Spellbound in Salem

The Casters and Claws Series, Book 1

By: Milly Taiden

Narrated by: Summer Roberts, Brian Pallino

Length: 4 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's Summary

Get ready for witches, wolves, magic, and romance - all in Salem!

Raven Bishop doesn't need the help of a man, no matter how hot he is. So when an alluring stranger walks into her magic supply shop, Gemstones, Raven ignores his advice. He might be a police officer, but she knows she can take care of herself.

Sheriff and wolf shifter Zane Cross has one mission: get the Bishop women away from the order of witch hunters. He doesn't have time to deal with his inner wolf howling that they've finally met their mate, especially since the woman in question refuses to follow him to safety. Until she's attacked.

In a secluded cabin, far away from the threat of death, the grumpy sheriff and headstrong witch will have to find common ground in order to survive. Can Raven put her pride aside and let love save the day?

©2020 Milly Taiden (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

I wanted to like it.

I love books by Milly Taiden. I really wanted to like this book. The idea of the story seemed to be something I would enjoy. But the lead female character is horrible. She is whiny and mean. She doesn’t grow or develop. Every time there was potential for self awareness, the character reverted back to being ridiculous. I felt bad that the lead male character was stuck with her. He kept saying great things about her, but none of her behavior reflected the dialogue. The male character felt more like a victim of abuse. She was repeatedly horrible to him and he constantly makes excuses for her behavior. She was literally responsible for them almost being killed, and his reaction is excuse her because of her shitty ex boyfriend. It just didn’t work.

Short on patience for stupid characters

Police: There’s been a threat on your life. You need to go into protective custody.

Raven: LOL! I have to run a business! My ex-boyfriend is scarier than a murder squad.

Police: Cool, you’re on your own.

🙄

The cringe didn't stop

The male narrarator mispronounced easy words like "doosey" in the first chapter and the deadpan delivery that was supposed to be masculine was actually just boring.

The female narrorator has no difference in tone between dialog and text and her inflection is all wrong.

But, considering that the second chapter referenced an elected Sheriff as "too hot to be a cop" and mentioned that he was "undressing her with his eyes" within seconds of stepping into the building, even though he could only see her head and shoulders...

It reads like a Novice high schooler writing a romance and, to be honest, most of them are better at it than this. Free isn't enough to forgive this hot mess.

Nasty Heroine.....

This was one of the rare books I could not finish because the lead female character was so outstandingly obnoxious and mean spirited. Very disappointing.

Disappointed

I enjoy this author’s books; however, this female lead was not only an idiot but she obnoxious and a complete jerk. I felt bad for the hero. The narration from the female narrator of the male lead had no inflection and was absolutely boring to listen to. I felt no connection with these characters. I forced myself to finish it. I noticed the same narrators did the second book. Think I’ll pass.

It's okay.

The narrators were okay. Not great and clearly reading it aloud so some parts sounded a bit monotone. I was never to the point that I cared about the characters mostly because of the female main character. She struck me as a naive, immature brat who was a know-it-all when clearly she just plain wouldn't listen to the voice of experience. The male main character just puts up with her lack of common sense and tries to make the best of it. Truly they both bugged me a bit. I'm not sure that they really fit together as it feels a bit forced. Sadly, the supposed steamy parts weren't that steamy. I read this as a part of the free included with membership and even then it took me two times trying to read it before I got all the way through it. I'm glad it was free.

Loved It

Great book, kept my attention all the way to the end, amazing audio delivery, loved it. Will be reading again, every chapter was received amazingly do recommend you give it a read.

Love it!

I love this book. I enjoyed it and I’m excited to move to to the next books.

snooze fest

I found it extremely boring. If there was a generic story this is it.

cheesy

The book was shorter than ones I'm used to, which I took into account and powered through. It is just too cheesy for me to give a good review. The plot of the book/series is a great idea for a paranormal romance with great action but not the way this was written. The narrators done a good job with the material they were given and are part of why I was able to finish the book.

