I am bummed. This was a free ebook (limited time offer ends in November) that caught my eye. I even came here to GoodReads to check reviews and found it had an average 4.5 stars. I should know better than to trust a high review rating, since they've burned me in the past. The book cover should have been a tip off too, but I was blinded by the price and hope. My mistake.

I was really in the mood for a witch story with magic and mystery. What I got was a hodgepodge of paranormal cliches framed around a big-ol'
Elena is supposed to be a twenty five year old, but the only proof we have of her age is from her stating it in the narrative. Her behavior and even the tone of the story reads like a teenager (or younger). Many of her actions do not make sense and are not explained. For example, in the throw away first scene of the book, where she attends a meeting of Wiccians and internally makes fun of them because she's a 'real witch.' While I did find the scene funny it seemed to served no other purpose other than to establish Elena was so much cooler than the other witches, which quickly started me on the path to not liking her.

Then there's her idiotic choice to pick up and use a mysterious pen that just happens to find right at the exact moment she needs something to write. When she discovers that anything she writes about with the pen comes true does she research it or ask for help from her witch mother to find out why it does this? Nope. She just keeps on using it for petty, self serving purposes. *facepalm*

Then we meet Karl (who feels a lot like Xander Harris from Buffy) her love interest who appears to have no other purpose or occupation in life other than that. This poor characters only distinguishing characteristics seem to be his eyes, hair and that he is utterly dedicated to a girl who gives him nothing in return. He has been Elena's best friend for years and obviously loves her, but they can have a real relationship because (drum roll for huge plot device) whoever Elena has sex with will gain her powers.

At first this twist seemed interesting and cool, but as I read through the story and became increasingly bored I began to wonder. Was it only intercourse that cause her to lose her power. What about oral sex or a hand job? Why does no sex mean that Elena can't have a fulfilling emotional relationship with a man? Does it only apply to men? Could she have save non-magic transferring sex with other women?

If I were Karl I'd been frustrated as hell by being stalled in the friend zone for TEN YEARS. Not to mention, I would have been asking a lot of those questions and not just accepting the no-sex, let's be co-dependent best friends forever offer. This is not the only aspect of the story that didn't make sense or was poorly explained. You can read my status updates to see a list of them.

Let's move on to the mysterious demon who begins to posses Elena's dreams. Whoa baby. There's a good way to do this and a bad one, we landed on the clumsy as fuck side of that line.

First, the demon is described as having green eyes and stone-like skin. *blinks* I'll give points for the stone skin appearing to be cracked and feeling leathery to the touch, but still one cannot help but draw a direct line to Twilight. Especially when this creeper demon watches Elena sleep. *sigh*

Second, Elena is supposed to be the most powerful witch the world and the only option her mother gives her to help ward off her demon molester is "try to fight him I guess." That's it? Really?

I mean, I know that the demon continuing to violate I mean seduce her in her dreams is a huge part of the story and it has to keep going on for the plot to progress, but it makes NO SENSE that nothing can be done. But all options are cut off in the most non-sensical scene between Karl, Elena and her mother who seems to serve no purpose other to be the cause of everything that is wrong in Elena's issues.

Mommy issues, table of one!

I think this was the hardest part of the story for me to deal with and pushed me to flounce. It is deeply troubling to create a fictional situation that is a kind of symbolic rape and give your extremely powerful female protagonist no other option other than to close her eyes and take it, while hoping it will eventually get better.

Now, I don't believe that was the intended message, but it's what is happening to Elena and it made me sick to my stomach.

This story might be entertaining to someone who can look past the gramatical errors (of which there are many) and the...excessive...use...of...ellipses, but it was a glaring indication to me that the author either didn't use an editor or didn't use a very good one.

The story exists in a vacuum, with little to no explanation of the world and magic that is the foundation of the story. Given, I only made it 21% into the story, but I expect to at least know some basic details about the world by that point. What we learned were snatches of details that are not explained and often didn't fit with what we'd already been shown.

Add in the two dimensional characters who make illogical choices to simply drive the plot forward and you've got a recipe for frustration.
( )

I received this book in exchange for a honest review.
Warning this book contains adult content.

This book is an action packed, suspense, paranormal thriller with romance mixed in. If you love demons, angels, witches and more, you need to read this book. I was pleasantly surprised how well the book was written. I couldn't put the book down for the life of me. There were so many twists and turns in the story that I had not expected. I can't wait to read the next book in this awesome series.

