I got this book from another BookCrosser, but it appears she never registered it. When I emailed her she never replied about it, so I'm registering it instead. Review coming soon and then it'll probably be wild released.

2005 Book #15: Industrial Magic by Kelley Armstrong
When I first started this book I was with choclaholic and I kept telling her that it was sooo familiar and I was starting to think that I'd somehow already read this book. However, once I got past the first 30 pages, it was new for me.

Having read the previous book of this series, Dime Store Magic, with these characters, I thought this was a better book than the previous one. I think maybe Armstrong was sort of noodling around with random supernatural characters in the first two books.

In the previous book witch Paige's life as she's always known it and predicted it would turn into falls apart around her. Between what she's trying to accomplish with the coven she inherited from her now-dead mother and the choice she makes to adopt a teenager that's been influenced by her own now-dead mother who was a little fast and loose with the ethics of magic. So now she's a little more of a gypsy, if you will, wandering around the country trying to convince people to join her in making a new coven.

In the middle of that there begins a series of murders of the offspring of the Cabals, magical versions of the Mob. It so happens that Paige's ward is the daughter of one of the Cabal princes and in addition Paige has a soft heart for hardluck cases such as these minors. At the behest of her boyfriend's father, one of the Cabal bigwigs, she and her boyfriend decide to help the Cabal figure out who's taking out these kids and what they have to gain from it.

The book was exciting without being too fast-paced and there's more filling in of the characters personalities and their backgrounds. I'm liking them and I hope Armstrong stays with them instead of skipping around like in the first two books. There's still plenty left unanswered like ooo Lucas has bought a house and gets nervous whenever he seems to think about where his relationship is going with Paige. Then there's Paige's ward, Savannah. Will she learn to curb her own loose attitude with magic so she doesn't "turn to the darkside" like her mother? Speaking of whom.... the next book coming out May 31 in paperback is titled Haunted. :) I look forward to getting it in the future!

On reserve for "realbooklover"

Mailed to Brooklyn to realbooklover Thurs Oct 4, 2005. Enjoy!

Received 10/11. Thanks!

I finally tracked down the book before this and read both in about 3 days. Really enjoying this series! I liked this one for the development of all the different relationships between the characters. Dime Store Magic focuses almost exclusively on Savannah, and it was nice that she was kind of in the background for this one. I liked seeing Elena again and especially enjoyed seeing Cassandra develop into a sympathetic character.

Didn't read...don't have the first 2 in the series.

RELEASE NOTES: