Title: Wicked Enchantment
Author: Anya Bast
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Dark Magick #1
Publisher: Berkley
Number of Pages: 336
Source: Library
When you’re a half incubus, your reputation precedes you…All eyes are on Gabriel Mac Braire the day he makes his first appearance in the Seelie Court, including those of Aislinn Finvarra. Despite deep bitterness over her last failed relationship, Aislinn cannot help but be curious about the half incubus who is known to possess dark magick, both lethal and sexual in nature. Rumors abound of the women who have become enslaved to his irresistible charms. So when the Summer Queen of the fae orders Aislinn herself to act as his guide in the court, she is understandably on guard. She’s fallen under the spell of far less persuasive men before. In addition, Gabriel might be more than he seems and his true mission is far from innocent.This time, Aislinn must protect not only her heart, but her very life.. (From goodreads.)
I read Wicked Enchantment after seeing blog post after blog post about Anya Bast's newest release-Dark Enchantment which everyone seems to love and comes out soon. However, the virgo in me had to read the series in order, so I picked up book on of Dark Magick at the library.
Gaberiel Mac Braire was thinking of switching fae courts. It's not easy to switch from the unseelie courts to the seelie courts, but he had a some seelie blood on his mothers side and was determined to give it a go. I know what you're thinking: The dude's got to be up to something...and he was...that being Aislinn Finvarra. She was chosen to be his tour guide around court, luckily for him-because his goal was to seduce her to the unseelie court. We're not told why, until the very end, but Aislinn has some unseelie blood in her and the unseelie king wants to lure Aislinn over to his side, and figures that the succubus (Gaberiel) is the best way to do it. However, Aislinn isn't a pushover. She's coming off a nasty break off and unlike every other women at court isn't all that into Gaberiel. She thinks it's weird that he wants to switch courts and doesn't really want to be his tour guide. She agrees to be it because one doesn't really say no to the Summer Queen and because her best friend has been forced to flee to the unseelie court with her husband and she wants some info on how they are doing.
This was almost a dnf for me, and I'm still trying to figure out why. Aislinn was a strong, spunky, independent heroine, and Gaberiel was just the sort of hero I love-strong, dark, handsome with a bit of an attitude. While I liked each of the main characters, I had trouble buying into their romance...I think it was because Aislinn spent most of the book fighting her attraction for Gaberiel, and by the time they finally got together, I just found myself not being all excited about it. I think another part of the problem why I didn't get these two was because a lot of time was spent on Aislinn's best friend who is featured in a novella in this series. I kept thinking that she was character that I should've known from a previous series by the author and wasn't sure why we should care about the romance so much between Aislinn's best friend and husband except that it was a way to bridge the two courts together...which brings me to the last problem I had with the book. There was a lot of world building going~it took about half the book, and random enemies kept popping up. I know it was setting up for future storylines, and I don't know why the pace of the world building bothered me, but it did.
While it sounds like I was really annoyed by this book, I actually liked it, it just didn't blow me away like I thought it would. Once the world building was finished and the characters introduced, it became a fun read, and I look forward to reading the other two books in the series.
Curran Crush Meter: Low
Martini Sigh Meter: Medium
Rhiannon Kick Ass Heroine Meter: Low
Ethan/Merit Sizzle Meter: Low
Finn Sidekick Meter: Low
