Jodi Redford

For full review including excerpt and dialogue highlights, please visit Reader's Edyn at:
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Review:

Oh Sam! Sam, Sam, Sam! Where can I find my very own demon? Where, I ask! Dang it! Now I have a crush on not one, but ALL FOUR of the Black Magic men! It all started with Griffin, a tiger shifter. Of course, I had to love Logan, a werewolf. Then I got my pants charmed off my Max, my very first shark shifter. And now I am smitten with Samael, a beyond hawt demon with a show more conscience. *fans self* And I am seriously considering reading the whole series again simply because I love them so! *nods* (Side note – I actually just did practically read all of That Voodoo You Do as I was going back over Sam’s first appearances. Ironically right after saying I was going to re-read the series. As in just. right. now. Man do I need me a Bengal tiger shifter familiar!)

So we briefly met Sam in book 1of That Old Black Magic series, That Voodoo You Do. Sam was the instrumental “soul” who kept popping up unexpectedly and giving Jemma little hints here and there, ultimately aiding in her victory; and squelching the approaching zombie apocalypse. Yay, Sam! We also had mention of Marabella in book 1 and then met her briefly in book 2, The Seven Year Witch. I believe she was mentioned in book 3, Maximum Witch, though her part was insignificant to the main characters of that story. And finally, in Getting Familiar With Your Demon, Marabella gets to divest herself of that dang curse of virginity with the help of the hunky demon Samael.

Sam helps save the day – and the world from, you know, Zombies eating everyone’s brains and stuff. Cut to … a bit of time has lapsed; about six months. Sam has been punished, tortured, and made completely miserable by whips and blaring off-key disco music no less. The poor, poor demon! And then this sneaky little spiotch, Priscilla, secretary to the Demon King, prances in holding his contract. You see, she is up to no good and Sam is the key to carrying out her warped plans. But Sam has a plan of his own. He’s going to break his soul collector seal and he is going to use Marabella to get it done. In a pleasurable way of course. Easy peasy, right? Whatevs! Nothing ever goes off exactly as planned. Pfft! What kind of book would that be? So Sam-O ends up with a conscience, feelings toward Marabella he has zero wish to dig into, and – oh, yeah – despite breaking his seal, he is probably going to end up bonded to someone else again anyway. Way to get that monkey off your back, Sam.

Marabella, on the other hand, falls fast for the forbidden demon. Hey! Don’t we all go for the forbidden ones? Mark ‘em with forbidden and we gravitate straight to ‘em. Yes? I know! Well, Samael is no different. Pair her overwhelming lust with this frickin curse that dooms her to virginity for life and Sam becomes more and more tempting as the minutes tick by. One word. Devastating! Because Sam has the potential to completely devastate Marabella in every conceivable way; both good and bad. But Marabella knows her restrictions and limitations. Much of what Sam is asking of her is going against the very fiber of her existence. She has to make a decision – take a stand, or lose Sam, and do nothing to save humanity from imminent demise at Priscilla’s whakado clutches. No matter that Sam doesn’t want her in the same way. He could come around … maybe.

I. Lurved. This. Book! Ms. Redford just keeps getting better. The sex is amazing between the characters, their struggles to get to an HEA are exciting and entertaining, and her writing style is infectious. Infectious in a way that makes me want to find the next book, like, yesterday. Her voice is consistent in this series and I never fail to enjoy my time spent with the characters. I absolutely love her humor as well. Some of the lines in the book are phenomenal! One of my favorites is “waxing poetic”. Come to think of it, I may have used that a few times since I first read it. The other that I loved was after Sam and Marabella hook up, Sam notices that she’s altered the décor somewhat. It goes like this:

Ooh, he was so damn irritating. Which only made it all the more frustrating when she caught herself ogling his ass as he sauntered toward the bathroom. Her grumble leaking free, she turned and stormed down to the store.
She managed to distract herself from Sam’s presence for a whopping ten minutes while she finished unpacking and pricing the remaining suncatchers. Her composure slipped when he strode into the small room where their illicit rendezvous had occurred. His gaze immediately trekked to the brass daybed. “You changed the pillows.”
“And the sheets and comforter. I couldn’t exactly leave it after…”
His hot, smoldering scrutiny returned to her. “After we burned the sheets fantastic?”
She blushed. “I wasn’t going to phrase it that way, but yes.”
Sam’s focus dipped to her mouth and lingered there for an endless moment. “How were you going to phrase it, sweet Bella?” he asked in that silky-smooth tone that provoked tingles in inappropriate places. “The way I see it, you can’t get more accurate than that.”

