Review of The Water Witch by Juliet Dark

This book popped up on NetGalley and looked like a good fluffy read.  It’s sort of urban fantasy, minus the urban, with a mix of fae, witches, and other supernatural creatures, with a little romance thrown in.

The plot of The Water Witch is basically that the town of Fairwick is in the midst of a fight between the witches and the fae.  The town’s witches want to close the last door between the human world and Faerie.  The fae want to keep it open so they can continue to go between the two worlds.  Presumably, the human world benefits from their abilities and vice versa, and these two groups have lived semi-peacefully together for many years.

Callie McFay is a part witch, part fae who is also a “doorkeeper”, which means she can keep the door open.  The only problem is her power seems to be restricted in some weird way and she has no magical training.  Oh, and she’s also trying to get over an obsession with Liam, an incubus who tried to drain the life from her (through sex of course).  He’s been banished to the Faerie world and she feels pretty bad about that.

Unfortunately, The Water Witch is actually a sequel, and I hate to read books out of order.  It’s a sequel to a book I’m sure I would never have picked up, called The Demon Lover.  It was immediately clear that I had missed a bunch of the story, but on the other hand, the first book mostly seemed to revolve around Callie’s amazing supernatural sex with Liam, so I don’t think I was lacking any important plot points.

It was pretty well written for urban fantasy.  Juliet Dark is a pseudonym for Carol Goodman, who has written a number of well-regarded books, and for obvious reasons didn’t want her name on this one.

I liked the parts of the story that involved paranormal beings like the undines, which are these part-fairy,  part-fish creatures.  The romance seemed ridiculous to me, but maybe it would have helped if I’d read Book One.  On second thought, no it wouldn’t.  I’m just trying to give this book a break.

The truth is, I put this book down a few times and didn’t really care one way or another – and yet I kept picking it back up.  It was an entertaining read, but very high on the cheese factor.  I’d rather be reading something more “weighty” but the holidays seemed to cry out for this kind of book.

I’m not entirely sure who this book is meant to appeal to – it’s steamy but without much romance, and it doesn’t have the usual leather-pants-wearing ass-kicking heroine to be urban fantasy.  As a heroine, Callie is weak and pretty stupid.  This isn’t a book I’d recommend unless you love this kind of thing.

Note: I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley, in exchange for a review.  This book will be released February 12, 2013.