Book source ~ Kindle Lending Library

American Lucy Swift is really starting to settle into Oxford. Running her grandmother’s yarn shop, learning magic, and solving murders doesn’t leave a lot of time to make new friends, but she’s trying to make time to socialize. Being a witch and having vampires meet with their knitting club in her back room doesn’t really help in that department either, but she’s determined to make at least a few friends outside of the knitting circle and coven. When Alice, the assistant at Frogg Books needs some help with her unrequited love of her boss, Lucy’s cousin Violet talks Lucy into making the poor woman a love potion. Lucy’s past witchy experiences have usually gone awry, so she’s reluctant, but ultimately her desire to help Alice wins out. What happens next, well, it could only happen to Lucy.

I really like this series because it’s easy to read, kinda fun (minus the murders), has humor, and wonderful characters. It also has two potential love interests for Lucy, neither of which is ideal considering her current situation, but I can’t help but root for each one for different reasons. The wooing of Lucy is in the very beginning stages, so I have no idea yet who would be the better pick. I like them both though. In this book, Detective Inspector Ian Chisholm steps up his dating efforts, but then stumbles through no fault of his own. Damn that love potion! Rafe Crosyer, resident vampire leader, has his eye on Lucy, too. I’ll just have to wait and see how this plays out. My only complaint, and it’s small really, is there wasn’t as much interaction with the vampires in this installation. I really like them, so it dimmed my enjoyment just a bit.

If you’re looking for a light, easy, fun read that has magic, murder, and vampires then I suggest starting with book 1, The Vampire Knitting Club, in this series. This book can be read as a standalone, no problem, but I think starting at the beginning will make it that much more enjoyable. I’m totally getting the next book in the series. Join me in the fun.

Marion is a witch and about to fail out of her potions class. Her teacher gives her some advice that maybe what she needs is some real love to get her potion to work. Aidan has just been banished by the Queen of the Fae. He must find an imperfect female and make her fall in love with him. What could go wrong?

This was a cute and quick read. Poor Aidan can’t seem to say the right thing to anyone, which tends to lead to his getting into trouble, but for some reason, he doesn’t have that problem with Marion. Marion goes through a lot in this book, from a scared shell to someone who can really stand up for herself. It was a really great read. I highly recommend.

**I received an ARC of this story in exchange for an honest review

Since I don't seem to be having much luck with books that I have actively bought to read and then struggled to get into, I've gone back to the Random Number Generator and it chose #32, which is this one: a chick-lit romance. We will see how I get on with it...

-----------------------------------------------

2.5 stars.

I'm really picky with my chick-lit. I like authors like Paige Toon and Belinda Jones who focus a good 80-90% of the story on the main characters and their romance.

This was probably 30%, which was a big disappointment. I wanted more of Derry. He appeared in the book probably about 5 times total, which was rubbish.

The only good thing in my opinion was the Joss thing. I'm so glad she got rid of Marvin, the insensitive, manipulative old sod. Admittedly I was doing a little happy dance when they met in London and she told him how it was now. Go Joss!

Other than that though, I was disappointed. I read books for the romance and for me, there wasn't much between our main characters.

Not a book I'm likely to keep.