Friday, July 28, 2006

Title: Enchanted, Inc.
Author: Shanna Swendson
Published: 2005, Ballantine
Category: ChickLit
Rating: 4/10

A while ago I got a craving for magical heroines. Jay mentioned this one and then I was at the library and there it was, so I took it home. It's ChickLit, and I'm picky about ChickLit. I'm the perfect market for them: single, mid-twenties, working girl. But I must be an odd duck, because I can almost never relate to the heroines. But hey, it's magic. I was willing to give it a shot.

Katie Chandler is a girl from Texas who's been living in New York for about a year. At first she just thinks that city people are odd, but then she starts noticing things that can't be explained. Like people with wings and stone gargoyles that move. She finds out that magic is real, and that lots of magical beings live in NYC. She also finds that she, unlike most people, cannot be affected by spells and illusions. This makes her valuable to wizards, so she goes to work for MSI,Inc (Magic, Spells, and Illusions, Inc.), a company which creates spells. But only good spells, and the company is under attack by an evil man who wants to sell bad spells.

So, this is completely harmless fluff. A really fast read. And I hate to say bad things about books (I'm too nice, dammit), but then if I'm not honest, what's the point of this blog? So here goes: I thought this book was pretty lame.

It's not bad. I mean, it was cute and mildly amusing. But so fluffy as to be pretty much insubstantial. I think the only thing that kept me reading was the hero, who is this incredibly powerful wizard who is also shy and blushing. And you know I'm a sucker for blushing men. But then the ending was so annoying! So not satisfying. And it totally bated you into getting the next book in the series. I finished this one and I thought, "NOOOOOO! You wicked writer. You didn't give me the ending! You want me to buy your next book!"

And I actually considered going out and getting the second one (Once Upon Stilettos) which is already on sale, because I want to find out about the cute guy. I went to her website and found out that she has at least 4 books planned in this series. Ahhhh! But now it's been 24 hours since I finished it, and I think I can restrain myself. Phew. That was close.

Unless someone can tell me that Once Upon Stilettos was good?

2 comments:

~ames~ said...

LMAO! I'll wait to see if the second one is any good before I start yet another series.

Jennie said...

Ames--Yeah, I'd say give it a pass. Though I still kind of want to read the next book in the series. Which says something about it. Maybe she snuck crack between the pages of the book and now I'm addicted. :p