I also liked that Ms. Redford veered slightly off track with this book. In the previous novels, the main characters acknowledge their desires and feelings. Maybe not directly to each other, but they seem to place obstacles in front of their possible relationships purposely as an excuse to deny themselves. This time, the obstacles are very much there. And while Marabella knows she has fallen, Sam refuses to acknowledge anything deeper than intoxicating lust. No judgment. He is a demon after all. Happily-ever-after doesn’t exist in his world. The issue this time is not whether they will acknowledge their own imperfections that block the way to happiness as with the previous books; but whether they are willing to buck the system in its entirety, the world they embrace and accept and have never questioned until now, for a chance to be together which could ultimately crumble anyway.

I found this book entertaining, beyond stimulating, and an altogether enjoyable read. Ms. Redford keeps it coming with the fourth installment of the That Old Black Magic series, Getting Familiar With Your Demon. I eagerly await the next installment. And although this is book four in the series, it can be read as a stand-alone. The series is absolutely enhanced reading in order, but not necessary for this particular book. Readers of paranormal romance with inclinations toward snark and sizzling smut are sure to enjoy this book.

(Digital ARC copy provided by author for review.) show less

Full review at Reader's Edyn: http://bit.ly/nOqOnf

Favorite Dialogue:

“C-could we just forget this happened?”

“It’s too late for that, Lace. You can’t expect us to pretend we don’t know. To not wonder.” Ry stepped closer, his gaze drifting to her mouth. Hunger burned in his eyes.

Her heart thumped in response. She’d imagined that particular look on his face countless times, never believing she’d see it in actuality. This had to be a dream. Or another of her fantasies. That last show more part of his statement registered and she blinked. “W-wonder? About what?”

“You. Us.” His knuckles brushed the underside of her jaw, tipping it ever so slightly as his head descended. “This.” The husky word feathered her lips, a prelude to the lush pressure of his mouth upon hers.

Review:

Holy hotness people! If anything the warning contained in the blurb was tame. Although I probably could have done without the Santa in a speedo. *shudders* Some holiday tidings are best left unseen. Just sayin’.

The arrival of Lacey’s “naughty list” may be just the “in” that Ry and Bram have always longed for. The two realize that she never meant to sent the list, but they also know they would be fools not to make this list a reality. The lure of finally connecting with Lacey on a level that has been starved for far too long outweighs their resolve to deny their feelings any longer. And the trio discovers that this new “arrangement” is infinitely more pleasurable than their fantasies ever thought about hinting at. But will this temporary agreement to make the list a reality be enough?

Redford does a phenomenal job of creating a story that is much more than skin deep. While the story is full of creative and highly erotic sexual scenes, she also manages to bring depth to each character. Each has reasons for denying a future together as well as embracing the acknowledgment of the only chance they will ever get to make their dreams a reality. I liked that Lacey continued to fight against a possibility of a future despite the overwhelming fulfillment experienced each time she was with Ry and Bram. The friendship ultimately means more to her than the accomplishment of a fantasy. The depth of one another’s love is manifested in the power they hold of each others happiness after the boundaries of a plutonic relationship are crossed. Just in time for the holidays, The Naughty List explores lust, love, sacrifice, and the difficulty experienced when confronted with whether or not to trust enough to take a chance. If you are up for hawt ménage action, spiced up with holiday flare, you’ll definitely want to pre-order a copy of The Naughty List. Its guaranteed to heat up your frigid holiday nights.

(Kindle received from author for review) show less

It started off funny and light-hearted -- Jemma decides to seduce her friend Griff, who she's known since college. Unfortunately, after wild success in that department, she wakes up to find her dead uncle Harold trying to kill her. She's understandably horrified. After Griff dispatches her uncle-turned-zombie, he hits her with (part of) the shocking truth about her birth parents. Meanwhile, he neglects to tell her the truth about his own heritage and his real reason for being in her show more life:

Fear held his tongue hostage. In the back of his mind he'd always known the day would come when he'd have to explain to Jemma about who he was. What he was. But once she discovered the truth, their lives would be forever changed. A selfish part of him wanted to prolong the illusion of normalcy they'd built together. It was the only thing he had. The only thing that'd given him something to live for.

