Spellbent

by Lucy A. Snyder

Ebook, 2009

Status

Available

Call number

813.6

Publication

Del Rey (2009), Edition: Original, 370 pages

Description

Fantasy. Fiction. Romance. HTML:In the heart of Ohio, Jessie Shimmer is caught up in hot, magic-drenched passion with her roguish lover, Cooper Marron, who is teaching her how to tap her supernatural powers. When they try to break a drought by calling down a rainstorm, a hellish portal opens and Cooper is ripped from this world, leaving Jessie fighting for her life against a vicious demon that's been unleashed. In the aftermath, Jessie, who knows so little about her own true nature, is branded an outlaw. She must survive by her wits and with the help of her familiar, a ferret named Palimpsest. Stalked by malevolent enemies, Jessie is determined to find out what happened to Cooper. But when she moves heaven and earth to find her man, she'll be shocked by what she discovers�??and by what she must ultimately do to save them a… (more)

Media reviews

Freshfiction

I'm a sucker for kick-ass heroines, and Snyder has a talent for binding a reader into a story until, at the end, you just don't want to let go.

User reviews

LibraryThing member kingoftheicedragons

I bought this book after thumbing through the pages and thought that it would be a humorous read, a witch with a talking ferret for a familiar. And the few lines I read while thumbing through it seemed like they would be very interesting.

Then it came time to read it. Starting out, for about the

first 20 pages, I wondered what I had gotten myself into. It seemed like it was going to be another thinly veiled smut novel, and I seriously thought that if it kept that up, I would have to give up on the book fairly early on. However, I reluctantly trudged through those first 20 pages before the book got interesting, and kept my interest all the way through. And my initial impression when I bought it that it would be a fun read were correct, it was fun, interesting, and humorous all the way through it. Defintely worth the time, money, and effort here.

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LibraryThing member Mardel

This is fresh take on magic and demons. The main character, Jessie Shimmer is helping her teacher/lover Cooper cast a spell when things go very, very wrong. Cooper is pulled out of this world into another dimension. Jessie ends up with only her familiar (a ferret) to help her on her quest to save

Cooper. Suddently she's being treated like an outlaw and has to figure out why. The book starts off with a bang, though there seems to be a lot of explanations throughout the first section. Okay, we need to learn about the world Jessie lives in and the way the magic works. Dialogue is pretty good, the first few action scenes are kick-ass....Then there is more explanations. Sometimes in the form of her narrative, sometimes in the form of her conversation with another character. The book is exciting, with intense action - but it keeps stopping for explanations. One minute Jessie is on her way to find some things for a spell, or to combat a demon and suddenly I realize I'm reading information, like I would get in a lecture hall. Then -hey! now Jessie is on the move again - What? Oh Yeah, she's fighting a demon here. Things go along, the major info-dumps seem to be over. The information is good, explaining the magic, but it interfered a lot with the action sequences. Later there's a section where Jessie is interacting with a human and in the guise of conversation and questions, I feel like I'm in a magic class, listening to a professor. It's all interesting, just not as interesting as the story it interrupts. That is the only complaint I have about the book. The rest of the book was kick-ass. Jessie sticks up for her man and will move heaven and earth to find him. She does some things she's not too proud of, she's not perfect but she's getting her man. Jessie's voice is also refreshingly different from the normal UF female. There's a scene in the end that is Righteous. No other word for it. Jessie is angry on the behalf of some innocents and she lets the villain know how she feels, with Righteous Rage. It's a great scene to read. I could feel my blood pressure rising, my heart was pounding....It was a good read. The main thing is, the story, the plot and most of the narration were very well done. I will still buy the sequel when it comes out. I just hope the information imparted to me as a reader is a little less, or flows a little better within the story. At least I hope it doesn't repeatedly interrupt intense action sequences - so much that I forget I'm reading an action sequence.Final Word - Good Book, looking for the sequel and I'll probably pass this one along.

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LibraryThing member ladycato

In this urban fantasy tale, Lucy Snyder presents the sassy heroine Jessie Shimmer. Jessie is no stranger to magic. Since she spontaneously set her bedroom on fire as a teenager, she has been a practicing Talent. Her boyfriend, Cooper is a master. As the work together on a contract job to break a

drought, the gates of hell burst open and yank Cooper away. If that wasn't bad enough, the local magical bureaucrats not only forbid her from saving him, but do everything possible to soil her reputation and run her out of town.

Spellbent is a fast read. The balance feels a bit odd, as much of the book revolves around Cooper even as he is Missing-In-Action; at the same time, I never felt like I completely knew Jessie in her first person narrative. As there are more books in the series, I'm sure they will delve more into Jesse's mysterious past. The subject matter is dark and gruesome at times, but is softened by Jessie's wit and the Jiminy Cricket-like advice of her ferret familiar.

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LibraryThing member sbisson

Lucy Snyder's powerful dark fantasy masquerading as paranormal romance ratchets up the noir. Excellent stuff.

LibraryThing member bookwormteri

Just okay. So much was left unexplained or by the wayside that I am interested in reading the next book to see where it goes. Interesting premise, I liked the main character and all the magical paraphanalia, decent.

LibraryThing member SunnySD

When a fairly sex-magic rain spell blows up in her face, ubiquimancer Jessie Shimmer finds herself sans boyfriend/mage-master, and shortly thereafter sans one eye and her left hand - and facing down a very large demon. In the aftermath, declared anethema by the head of the local mage council,

Jessie's still determined to get her boyfriend back. With a little help from her friends, a familiar that only looks like a ferret, and a completely non-magical pothead, Jessie may end up saving the world - and the world may never recover from the shock.

