Enchanted, Inc by Shanna Swendson
Apr. 16th, 2008 11:38 amI picked this book and its two sequel books up in the library, since I couldn't find any other ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fangs_fur_feybooks in the LA library system - anywhere. It's subtitle is "Hex and the City".
Swendson's style is breezy, light, and enjoyable. Other reviewers call it chick-lit mixed with magic. I guess it's "chick-lit" in that the main character is a small town young woman (age 26) in the Big City: but she's not directly looking for love, even though her roommates keep setting her up on blind dates that never work out. Okay, romantic relationships are a fairly big percentage of the story BUT it's woven cleanly into the plot. Yes, it has a plot. And it includes a hidden magic world living alongside the mundane world. I like how Swendson meshes the two together.
Her main character Katie is immune to magic; she can see through magical deceptions and illusions, and spells and magic of any kind wash right over her, leaving her unaffected. She is recruited into MSI (Magic Spells Incorporated, or some such name like that) in order to make sure the magic business, which runs along the lines of a software company, isn't cheated on deals. She can see what the magic people miss, which is Reality. She's their Reality Check. There are other Immunes employed by this huge company, founded by Merlin a thousand years before.
She has her obligatory main love interest crush, another secondary interested magic wizard type, AND eventually a corporate lawyer (also an immune) who specializes in copyright law, all interested her: and yet, she doesn't see their interest (for the most part) for what it is. There are also literal frogs-to-princes, and enough action on the romantic tier to keep a "chick-lit" reader happy AND keep a die-hard SF/F reader like me happy, too. What did bother me was, for such a small-town girl, she seemed too knowledgeable about dating hazards and types of personalities than seemed possible for someone who comes across as so naive. She's a *little* too worldly, and most things seem to come too easily to her, exceot for her personal life.
What kept me happy was the light touch, the likable characters, the humor - Swendson had me laughing out loud several times - there's a hysterical conversation involving two fairies, a part-giantess and Katie at a singles bar that no matter how many times I read it, and see how it's set up (and it has a LONG set-up) just makes me fall out of my chair laughing.
There's also a villian (or two) in the background, and hints that Katie's love interest has something in his background that's dangerous. He IS dangerous, and it's mentioned several times that if he hadn't been raised the way he was, he'd be the biggest bad ever. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop as the series progresses.
I'm currently on the second sequel, wherein there's some payoff from the first book incorporated into this book. They seem less like sequels and more like Part II and Part III of the same novel, if you know what I mean.
Highly recommended if you want some light, fun reading in a not-new magical type world. It doesn't have the depth of the Harry Potter series (and yes, I think HP has some depth) but it covers some of the same ground...it's as if Hermoine was deprived of her magic and moved to Manhattan is how I'd put it. Maybe. Naw. It's cute.
fangs_fur_feybooks in the LA library system - anywhere. It's subtitle is "Hex and the City".Swendson's style is breezy, light, and enjoyable. Other reviewers call it chick-lit mixed with magic. I guess it's "chick-lit" in that the main character is a small town young woman (age 26) in the Big City: but she's not directly looking for love, even though her roommates keep setting her up on blind dates that never work out. Okay, romantic relationships are a fairly big percentage of the story BUT it's woven cleanly into the plot. Yes, it has a plot. And it includes a hidden magic world living alongside the mundane world. I like how Swendson meshes the two together.
Her main character Katie is immune to magic; she can see through magical deceptions and illusions, and spells and magic of any kind wash right over her, leaving her unaffected. She is recruited into MSI (Magic Spells Incorporated, or some such name like that) in order to make sure the magic business, which runs along the lines of a software company, isn't cheated on deals. She can see what the magic people miss, which is Reality. She's their Reality Check. There are other Immunes employed by this huge company, founded by Merlin a thousand years before.
She has her obligatory main love interest crush, another secondary interested magic wizard type, AND eventually a corporate lawyer (also an immune) who specializes in copyright law, all interested her: and yet, she doesn't see their interest (for the most part) for what it is. There are also literal frogs-to-princes, and enough action on the romantic tier to keep a "chick-lit" reader happy AND keep a die-hard SF/F reader like me happy, too. What did bother me was, for such a small-town girl, she seemed too knowledgeable about dating hazards and types of personalities than seemed possible for someone who comes across as so naive. She's a *little* too worldly, and most things seem to come too easily to her, exceot for her personal life.
What kept me happy was the light touch, the likable characters, the humor - Swendson had me laughing out loud several times - there's a hysterical conversation involving two fairies, a part-giantess and Katie at a singles bar that no matter how many times I read it, and see how it's set up (and it has a LONG set-up) just makes me fall out of my chair laughing.
There's also a villian (or two) in the background, and hints that Katie's love interest has something in his background that's dangerous. He IS dangerous, and it's mentioned several times that if he hadn't been raised the way he was, he'd be the biggest bad ever. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop as the series progresses.
I'm currently on the second sequel, wherein there's some payoff from the first book incorporated into this book. They seem less like sequels and more like Part II and Part III of the same novel, if you know what I mean.
Highly recommended if you want some light, fun reading in a not-new magical type world. It doesn't have the depth of the Harry Potter series (and yes, I think HP has some depth) but it covers some of the same ground...it's as if Hermoine was deprived of her magic and moved to Manhattan is how I'd put it. Maybe. Naw. It's cute.
