Girl's Guide to Witchcraft

Author: Mindy Klasky
Published: October 2006 (Red Dress Ink)
Category: Chick Lit
Rating: 7/10

This is my first Red Dress Ink book, and I thought it was absolutely delightful. I wouldn't even call this a paranormal because it wasn't the main point of the book. It was more about the main character overcoming her problems. The magic just happened to be there and the story wasn't about her overcoming the control or training of her powers.

Jane Madison is a reference librarian at the Peabody Free Library, a library specializing in 18th century documents, so it's not the kind of library people come in for light reading. And since it's not one of those kinds of libraries, money's really short, and the board has just decided to cut Jane's pay by 25%. Since she can't afford to pay her rent with new salary, her boss Evelyn has offered her the cottage on the Peabody grounds, at no charge. Sweet deal, right? But Jane has to start wearing colonial costumes courtesy of Williamsburg, VA to attract more walk-ins.

On Jane's first night in her new home, she stumbles across a secret key that unlocks the basement door. Inside, she discovers a library of what looks to be magic books and a large statue of a black cat. She chooses a passage to read aloud and awakens the familiar housed within the statue. However, it doesn't take the form of a cat— instead, he takes the form of a very handsome (and very flamboyantly gay) man named Neko.

With her first use of magic comes the entrance of David Montrose, a warder (someone who enforce's the coven's rules), and Jane has used magic without registering with the coven first. After a couple times of catching Jane using magic while under the influence, he agrees to train her, but kisses her after one of the lessons. He quickly says that they have to stay away from that so their working relationship isn't ruined, so the romantic possibility sort of fades away, except for a slight tension hovering in the air.

The true object of Jane's affection is Jason Templeton, an assistant professor at a fictional university, a frequent patron of the Peabody. Jane calls him her imaginary boyfriend because she's always imagining their happy ending. After she discovers her magical ability and accidentally casts a love spell while drunk, Jason begins to see Jane and even attends her family reunion. But as in many a chick lit novel, he turns out not to be the man Jane dreamed him to be.

However, she doesn't turn to David Montrose, who is there for her when Jason disappoints her. The happy ending is one of those, "I'm going to be strong and dedicate myself to learning magic seriously." However, she said she'd take it seriously earlier and she didn't really do that because she was too busy making calf's eyes at Jason the scumbag.

There's a sequel scheduled for this fall, Sorcery and the Single Girl and I'm hoping there'll be more magic, but I have a feeling it'll be more of a chick lit book again.