Guest Post and Review with Dianna Hardy and her book The Witching Pen

Good Morning CEWTNK!!  Today I have Dianna Hardy and her fabulous book The Witching Pen.  This was quite an interesting read.  Before we talk about my opinion of the book, let's take a moment to find out why Dianna chose to write about witches.  Take it away Dianna:

Why Witches?

                                                                   by Dianna Hardy      

www.diannahardy.com

Thanks so much to Close Encounters with the Night Kind for having me on their blog :)

Your Welcome Dianna!  I'm so glad you decided to come on!!

Witches have a bit of a hard time within the paranormal romantic genre. I'm not sure if it's because they're not considered as sexy as vampires, or as Alpha as werewolves, or as seductive as demons, or as tortured as angels... Incidentally, I also have demons, angels and shapeshifters in my books, but I wanted to give witches a chance.

Witches are human; sometimes Wiccan, sometimes not. As humans, they skirt on the edges of paranormal, and the thing that makes them so fun to write, is that they have 'normal' feelings like all humans do, wrapped up in the angst of having to deal with all this power they have in a modern world.

We meet two witches in my paranormal romance book, The Witching Pen (the first of a trilogy), Elena and Amy. As a thirteenth generation witch, Elena is the most powerful witch on the planet by default, and with this come certain responsibilities – namely that she can never lose her virginity lest she wishes to transfer all of her power to the person she sleeps with. Bummer. Especially considering she lives with the best friend Karl, and they both have secret (and not so secret) feelings for each other.

Amy, at first, appears as if she's had a more normal upbringing. While Elena's personality lends itself to the more dutiful and sensible witch who has always stuck by the 'rules', Amy is more fun-loving and carefree, needing a certain amount of independence and space. Throughout the three books (and a spin-off novel), we discover how they relate to, utilise and control their powers, in all areas of their lives, including their relationships.

Let's take a look at the book details and a short excerpt:

 It's hard being the most powerful witch on the planet. It's even harder when you're a twenty-five year old virgin who'll lose all of that power the moment you sleep with someone ... that's why Elena's never slept with her best friend and flatmate, Karl, despite the true feelings they harbour for each other.

Elena's about to discover that there are even more difficult things in life to deal with. One of them comes in the form of a pen she discovers one day, a pen that allows anything she writes to come to pass...

Suddenly, it's not just her powers or her heart that's at stake, but her very soul, as a dream demon with a seductive pull uses the pen to try and turn her away from her reality, and from Karl.

But the pen is just the beginning. Everything Elena has believed in is a lie, and her world is about to fall apart..

.Excerpt:

For a minute, Elena caught her breath, thinking that Amy had figured out she'd been the one responsible for her flashing the entire group. She sort of regretted doing it now.

“I don't want to force you to do it if you're not comfortable with it.”

Looking at Amy, Elena realised that she actually looked genuine for a change. Had she been wrong about her?

“Well, I'm not a good social speaker...” To be honest, the whole thing seemed so completely insignificant compared to last night's events. Surely she could lead one session without exposing her magic. “But, no time like the present to learn, right?”

Amy beamed another smile that reached her blue eyes, and Elena found herself smiling back

“I'm sorry, I've not really made enough of an effort to get to know everyone. Life's just been kind of hectic.” She placed Amy's water in front of her.

“Oh, I know what that's about. Thanks.”

“Amy, how did you know I lived here?”

Looking sheepish, she wrinkled her nose. “I did a locator spell. Sorry. I know that's kind of rude, but I did try to call you first.”

Not seeing her mobile phone anywhere, Elena remembered it was on her bedroom desk, still turned off.

Well, I guess that makes us even – I use a spell on you, you use a spell on me. But part of her was also surprised that Amy had that kind of power. Sure, an air of magic did surround her all the time, just as it did Elena, but it took years to get a locator spell accurate. Amy had obviously been practising since she was young, and Elena was starting to realise she'd gotten the woman all wrong.

“Listen – me and some of my coven members are meeting on Tuesday night for some spellworking. Would you like to come along?”

Would she? She wasn't sure to be honest … but she had just been thinking it would be nice to hang out with some girlfriends and get away from her thoughts, even from her thoughts about Karl....

“I mean … you are a Solitary, aren't you? It wouldn't be breaking your own coven's rules?

“No, I am a Solitary.” Now was probably not the right time to go into her long and complicated family history. “I think that would be nice.”

“Great. Here, let me give you my number.”

Before Elena knew what was happening, Amy had reached across the table for the pen and notebook.

“No!”

Something that looked like a small bolt of lightning shot out from the pen into Amy's hand. A scream filled the air and Amy's hand went up like a fireball.

“Oh my God, help me!”

Elena's own magic tingled in response to Amy's cry of pain, immediately dulling her shock as her hands filled with blue light. Trying to zone out the woman's screams of terror, she directed it at the fire and the flames grew smaller, gradually fizzling out. When it had died completely, she took Amy's ruined hand into her own and her light turned green. Amy's hand began to heal straight away. Burnt shreds of skin fell away to reveal new, unmarred skin beneath.

Amy's screams had become whimpers, no longer carrying pain, just disbelief.

When her hand had completely healed, Elena released it.

The air was heavy with shock and the smell of burnt skin, sickeningly sweet, clung to it. She wanted to offer a logical explanation, but none came to mind. The only thing that came to mind, was the certainty that any friendship with Amy had ended before it had begun. So she was surprised when Amy's next words were laced with awe.

“That's some powerful shit you've got going on.”

The Witching Pen is available as an eBook, currently at the offer price of $0.99 (list price $1.99), and will be released as a paperback at the end of April.

Amazon US

Amazon UK

B&N

All Romance Ebooks

Dianna Hardy is a multi-genre author of paranormal things, dark things, poetic things, sexy things, taboo things, and sometimes funny things. Writes about witches, demons and angels. All info can be found on her website DiannaHardy.com

 My Review:

Elena has been born with a great power and a terrible curse.  If she engages in sexual intercourse, she transfers all of her power to that male and becomes human.  It really hasn't been difficult for Elena because she has never been attracted to anyone, except for Karl.  Karl was her best friend growing up and more recently her roommate.  She has lived in fear her whole life about sleeping with him because of the curse.  But dare she take that chance to lead a normal life with Karl and give him her power?  Could she handle it?

Karl had been in love with Elena for as long as he could remember.  She had been his solace and comfort for chasing away the demons in his past. He has patiently waited for Elena to show him that she feels the same way, even though deep down he already knows she does.  Karl is used to all the magic that really is in this world because of growing up around her.  But Elena has a terrible secret tat even she isn't aware of.  Could his push at finally getting her into bed cost him his life?

Hat's off to the author for creating a thrilling new world.  She has added a little bit of everything that keeps you guessing until the last page!!  I really enjoyed reading this book and can't wait for the second book in the series.  There is so much left open, and so many surprises!!  Just when you think you have it figured out you realize that your totally wrong!!  And the ending hints at the next book being about her mom.  Let's hope so because she turns out to be the biggest surprise of them all!  Great Read!!

 

A big thank you to Dianna and Lucy for putting this tour together! This book was an excellent find and I look forward to many more from her!!