library_mama | Casting Spells (Reply)

OK... this is a really happy day for me, except for the part where LJ is suddenly reading my html as plain text. Why won't the pretty book cover show up? [EDIT 11/9 - I finally got the picture to work.]

Casting Spells by Barbara Bretton Here we have a delicious book for Library Mama – a romance set in a knitting shop in a magical town. Chloe Hobbs is the 30-year-old orphaned daughter of a sorceress. Unfortunately, she shows no signs of any magical powers herself. A protective spell set by her ancestress keeps everyone in the town safe from accidents and from outsiders noticing things like no one in the town dying. But the spell is obviously weakening – a woman who walks briefly into Chloe’s yarn shop is found drowned, possibly murdered, later that night. Chloe needs to get her powers fast, and start reproducing to ensure that the Hobbs line continues. Even before she gets her powers, she has to make sure that the police officer the county has sent in to investigate the death doesn’t find out too much – like that the people who pulled her body out of the water are werewolves. Business at Sticks and Strings is booming, as the internet buzz is building for the yarn store where you always get gauge and the technique you couldn’t get at home always works. While the bestseller The Friday Night Knitting Club assumed no knowledge of knitting, this book is written for knitters. Instead of beginner info, it’s filled with tips on lace and sock knitting and sprinkled with references to Koigu and Cascade 220. A magical never-empty basket of roving features prominently as well. But back to the police officer – Luke MacKenzie sticks out like a sore thumb with the only Biblical first name in a book filled with mostly ancient pagan names. Naturally, since it would probably strengthen the power of the protective spell for Chloe to fall in love with a sorcerer or a faery, she falls right for the one man who shouldn’t know anything about the magic. It’s a delicious, enthralling yarn.