  The curse never really played out in any way that was serious for them and I would have liked to have seen something more along those lines.

Verdict
Twice Cursed had plenty of charm and was pleasurable to read.  While I would have liked there to be more action as far as the curses went, Colin and Maddy were interesting and intriguing characters, although we learned very little about Colin's background.  If you enjoy light paranormal reading, with a touch of romance and mystery, then you will enjoy Twice Cursed.  

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