Faced with an anemic employment market and financial woes, college graduate and former witch Mina Mao lands an HR assistant job at Frost and Sons. Having spent her day saving Christmas from Frost Junior’s Grinch-like behavior, she accepts the gift of Madame Eve’s service and heads over to the Castillo Capital. When her date turns out to be her childhood crush and workplace nemesis, she braces herself for the sexiest icy ride of her life.
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Whew! It's hot in here! Or, er, is that freezing? Hmm...freezing hot? That certainly describes this sizzlingly cold little story by Tara Quan. The descriptions will have you shivering and reaching for a sweater against the cold and shivering and fanning yourself at the same time for entirely different reasons. So grab a cup of cocoa and whoever or whatever you prefer to help warm you in other ways and prepare to be delighted. Trust me, you'll want the latter when you've finished reading. ;)
Mina is a very practical soul for the most part. Raised by very conservative and traditional parents, she has a strong sense of duty but also modern sensibilities that keep her from being too bound by traditions and give her the strength to do her own thing. Plagued by troubles with her family and troubles at work from striving to resist her attraction to her old friend Jack, she's been having a tough go of it the last few months. So when the gals at work chip in together to buy her a one night stand from Madame Eve's service, she decides what the hell and she goes for it. Little does she know that she'll end up having to deal with both issues that plague her when she heads out that evening.
We met Jack in the first book in the Witch's Night Out series when he was hanging around the bar to check out his friend Leo's one night stand date from Madame Eve. There, he was playing the part of the rich playboy, a part that he's been playing well for most of his life thusfar. Jack is far more than just a playboy and heartbreaker though, and while we get to see him on his worst behavior at the beginning of the story, it isn't long before the more thoughtful and generally decent guy that hides behind the flashy exterior starts to be seen. He proves to have many layers to his personality as well as a depth of creativity that he channels into creating various types of ice sculptures with his magic.
The story that plays out between these two is fairly straightforward without any real twists, though there is perhaps a surprise or two along the way. Jack's penthouse apartment proves to be an interesting and very sensual place...in more ways than one. And when you see all of the, ah, varied uses he can find for his magic...did I say he's a very creative man? ;) If I have any quibbles with this story it's that I don't think that the various issues related to her family were really resolved despite it being implied that the worse of them was. Hopefully we'll get updates on those situations in a future book that will tie off those threads a bit better.
Overall I'd most certainly recommend this to anyone that likes paranormal romance, especially of the erotic sort. Contemporary romance fans that can tolerate a good bit of the paranormal will most likely enjoy this one as well. While this is book two in the series, it isn't really necessary to have read the first book before reading this one (though I definitely recommend reading it as well as I noted in my review of it). There are a few references to what happened in the first book, but this story stands fully on its own apart from the first one. A full 5 stars to another great story by Tara Quan. I'll most certainly be looking foward to the next one.
Note: I received a free review copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review
*Muah* I'm glad you liked it!
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