Isabelle is hunting the demon that killed her sister, Thomas is the leader of the witches Coven. She has commitment issues and Thomas finds himself drawn to her wanting to keep her. All this while they try to stop a demon from hunting and killing witches. Lots of push me, pull you in the story. The last 20% took an unexpected turn, it opened up a lot of possibilities I would have liked expanded on.
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Witch Blood
3 Stars

Isabelle Novak is a water witch set on avenging the murder of her sister by freezing the warlock she holds responsible. Caught in the act by the head of the Coven, Thomas Monahan, Isabelle is recruited to assist in the hunt for a demon terrorizing the witch population. Unfortunately, by placing herself in its sights, Isabelle becomes the demon’s next target . . .

As this is erotic PNR, the abundance of sex scenes is to be expected. However, Bast is also skilled at incorporating solid storylines into her writing and the plot revolving around a serial killer demon targeting specific witches to fulfill his agenda is both suspenseful and action packed. That said, the ending is rather anti-climactic and the events detailed in the last few chapters are an obvious lead in to the next book.

The romance is also weak mainly due to the heroine’s inferiority complex. Isabelle has this whole "I'm not good enough and cannot be in a long term relationship" thing going on, which causes her to run hot and cold with Thomas. She also has a couple of TSTL moments in which she keeps important information from her allies that places them and herself in unnecessary danger.

Thomas, in contrast, is a yummy hero albeit not as Alpha male as one would expect from the Coven leader. He has endless patience with Isabelle’s issues, but there are times when this is not a positive personality trait.

In sum, although not as good as the first book, Witch Blood has some exciting scenes and the world building in the series is original and compelling enough to continue. ( )

As a child the heroine and her sister were pretty much abandoned by their mother who spent most of her time bouncing between one wealthy man and another. As such, the heroine grew up generally detached from the world around her. She has no friends, no one she cares about or really cares about her. Other than her sister. Her sister was the world to her. But now she's been murdered by a demon, taken from the heroine and leaving the survivor grieving the loss and thirsting hard for revenge. The heroine breaks from the Coven, disobeys their vow to not use their powers to harm another and actively hunts the demon responsible and the leader of the Outlaw wizards who summoned him. Just before she deals the killing blow, the Coven intervenes. The leader of the Coven, a man devoid of anything over than his job and his people, suddenly finds himself in the company of a woman whom sparks within him strange feelings. He convinces her to work with him, in stead of against him. It's plan to see that they both need each other and though the heroine puts up a brave front, the idea of killing a man never sat right with her conscious. So, they turn their attentions to the demon alone. As they search the night scene in hopes of stopping him before he kills again, the instant and powerful desire between them sees the hero and heroine become lovers. No strings attached sex is the plan but it's becomes quite apparent that there's something far deeper developing between them. The hero doesn't fight his growing feelings for the reckless but passionate heroine. In her he finds himself able to laugh and tease and seduce. And he falls for quite quickly even though his lover makes it clear that she's not offering anything other than a short term affair. The heroine finds herself falling for the beautiful strong yet vulnerable hero despite her best intentions. Her fear of losing another person pushes her to reject him but he refuses to let her run from her emotions. But when the demon they hunt turns his sights on her, she really has no choice but to run else another witch take her place. In his mind, the slaughter of her sister has bound her to him and in his overwhelming desire to go home he needs to kill witches to make the ritual complete. But when the possibility of the hero being killed or worse strikes fear into the heroine's heart, she knows that she could give him up. I adored this book and I was really hesitate to read it as the last book by this author left something to be desired. Still I was pleasantly surprised by the fantastic chemistry between the hero and heroine and how drawn into the story I become. I thought it was a pretty good book. I loved the connection between the hero and heroine as it started out as lust than morphed seamlessly into love. I loved this hero. I thought he was perfect. Too strong and dominate to allow woman feel comfortable hitting on him, he's immediately drawn to the heroine as she's not nervous about taken what she wants from him. He was an equal balance of alpha male and vulnerable, loving and woman, knowing she loves him back, yet trying to convince her to allow them to be together. I loved the heroine because she was a kick ass fighter, able to hold her own against the demon when need be, yet smart enough to know when she was outmatched. She wasn't stubborn or reckless, despite how she was portrayed in the start, and I understood her inward struggle to battle her fears of commitment. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and will happily read the rest of the series in future. ( )

I really enjoyed this book. It love to read books about witches and I really like Anya Bast. I like this whole series and the characters are so wonderful. I love to go on adventures with these authors! ( )

Another good one by Anya in this series. A new addition to the previous Characters and some very "Heated Passionate" moments. Great story line in this one as well, fighting a demon that is killing witches and trying to get to his demention. Very enjoyable and recommended. ( )