Then, Logan enters the picture and Jemma is told that, to save the world she's going to have to have a threesome. After a brief WTF? moment (it had been long enough between buying and reading this story that I forgot about that part of the description) I started getting annoyed -- the Logan element really does interfere with Jemma and Griff figuring out their own changing relationship and I would have liked more of Griff's backstory.

But still, the humor won me over. So much of the rest of the story is OTT, why shouldn't this be too?
She stared at the muscles shifting between all that golden, velvety skin, her suspicions bubbling. It was too damn weird and convenient that both Logan and Griff were standing around half naked all of a sudden. Unless some devious shirt monster was making its rounds in the neighborhood, there was definitely something afoot.

I also liked how, at the end of the story when Jemma had to fight against the witches' council for [character name] to be released from banishment, she didn't give some grand speech or engage in battle and immediately get her way. I feel like that's been done a million times in PNR/UF and it never feels satisfying to me; it always feels like lazy writing. Instead, she went to the council, made her plea, then had to regroup and try again. She persevered against the face of bureaucracy, which I found to be a pleasant surprise.

I'm very much looking forward to reading the next in the series. show less

Favorite Quote:
“Harrison and Reva decided it would be best to leave the six leviathan henchmen in the minivan while they ransacked the Jameson girl’s apartment. In all honesty, it killed Harrison just a little bit inside to be chauffeuring his hand-picked death squad around in a f**king minivan. The future leader of the world did not cruise in the same vehicle that shuttled soccer kids to and fro, for f**k’s sake. It was an abomination. First chance he got, he was stealing a godd**n show more tank.”

Review:
Jodi Redford raises the stakes … and succeeds! Can we talk about that wicked hot cover for just a second? I was practically drooling all over myself before I had read the first page. How frickin hot is that gorgeous body with that sexy tattoo? And I love how the hands are wrapped around him, but the rest is unseen. Sensual? Absolutely!

Personally, I have read a lot of books with shifters, but this is the first time I have experienced ocean-dwelling shifters and then some. You name it, seals, nymphs, sharks, seagulls (yeah, I said seagulls), mermaids, walruses, puffer fish, leviathans … makes for a very interesting cast. This story picks up where Book 2, The Seven Year Witch ends with poor Willa being led against her own will toward the ocean; a place she is deathly afraid of. Max is both Sheriff of the area and on rounds that night when he encounters Willa being dragged deep into the ocean by a leviathan. Max rescues her and discovers that she is breathing under water, but an unconscious Willa has no recollection of the feat when she comes to.

Eventually Max pieces together a few cold cases with his vast knowledge of the Atlantean population. Yep – as in Atlantis! I have to admit, I was wondering how a witch story with the heroine in imminent peril was going to work for the third time in a row, but the Atlantis spin took everything to a whole new level. No stale reused story plots here! I also liked how parts of Book 1 tied into Book 3 allowing the components to all three stories click together. That said, with Book 2, you would be better off reading Book 1 first. However, with Maximum Witch, a reader could read it on its own and be able to understand without any gaping holes left wide open.

I do have a few questions though. How did Willa get away from being Domino’s assistant? I mean, impending danger was probably automatic for a leave of absence or something. But one day she is working and the next day she’s not; nor do we hear anything else about working for Domino. Anyone who has read the previous books knows Domino is NOT going to allow that to just happen. And what is with Boone and Justin? Blushes and what not all over the place, but nothing developed or was explained in plain text. Do we have a possible Book 4 in plotting phase? Also, Willa is best friends with Marabella, so where does she go? Wouldn’t she want to spill her guts to her best friend? Just seems like we would have seen more of Marabella during the emotional turmoil of the last few chapters. Now these questions are not paramount to the immediate story of Max and Willa, they are just little nags in the back of my head.

Now, a shifting shark? I too had my brows raised a time or two. By the end of the story – errr – more like by a very creative bathtub scene, the ever talented Max, water manipulating extraordinaire, had me begging for a Tiger shark of my own! Kudos to Redford for keeping my interest with creative spins that broke outside the box, entertaining me from start to finish. show less