BOOK REVIEW: STAR WITCH by HELEN HARPER - THE LAZY GIRL'S GUIDE TO MAGIC # 2 - URBAN FANTASY

By: Helen Harper
Published By: Helen Harper
Released: Available Now
Details: Kindle, 271 Pages

RATING: 4.5 STARS

Blurb: Goodreads

Lights. Camera. Inaction.

Ivy Wilde, the laziest witch in the West, is still entangled with the Hallowed Order of Magical Enlightenment. That's not a bad thing, however, because it gives her plenty of excuses to spend more time with sapphire eyed Raphael Winter, her supposed nemesis. And when he comes knocking because he needs her to spy on the latest series of Enchantment, she jumps at the chance. Hanging around a film set can't be hard ... or dangerous ... right?



BOOK REVIEW:

When you have a fling after a night of drunken Karaoke, things always seem a little emotionally messy afterward.

Winter and Ivy basically act like teenagers. LOL. They are unable to have an adult conversation about what happened, instead, Ivy resorts to taxi stalking.



If Adeptus Exemptus Raphael Winter, with his lapis-lazuli eyes which could stop a herd of stampeding women in their tracks, happened to be finishing work around this hour…



I did have to google lapis-lazuli and it is a very nice color. But all googling aside… these two are kinda cute the way they behaved. 


lapɪs ˈlazjʊlʌɪ,ˌlapɪs ˈlazjʊli/

noun

a bright blue metamorphic rock consisting largely of lazurite, used for decoration and in jewelry.

a bright blue pigment formerly made by crushing lapis lazuli.

a bright blue color.



One thing leads to another and Ivy is back on the job, but this time undercover in Scotland, working as a runner for the T.V. show she adores, Enchantment.

Think Survivor, but of the magical kind where everybody playing seems to get a role, some a little deadlier than others.

Ivy sees the bitchier side of being on a reality show while doing some super sleuthing with Rafe. Naturally, with shenanigans-a-plenty, the writing ensures the pages will turn rapidly.

I liked the curveballs thrown in and the whodunnit is hard to pick this time around. The obvious is too obvious.

Brutus ups his ‘tude in Star Witch and you can’t help wanting to read more of him among the pages. He is rather a cheeky little guy.

Rafe is becoming more of a rule-breaker around Ivy, mainly because she’s already breaking the rules so he has to go with the flow.

Star Witch is fun, witty and easy to read.

And oh… my to that ending!

BOOK REVIEW - SLOUCH WITCH by HELEN HARPER - THE LAZY GIRL'S GUIDE TO MAGIC # 1 - URBAN FANTASY

By: Helen Harper
Published By: Helen Harper
Released: Available Now
Details: Kindle, 342 Pages

RATING: 4.5 STARS

Blurb: Goodreads

Let's get one thing straight - Ivy Wilde is not a heroine. In fact, she's probably the last witch in the world who you'd call if you needed a magical helping hand, regardless of her actual abilities. If it were down to Ivy, she'd spend all day every day on her sofa where she could watch TV, munch junk food and talk to her feline familiar to her heart's content.

However, when a bureaucratic disaster ends up with Ivy as the victim of a case of mistaken identity, she's yanked very unwillingly into Arcane Branch, the investigative department of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Her problems are quadrupled when a valuable object is stolen right from under the Order's noses. It doesn't exactly help that she's been magically bound to Adeptus Exemptus Raphael Winter. He might have piercing sapphire eyes and a body which a cover model would be proud of but, as far as Ivy's concerned, he's a walking advertisement for the joyless perils of too much witch-work.

And if he makes her go to the gym again, she's definitely going to turn him into a frog.


BOOK REVIEW:

Slouch Witch is a light urban fantasy read which I thoroughly enjoyed. I have to admit the series title having the word ‘lazy’ in it, didn’t overly draw me in at first, but I am so glad I gave this new author to me a whirl.

Ivy tries to convince us she’s lazy, but she’s more bored easily. Adeptus Exemptus Winter aka Raphael aka Rafe catches onto this too because he finds she rather enjoys working side by side with him even if one doth protest too much.

I do love these two together. The romance is just a tingle down south in the air at the moment, with a small itch that gets scratched. Or I could just say ‘slow burn.’

This is a cute read with an annoying sub character who is the thorn in Ivy’s…erm… existence.

Brutus and Princess Parma Periwinkle are a hoot too.

There are three levels of magic that one can study and achieve with sub levels within those three main levels at the Hallowed Order of Magical Enlightenment aka the Order.

Ipsissimus is the highest level, and you only have one of those, kinda like Dumbledore. I dare you to say ‘Ipsissimus’ clearly rapidly ten times in a row… well, try for six in a row.

Winter works for the Arcane Branch of the Hermetic Order, he investigates like a detective to solve magic issues.

Essentially Ivy and Adeptus Exemptus Winter are forced to team up due to a little-mistaken identity, and together they are quite a funny team.

Ivy hates the Order due to a rather unsavory expulsion many years prior, but she is no slouch (did you see what I did there?). She is entirely on top of her game when it comes to whipping up a rune for this, and that and combating the bad guys and Winter’s undoubtedly not fooled by her unsavory expulsion.

Overall a fun read I highly recommend. This series is set in the UK, so as ya do when writing a story, you use the slang of the nation, and I did not get tired of hearing ‘plonker.’ Such a funny word when Ivy uses it.

Helen had a brilliant way of ending this first installment.

Bahahhaaa.