I hate the FMC

This is actually quite a good story, the premise behind it has so much potential. But raven, the FMC, is perhaps the most awful female lead I've ever come across in any book to date. I get she's meant to be strong and independent, and doesn't think she needs anyone to save her or protect, but in actuality she's rude, arrogant and ignorant. She's too hard headed to realise that she does, in fact, not know everything about everything. She blunders ahead putting everyone in danger because she thinks she knows best. I don't think I've ever thought "know what, I hope they do come and I hope you do get shot, coz the way you're acting you don't deserve any better" before about any character far less a lead, but that's exactly what I thought about her, sever times during this book.

The only reason I kept listening is because Zane is such a good character and the story was exciting enough to keep wanting to know what happened next, but honestly raven ruined the story for me and I definitely feel like Zane deserves someone so much better than her, but there you go.

The book is well written and the narration was excellent, if you can shut out raven practically every time she's speaks, I'd recommend this book. Hopefully the next female lead in the next book isn't such a bitch.

More disturbing than romantic

I listened to this post the killing of Sarah Everard, by a police officer. The usual tropes of this genre, possessiveness, authority, sex took a very dark turn in my head and I was unable to enjoy the story.

It is not OK for a man in a position of authority, like a police to take a woman to a cabin after a traumatic event, bypassing the official routes, throw away her phone and obfuscate her means of escape, and then proceed to place her hand on his man bits, after she says she hates him and wants nothing to do with him. I don't care if he is convinced she is her mate. She doesn't share his culture. What the lead man did was wrong and it was not romantic.

Short book a hard to say but seems ok so far

Will no better after next book but over all seems good foundation for a good series

confused

firstly, I never right reviews but it's more of a question than a review. so here's it goes..
I added the first 4 books to my library but when I actually looked at them in the library, there was only 3 ?? so. i played the first book, completed it and moved on to book 2. now this is where I'm confused... for me, on my end, book 2 is the same as book 1????? but is told differently. like reading it from a different perspective. so book 1 starts with Zane and book 2 starts with alpha?? but the storyline is the same. the kid, griggs is it?
comes in and tells them there's a plot to kill the witche and so on and so forth. is this just me. is this the case for anyone else?? part of me wants to carry on and see if its the whole book but the other part of me is saying. move on to 3. do u really wanna read the whole book again and waste time doing so???
totally baffled!!

good story but hard to listen

the narration was slightly clinical and monotone so hard to listen to the book

Don’t waste your time

I don’t often write reviews, but this one requires it. A warning to everyone - don’t waste your time on this awful book. It’s the definition of bad writing and cringe.

A good escape into your imagination.

I don't understand the bad reviews. Raven was not taken to the cabin by force, she went willingly because she believes she was truly in danger after the attack, even though she did not trust Zane at that point.
The shifter males are always bossy and Raven was quite bossy herself so they were made for each other. It is a paranormal story about shifters, a good escape into your imagination.
I love the story and I enjoyed it.

really enjoyed the book

I really enjoyed the book can't wait for more books from them 😍 😊

Well read, possibly a decent story concept, badly written

I rarely write reviews… but had to for this.

I actually found this book quite funny, but sadly it isn’t meant to be.

The narrators were both good, and did well at differentiating people, emphasising things correctly etc.

The book itself is where I struggled. Major plot holes, clearly aimed to be a fun romp that you don’t have to think much about. Maybe aimed at a teen? If it was written well, there could have been a good frothy easy-read here.

The number of misused words (jowls instead of jaw, for example) was highly amusing. The completely unrealistic dialogue made me roll my eyes repeatedly and often laugh out loud. The sex scenes (or in some cases lust scenes, where character 1 just looks at character 2 and has all sorts of daft sexy thoughts) were just silly. I skipped forwards a few times through those bits.

I don’t recall ever feeling sorry for a narrator before, but this book really made me pity them both.

If you want something silly to listen to whilst hoovering, when it doesn’t matter if you miss 5 minutes of the story, this maybe give it a go. If you want something engrossing, maybe try a different book. I’d recommend something by Patricia Briggs or Ilona Andrews.

As it is, this was free for me because I’m an Audible member so I’m not aggrieved that I paid for it. But I’ll be deleting it from my library and will avoid this author in future.

18+ amazing short

This is an amazing short story 😍 ❤
this makes u laugh and swoon xx