CURSES by Cindy Spencer Pape

CURSES
CINDY SPENCER PAPE
Paranormal Romance
The Wild Rose Press
Sensuality Rating: Hot
ISBN# 1-60154-151-1
300 pages
$6.00
eBook and Print - Available Now

Rating: 4 Enchantments

CURSES is a wonderful story with a great set of characters. Jonas Pierce is your tall, dark, and deliciously handsome hero. Oh yes, he also just happens to be a werewolf. Terrified of bringing his dark past into the present, Jonas attempts to detach himself from his more beastly nature as best he can. He spends the majority of his time instead writing as the world famous author, J.P. Wolfe. Hounded by a reporter that has discovered his real name and may be on to his secret, Jonas attempts to disappear to the upper peninsula of Michigan for some much needed quiet time to focus on his current work in progress. It’s no coincidence that he chooses Whispering Pines to escape. The next novel he is planning is a fiction novel surrounding witches and witchcraft. What he’ll find however, is much more than the local resident witch.

Melissa MacRae, our beautiful and spunky heroine is much more than just the innkeeper of Whispering Pines. She is also a witch, specializing in healing the people and animals around her. Burdened by a centuries old family curse, Mel is terrified of love and has avoided men as much as possible. When her powers start to dwindle and she can no longer help the living things to thrive around her, Mel discovers that a man might just be the thing she needs to jump-start her powers back into action. The arrival of the tempting Jonas Pierce brings up much more than long dormant hormones, however. Trouble starts to brew at Whispering Pines and it will be up to Mel to discover who or what is the cause.

CURSES has a great storyline mixed in with touching and often passionate romance. Whispering Pines has been passed down from daughter to daughter as each woman tries and fails to defeat the family curse. Unable to keep a man, each woman is destined to bear one daughter to continue carrying on the MacRae curse. Set atop a sacred and magical spot, Whispering Pines is more than a mystical boon to the MacRae witches; it is also prime land for the nearby Talcott Resort. Stuck between a fight to keep the Talcotts from running her off her property and her strange attraction to Jonas, Mel fights to protect her home and her heart.

I absolutely loved the story within CURSES. I found Jonas to be a refreshing hero. There are so many bad boy characters out there that it was nice to actually get a gentleman for a change. Don’t get me wrong, the bad boy fiend is still quite hot, but the strong, shape-shifting, caring protector leaves the heart fluttering warmly. Being caring doesn’t mean that Jonas is any less passionate, however. Ms. Pape instills quite a bit of passion into her story, making for some very steamy scenes. Often, hardly anything more than a look or a small touch occurs and yet she leaves us with our hearts pounding, palms sweating and general temperatures soaring through the roof.

The main story of CURSES involves Jonas’s background, Mel’s family curse and the Talcotts' incessant push to take over her land. The combination of these three really made for a detailed and complex story. I highly enjoyed the depth that this added to the book. I’m a huge fan of romance so I typically can find something enjoyable out of any romance novel, but in CURSES, Ms. Pape separated the romance with actions of mystery, suspense and adventure. These acted like accents of darkness to the brightness that made up the heat between Mel and Jonas. It gave us a break from the lust to explore something new and ensured that the interactions between Mel and Jonas always got the blood pumping.

Parts of the story were predictable but let me say that this in no way made it any less enjoyable. Even though I could see where a scene or two was going to go, the overall plot of the book was full of twists and turns. The story progressed well with the words flowing nicely across the pages. The last few pages of the story were a surprise for me and made for a great ending to a wonderful book. CURSES is one of those stories going to be great for a rainy afternoon. Even though I already know what happens at the end of the story, it is the story itself and the relationships that Ms. Pape creates that makes CURSES so enjoyable.

Cindy Spencer Pape is the author of many beautifully romantic and delicious erotic books ranging from Western to Paranormal to Contemporary. She can be found online at http://www.cindyspencerpape.com/.


Cinnamon
ENCHANTING REVIEWS
July 2009