Ellora’s Cave, $4.45, ISBN 978-1-4199-1165-1
Paranormal Erotica, 2007

In the Tarot deck, the Knight of Wands represents someone who is cocky, brash, ambitious, reckless… in short, he’s a generic romance hero. How nice.

Our heroine Temperance Callahan has yet to open her New Age stuff store Mystic Circle when her best friend’s brother Gray Foster is already snooping around and distracting her. Temperance believes in the mystic stuff she’s trying to make a living out of while Gray is a skeptic. It turns out that the cheap construction company her friend Morgan has hired to renovate Tem’s store after the previous contractor bailed at the last minute with her money is that of Morgan’s brother Gray. Morgan naturally doesn’t inform Tem of this. Tem is predictably infatuated with Gray all this while but this time around, everything, even destiny, seems to be determined to make sure that these two end up together. Gray not only doesn’t believe in what Tem is selling, he also doesn’t believe in relationships (that same old song about his parents), so destiny will have to give these two a push and then some.

On the bright side, the characters are pretty likable. They have some childish moments making silly faces at each other, but that’s why people come up with that song about people in love being fools. I’m personally most appreciative of the fact that Tem, despite believing in her New Age stuff, doesn’t come off like one of those addled Counselor Troi wannabes screeching about destiny and fate.

Nonetheless, both characters are still recognizable stereotypes stuck in a plot that is overused. Ms Green’s prose is clean, her characters don’t annoy, but at the same time, the author doesn’t do enough to make the story more memorable. I Put a Spell on You is a familiar story with characters going through the same old routine of falling in love. Ms Green writes pretty well, but the story is still pretty ordinary nonetheless. I think this one is a pretty decent read but it’s also nothing to get too excited over.