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Forever Charmed (The Halloween LaVeau Series Book 1)

space"Forever Charmed (The Halloween LaVeau Series Book 1)" by Rose Pressey was a book right up this reader's alley. Protagonist Halloween - she prefers to be called Hallie, LaVeau was born on Halloween night, and this reader's own first grand daughter just barely missed that mark! *grins* Yes, I freely admit I wanted a Halloween grandbaby.... Pressey has a writing voice that truly speaks to this reader, that homespun yet snarky gossipy tone that brings to mind: good friends dissing and chatting over a cup of coffee while giving one another knowing looks. She writes with humor, which this reader is (almost) always pleased to see, and it hooked this reader from the first sentence. Pressey can also really turn a phrase with creative imagery, such as, "It was early autumn, the days warm in the middle, but crisp around the edges." This reader simply shivered in delight with that phrasing.
spaceThere were a few grammar and spelling errors found within the book, although not enough to toss this reader out of Hallie's world. Most often, it was a word or two dropped or missing from a sentence - the brain simply replaced the missing word as the eyes devoured the text, or at times, using the same wording twice in a single sentence. However, this reader did have a problem with the implied logistics in Hallie's world of Enchantment Pointe. Readers are not directly told where Enchantment Pointe is, per se, but when bed-and-breakfast guest Nicolas Marcos makes his appearance and mentions he is "headed to New Haven" (pg 3) because he has business in the city and implies via inference that it is a short distance away, this reader then assumed the story was taking place in a fictional city found in Conneticut. Yet, at the story's end, the three main characters, Hallie, Nicolas and Liam Rankin, are heading to New Orleans and the story made it seem it was roughly an hour or so in the car, and it is actually almost a full day via automobile, roughly twenty and a half hours, actually. Even if Enchantment Pointe is actually a fictitious city found in the author's home state of Kentucky, it is still roughly a ten hour road trip. The logistics surrounding the coveted annual Halloween Ball from chapter to chapter changed, as well. Enough to throw this reader from Hallie's world, in frustration... one chapter would state the Ball was two days away and Hallie needed to prepare, while the next chapter mentions the Ball is a day away, then the NEXT chapter states the Ball is two days away, etc. This reader confesses the continual day-changing in such a blatent back and forth manner from chapter to chapter, did toss her - forcefully - from the story.
spaceDialogue between characters was not really believable, sounding stilted and forced, quite often. Add to that, the pace is actually quite slow with a very long build-up before completion, which lasted roughly one page so was swift. However, that said and logistics aside, this reader did find the story to be an enjoyable read and looks forward to reading more of Pressey's works. As mentioned, this reader dearly loved Pressey's voice, finding it favorably similair to another favorite author - Charlaine Harris in her Sookie books. I recommend this author and this story, as long as future readers are nott bothered by the logistics, it'll be a fun read. ** Review was originally posted on Amazon reviews August 15, 2016. **

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