Tag: Martha Waters

Spellstruck by Martha Waters

On By TracyIn Contemporary in Period Dress, George V - 1910- 1936, Historical Paranormal/Fantasy, historical-romance, Interwar Period (Nov 1918 - Sep 1939), Mystery, Paranormal / Fantasy, Standalone Title, Tracy's ReviewsLeave a comment

SpellstruckSpellstruck by Martha Waters

Tracy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: Standalone

Release Date: September 29, 2026

Despite a well-known magical past in England, magic has now been outlawed and is strictly enforced by the government, making it harder for the magical families to conduct business. But Vesper Holloway is clever and has been running her family’s social club for years, and even with the current laws forbidding magic, they have found creative ways to enchant cocktails to add a bit of intrigue for her club members and their guests. She has high hopes that the laws will be repealed by Parliament, but when a few patrons begin to have strange reactions to some of the potions at not only her club, but other magical clubs, she worries that these incidents could hamper the efforts to overturn the laws and decides to get to the bottom of it herself. As luck would have it, her brother’s former friend and man that she completely humiliated herself with, Max Ashbridge is a Forbiddance and Licensing Enforcement Agent (aka F.L.E.As.) and is currently in her club, presumably to try and shut her down, but maybe he could be persuaded to help her figure out who is behind the magical mishaps. Hopefully, her unfortunate attraction to him will not interfere with them finding answers.

Max Ashbridge has a problem with magic and some deep-seated anger that has shaped him and led to his current position in the government. He is a little concerned when his boss, whose husband is a member of Parliament leading the ban on magic, assigns him to investigate the Holloway club and find evidence of magic use to have them shut down and set an example. He knows he was selected because of his former friendship with Freddie Holloway, but it just doesn’t sit well with him. He arrives at the club and is almost immediately confronted by Vesper, who is just as lovely and vibrant as he remembers. She is evading his questions with a young man across the room begins to float to the ceiling, clearly under the influence of a magical cocktail, but it soon becomes clear that the spell has gone very wrong. Vesper admits that this sort of thing is happening at other clubs and askes for his help in figuring out who is behind the mishaps. He agrees not to use the information against the clubs and gets his boss to agree that it was worth looking into, rather than shutting down Holloway’s. Now he just has to keep his inconvenient feelings for Vesper in check until the investigation is over.

This was an interesting story, it isn’t quite what I was expecting, but nonetheless, it was an enjoyable read. I think I was expecting more magic, but this ended up being very light on the magic and to be honest, I didn’t really understand the magic system, especially the family “Word”, and instead of “magic”, it just seemed like the only magic was some enchanted potions. And while this is an “alternate” England, Vesper’s character came across as more of a modern-day woman, rather than an unmarried young lady in 1920’s England. I did enjoy watching Vesper and Max fall in love and find peace in their own lives. The story has a decent mystery, second chances, a tiny bit of magic, emotional growth and healing, a couple of warm love scenes, and a satisfying ending with the promise of happily ever after. Overall, it was a quick, fun read with likable characters and a cozy mystery, that I would recommend to readers who enjoy a bit of romance, magic and mystery.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for a DRC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher/author. All opinions in this review are my own. *

 

To Love and to Loathe – Martha Waters

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Regency Era (1811-1820)Leave a comment

To Love and to Loathe (The Regency Vows, #2)
Series: The Regency Vows #2
Publication Date: 4/6/21
Number of Pages: 384
Barbara’s Rating: ** 2.5 ** Stars

I have just finished reading four outstanding, exciting, thrilling, edge-of-your-seat, 5-star historical mysteries and I wanted something light, humorous, entertaining, and romantic to read next. From the description in the book blurb, I decided this would be the perfect book to read next. Unfortunately, for me, it fell far, far, far short of being light, humorous, entertaining, or romantic. I was okay with the male lead, Jeremy – I didn’t love him, but I didn’t dislike him either. The female lead, on the other hand, is one of the most despicable, conniving, and sly mean-girls I’ve ever read – and I’ve been reading a very long time. If you took this same story and made it about bullies in school who were picking on and conniving against someone who couldn’t really fight back because they didn’t know what was happening behind their back – you wouldn’t find it the least bit funny. To me, Diana is that lead bully and she does some very despicable things to Jeremy. I absolutely cannot believe he could come to love her.

I really struggled with how to rate the book. I was confident in my 2.5-star rating, but since I could only go with a 2 or a 3 on Goodreads, my conundrum was whether to round up or down. The only way I could convince myself to round up to 3 was because of the last 15% of the book and I just didn’t feel as if that made up for the first 85%. Diana was one person during the first 85% of the book and a totally different one during the last 15% of the book. The author tries to convince us that the person we met in the first 85% of the book was just a mask that Diana wore in order to ‘protect’ the real person. I could have almost bought some of that if she hadn’t done such hateful things to people who were not harming her in any way at all. It wasn’t only that she did hateful things – it was that she was gleeful and thoroughly enjoyed what she did and gave absolutely no care whatsoever about the life she was trying to sentence two innocent people to. I’m sorry – I couldn’t find even a little bit of liking for her. Her reason for needing to protect herself with a ‘mask’? She and her brother were orphaned and then raised by an aunt and uncle. Diana and her brother had no money, but they were well-clothed, well-fed, warm, and lived in a comfortable home where friends were welcome to visit. However, she felt ‘unwelcome’ though nobody ever actually said so – they did comment, however, on how expensive it was to raise her. She must have been a really insecure individual to have developed such complete trauma over being raised that way.

One of the despicable things she did was to try to trap Jeremy with a vile woman and force a marriage. Why would anybody want to do that to another person? Yet, not only was Diana slyly and gleefully trying to do that, her friends were going along with it – even Jeremy’s friends weren’t calling her on it.

Another despicable thing was that Lady Helen discussed a very, very private and dangerous secret with Diana – because Diana intimated she already knew the secret (she didn’t). This secret was one that could get Lady Helen hanged in that period. So, what does Diana do? Why she heads right in to share it with her friends – after swearing them to secrecy of course. Later, she tells Jeremy – though he already knew.

Another thing I disliked about Diana (and her friends) was their total disrespect and disregard for males. There are many, many, many mentions of how stupid and useless the males of the species are. It just goes against my grain because I think there are very intelligent females and very intelligent males – and I think there are also very unintelligent females and males as well. Why does it always have to be winners and losers rather than respect for each other?

Why did I think Diana was gleeful in the harm she was trying to cause? Here are only a couple of quotes, but keep in mind I had an ARC, so these may not all make it into the final cut of the book. There are LOTS of them, but here is a couple.

“Diana, being a naturally devious person by nature, occasionally took advantage of this fact in her conversations with Emily…”

“Lady Helen seemed to be just as odious as she appeared. Which, in turn, begged the question: how was Diana possibly going to convince Willingham to marry the lady?”

“Diana thought that it was a great shame she had been born female, for she would have made an admirable general. All the people around her were players on a chessboard, moving about the board according to her plans.”

I really, really wanted to love this book because I was in need of a lighthearted, humorous, happy, and romantic read. I just couldn’t get there no matter how hard I tried. I definitely wouldn’t read this book a second time – and even though Emily seems like an interesting character, I won’t be reading her book either.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.