This story is about Elena who is a thirteenth generation witch. At a young age her mother tells her she is special and has certain responsibilities with it. She can't have a normal relationship where she can procreate. Her mother, Katherine, acts cold toward Elena but she is holding major secrets. After Elena finds a pen, her world gets turned upside down. I am not going to give anymore away. You just have to read it! I give it a BIG 5 stars, since I can't give it more than that. ( )

MY REVIEW

I received this book direct from the author Dianna Hardy, for me to read and review and it has the newest cover design which is pictured about. Apologies for it taking me such a long while to read and review this book, I just ended up much busier reading and reviewing than I thought possible. Not that I am complaing!
I really do like this cover as it depicts Elena and Karl and their love and the golden light that emanates from them when they kiss which Gwain calls "love" in the book.
I also really like the original cover which I have picture below that depicts Elena and her powerful bright green eyes.
This is a novella and has a taster of the second novella at the end of it, just to tease us whilst we wait for it to become available! This novella also has a bonus short story called Wilted which is actually set ten year prior to The Witching Pen. we see the early rumblings and stirrings of adolescent feelings between Karl and Elena. We also learn that Elena's mother has a dislike for Karl, though when you learn the secret she tells Elena about her future you wonder if its Karl she dislikes or just his relationship and its future possibilities with Elena that she finds irritating. Elena is devastated, mortified, and embarrassed all rolled into one when her mother reveals the secret. Part of the secret being she would lose something precious that she holds dear should she ever have sex with a man. This bonus story could be read before to "set the scene" as a prequel or as I read it after The Witching Pen.
The Witching Pen is set ten years later than Wilted and Elena's relationship with her mother has deteriorated even more in the last ten years, so much so they hardly speak. Elena's mother still has a dislike for Karl which she openly displays to him. Elena and karl are now housemates and everything is platonic....or is it? ....or will it stay that way? Elena has found a "magic pen" which when it writes something it comes true. Which wow! sounds like a dream come true right? Well,turns out its more like a nightmare. then Elena begins to have serious trouble when she falls asleep and of course Karl wakes her from her nightmare and old perhaps forgotten, maybe suppressed feeling are brought to the surface again. Just as Elena thinks her life is going to be perfect, she decides to sacrifice the thing her mother told her she would lose if she ever had sex to be with Karl (I know it sounds long-winded but I am trying not to give out spoilers here folks!) Elena has decided she has always loved Karl.......and then bang! do they don't they? If they do what happens? You need to buy the book to find out!
This book has Witches, Witches Council, Pagan Rituals, Portals, Different types of Demons, Half Demons, Succubi, Angels, Half Angels and of course an occasional human or three thrown in!
This book is a quick fairly fast paced read, there is plenty of action and suspense, and what? why? how? Oh No! moments too you will not want to put it down.
So did I enjoy this this book? Definitely YES Would I read more in the series? YES please! Would I read more by Dianna Hardy? Oh YES Would I recommend this book? YES

Available from Amazon.com, and Amazon.co.uk £0.72 bargain price! ( )

A novella full of witchcraft, demons, and love. I was excited to read this novella mostly because I have really enjoyed the witchcraft aspect of urban fantasy lately, although I would say that this novella fits more into the paranormal romance side of things.

A problem I always seem to have with most novellas is that there has to be enough action in them to keep the reader interested, but they have to achieve that action in a substantially smaller amount of time than a full length novel. I have always said writing a compelling short story is harder than writing a compelling novel. I think this novella suffers from this problem, so much action had to take place in such a short period of time and words that it starts to feel rushed in the end.

That being said, the entire novella did not feel rushed. The first half or possibly even the first two thirds of the book flowed pretty well and did not feel rushed.

Elena and Karl are this stories main characters, and like I said earlier I think this novella fits into the paranormal romance category because from start to finish the novella is about these two characters and their love for each other. The novella starts off with the two of them as friends who are roommates, but even in their everyday lives as friends the reader can sense that something more is on the horizon for these two. There chemistry is certainly clear from very early on in the novella. While the two of them feel organic for most of the story, towards the end they start to lose some of that organic feeling which is certainly a loss for the reader.

Elena is being stalked essentially by a demon who is after her power. As the story progresses you find out more and more about not only Elena's power but also about her family and how unaware Elena really is about who she is. And of course not knowing these things about herself end up creating problems for her as the story progresses. There are a lot of family elements within this story which I think really helps the story, especially in the parts where it feels rushed.

Another element of this story that I think works in its favor is the secondary character of Amy. Hardy seems to have made a point to introduce her to the reader, give her a pretty decent background, and really make the reader like Amy. The story does not really have an ending for Amy, so I can see how maybe the next novella in this series would be more about Amy, and if it is then I am looking forward to finding out how Amy's story ends.

Overall, I would say this is a good novella. I would recommend it to anyone who likes paranormal romance AND novellas (I know a lot of people don't particularly care for novellas). This is certainly a romance based book so if you are person who only wants a little romance in a book, this is probably not the book for you. But overall I think paranormal romance lovers will enjoy this book as a quick weekend escape read. ( )