Lots of nice twisty-ness to this one. A few rough edges and plot wrinkles that don't quite smooth out, but a clever premise. I'll be looking for the sequel.

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LibraryThing member pacey1927

When Jessie's boyfriend goes missing during a magic spell gone wrong, Jessie decides to literally go to hell and back to find him and bring him home. For unknown reasons (at the time) the government wants Jessie to drop it and leave Cooper to be, whereever he is. In fact, they want this so badly

that they cut her off from everyone and everything. Anyone who helps her will be punished. This just fuels everything for Jessie, who realizes there are definitely secrets being hidden. Jessie has a lot going against her. She lost her arm below the elbow, and an eye in the aftermath of Cooper's disappearance. She goes to find Cooper's brother a Warlock, only to find he too is being kept in isolation, and unable and/or unwilling to go after his brother. Her familiar, a ferret named Pal is the only one really able to help her and he is breaking every law in the book of familiars to do it. I completely loved Jessie and Pal. I loved the spells they cooked up and the different magic messes they got into. I thought some of the spells had ....um, unique, methods. The final third of the book, its resolution, was intriguing. The one complaint is I never really liked Cooper all that much. I wanted to see why she loved him so much and I never fully got that part of it. Still I think this is just the beginning for these characters. Snyder created an intriguing and unique world and the characters for the most part are completely entrhralling. I can't wait to visit them again. I hope Jessie doesn't forget about her pothead 'roommates'...I quite enjoyed them as well. I will definitely be grabbing up the next book when it comes out

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LibraryThing member Readingfanatic1

What a crazy book and I absolutely ate it up! The author has a great imagination and I was wondering how in the world she was going to bring the story, the characters, and all the elements together but she managed! Definitely urban fantasy with a touch of romance. Great characters especially Pal

the ferret (yes, I did say ferret).

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LibraryThing member krau0098

I have been wanting to read this book, it sounded right up my alley and I had heard great things about it in the reviews I read. This book is incredibly creative, action packed, and relentlessly paced the whole way through. I read this book in just about one sitting, had trouble putting it down,

and loved every second of it! There are going to be at least two more books in this series, Shotgun Sorceress releases tomorrow, and the third book, Switchblade Goddess is slated for release some time in 2011.

Jessie is a witch of sorts who is in a hot relationship with her teacher, (also a wizard) Cooper. When they go to perform an incantation to bring some rain to the area things go horribly wrong. Cooper is pulled into Hell and Jessie is left horribly injured. Jessie will stop at nothing to hunt Cooper down, even when big-wig wizard Benedict makes her anathema to the magic community. Now with next to no resources and awful injuries, Jessie is left with only her familar Palimpsest (a rather mouthy ferret) to help her in her quest to get back her boyfriend.

This book was one awesome ride. It's not a book for those who are squimish at heart, some of the descriptions are pretty gory and detailed...even the sex scenes are down and dirty. It is definitely non-stop action from beginning to end though, and the action scenes are very, very well done. For example in the first 30 pages or so Cooper gets pulled into Hell, Jessie faces off a demon with a dagger and a shotgun, Jessie gets horribly...uh...eaten up, and saves the whole city. That's just the first 30 pages, now imagine what the rest of the book is like.

Jessie is not the most likable character; she doesn't have a lot of respect for the law, her relationship with Cooper is a bit off (that whole student-teacher thing is a kind of wrong), and she is definitely not miss perky. Still you have to admire her; the girl has guts and is darn determined to get what she wants. She will let nothing, not even Hell itself, get between her and her goals. She ends up having so little to work with that I admired her resourcefulness...even if it did border on distasteful at times.

Her sidekick, Palimpsest, is another awesome character. He is an incredibly intelligent familiar that is willing to go out on a limb for Jessie; and he really is a steadfast friend to her. The book is filled with interesting characters that have interesting stories behind them.

The world Snyder has created is an interesting one. There are different ways to do magic and different systems for them; it is a creative and interesting system that I enjoyed learning about and am curious to learn more about in future books.

The book ends on a very satisfying note and does a great job wrapping up the story.

Overall a wonderful urban fantasy series with great characters, loads of action, a creative world, and a well thought out plot. I loved this book and can't wait to read Shotgun Sorceress. If you are a fan of Kate Daniels, Jane Yellowrock, Elemental Assassin, or Jaz Parks check this out. It is a bit more on the gory side than some of the aforementioned books, but very well done.

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LibraryThing member lexilewords

There's just something about SPELLBENT that seemed...off to me. I read it twice through, with a couple months between reads, but it wasn't until the second read through that I understood what it was. The main character, Jessie, is unbalanced as a 'person'. She goes from one extreme (emotional

anguish) to another (she barely bats an eye at losing a limb), but doesn't seem to connect with those emotions.

Premise wise, SPELLBENT worked as a good start up to Lucy's new series. I'm a sucker for novels that have a girl going all-out to save her lover, and the book doesn't disappoint on this. Jessie is tough and ballsy and powerful. She's also a resourceful person who knows more ways to screw a person using what she can find in the average trash can than anyone else I've read about. Sometimes her spells verged on the too much information side, and I didn't really need to know what one could do with a maxi-pad.

Yet, through it all, Jessie remains vague. Not her intentions or motivation, but more who she is. The fight against the demon went badly the first time, and that's when there was two of them, so why is she so set on going another round? I'm all for flying by the seat of your pants, but when another option is given—a much more reasonable one, where the chances at succeeding are higher--shouldn't she have paused to think?

In the end, SPELLBENT didn't satisfy my curiosity and left me with more nagging questions than is healthy. The next book, SHOTGUN SORCERESS, is due out in the fall, so maybe more answers will be given then.

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