There's just something about SPELLBENT that seemed...off to me. I read it twice through, with a couple months between reads, but it wasn't until the second read through that I understood what it was. The main character, Jessie, is unbalanced as a 'person'. She goes from one extreme (emotional anguish) to another (she barely bats an eye at losing a limb), but doesn't seem to connect with those emotions. Premise wise, SPELLBENT worked as a good start up to Lucy's new series. I'm a sucker for novels that have a girl going all-out to save her lover, and the book doesn't disappoint on this. Jessie is tough and ballsy and powerful. She's also a resourceful person who knows more ways to screw a person using what she can find in the average trash can than anyone else I've read about. Sometimes her spells verged on the too much information side, and I didn't really need to know what one could do with a maxi-pad.Yet, through it all, Jessie remains vague. Not her intentions or motivation, but more who she is. The fight against the demon went badly the first time, and that's when there was two of them, so why is she so set on going another round? I'm all for flying by the seat of your pants, but when another option is given—a much more reasonable one, where the chances at succeeding are higher--shouldn't she have paused to think?In the end, SPELLBENT didn't satisfy my curiosity and left me with more nagging questions than is healthy. The next book, SHOTGUN SORCERESS, is due out in the fall, so maybe more answers will be given then. Awesome! I loved the generous and liberal use of magic throughout the story. The humor was added appropriately and at opportune moments. The story also contains a wonderful build of tension as the whole world plus the kitchen sink is against our protagonist, which then culminates with a viscerally satisfying exposition of the underlying plot along with vengeance and victory. A very satisfying read!
