Rating: 3⭐️
It’s not a good thing when I think I was being generous with my rating here. My love for The Portlock Paranormal Detective Series by Heather G. Harris and Jilleen Dolbeare prompted me to seek out individual stories by each of these authors as each has a fairly large number of books/series they’ve written.
So far I haven’t found the same level of depth of world building and characterization in the individual books as I found in their co-authored series.
Splintered Magic has the worst female main character yet of the ones I’ve read so far, which is highly disappointing. Especially as everything about her, the circumstances she finds herself in, and the premise of the story are incredibly promising.
It begins so well with the 40ish recently divorced Brigid Donovan pulling up to her family very old crumbling Victorian mansion/house in the middle of the night. Towing all her belongings in a rental trailer, she’s just arrived at the house, where long overdue renovations are underway.
The excellent descriptions of the house, the tall Pacific Northwest woods, and the rutted road leading into the shambles of a house full of memories and a family of construction workers, scrambling to get the work done brings the location and people alive.
And of course, a huge cat shows up, one that is a twin to the cat she grew up with decades ago on the same house. Huh.
Magical stuff starts to happen immediately to Brigid. And if perhaps, Dolbeare had gone a different route with the character, say extremely young and sheltered rather than older, experienced woman, someone who’s undergone a recent bitter divorce with a cheating spouse, and left everything behind, than I might have felt differently about the novel and this character’s reactions to, well, everything.
My biggest issue with the character of Brigid is her lack of believability as a woman. Given her age, experiences and current circumstances, how the author has her reacting in much of the scenes and events here just doesn’t make sense. If she’d come out of a nunnery perhaps, but even a high amount of tweens/grade schoolers have a better sense of caution and self awareness than Dolbeare has equipped her with.
She’s come home to a place she’s not been in for quite some time and not communicated with any of the people from her childhood. But immediately they, especially a girl she remembers as being a bit of a bully and mean girl, is automatically a “bestie “ on face value, because she seems nice.
No one does this. Ever.
Then when everyone, and I mean everybody, from her cat to , yes, another instant old boyfriend she’s decided she’s crazy for , tell her that this person and her entire group are bad bad people, does she listen? No.
Because they seem so nice.
It’s one incredibly stupid character development or decision making element after another. Poor Brigid turned into a TSTL character almost immediately here, making it literally impossible to take her or the entire story seriously.
Which is a shame because the series is complete but I don’t think I can handle any more of this twaddle.
There’s several other magical storylines, all of which are familiar plot lines. A person’s history and powerful abilities are stripped and hidden until they have the strength to handle it. But again, this part is silly as it isn’t well executed and is full of plot holes the more that you think it through.
Anyway. It ends on a cliffhanger that a reader could easily see coming. How involved you are here will determine if you go ahead with the series.
I like the covers .
Splintered Magic – complete series:
Splintered Magic #1
Splintered Veil #2
Splintered Fate #3
Splintered Haven #4
Splintered Secret #5
Splintered Destiny #6
Buy link
Splintered Magic: A Paranormal Women’s Urban Fantasy Novel
Blurb
He left her with a broken heart… and a crumbling mansion full of magical secrets.
Brigid Donovan’s life is in shambles. Her husband ran off with his secretary, her ancestral home is falling apart, and all she wants is a quiet life in the heart of Oregon’s wild, ancient forest. But when her cat starts talking—and drops the bombshell that she’s the great-granddaughter of a fae lord—Brigid’s life goes from wrecked to downright weird.
She’s supposed to have magic. Power. A legacy. So where the hell is it?
As strange happenings ripple through the town of Kilchis, Brigid discovers her renovation team is a pack of werewolves, her new best friend is a witch, and her family history is a magical mystery wrapped in secrets. To survive, Brigid must reclaim her magic—before it claims her.
Welcome to Splintered Magic—a paranormal women’s urban fantasy full of wit, wolves, and wicked twists
- Publisher: Vinci Books (February 14, 2023)
- Publication date: February 14, 2023
- Language: English
- Print length: 206 pages
Werewolf shifter fantasy thriller, witch and wizard romance thrillers,
Brigid Donovan is divorced, adrift, and might be going nuts. Her desire to restore her family’s decaying Victorian Mansion isn’t going well. Mainly because her werewolf contractor is murdered on the job. And the only other choice to take over is the hot, if sketchy, cousin to the local coven’s head witch.
On top of these problems, her fluffy Ragdoll cat is now speaking to her—that can’t be normal, right? He tells her she’s the great-granddaughter of a fae lord, and very powerful. That’s all fine and dandy, but where is her magic?
Her search leads her to discover that her magic was taken from her at an early age and splintered into thirteen pieces of jewelry that she must find, reintegrate, and learn to use all before the local witch coven finds it first—and they play for keeps.
Luckily, she has a best friend, a Splintercat, a griffin, a teenaged dragon, and an angry werewolf pack to help. Everything should go smoothly…shouldn’t it?
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 