Release Day Review by DMac: Spell Cat, by Tara Lain

Spell Cat, by Tara Lain
Series: An Aloysius Tales Novel (Stand Alone)
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: October 31, 2016

Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

When Killian Barth, history professor, meets Blaine Genneau, quantum physicist, they ignite their own big bang. But Killian can’t pursue a physics professor—or a human. As the most powerful male witch in ten generations, Killian must bolster his dying race by reproducing—despite the fact that he’s gay.

Even a fling with Blaine is out of the question, because Killian has been told sex with humans drains his power. But if that’s true, why can young human Jimmy Janx dissolve spoons with the power of his mind? If Killian can sort through the lies he’s been fed, he’ll still face his biggest obstacle—convincing rational scientist Blaine to believe in magic.

With his ancient and powerful cat familiar, Aloysius, on his shoulder, Killian brings the lightning against deceit and greed to save Blaine from danger and prove love is the greatest power of them all.

M/M Pairing
Gay Characters
Paranormal
Urban Fantasy
Magic (Witches)

Warning For:
Homophobia (Parents)

This book was so difficult to get through. It had so much bizarre stuff going on, and yet it was still one of the most boring books I have read in a really long time

The majority of the book was based on Killian trying to find one night stands since he’d lose his witch powers if he slept with a human. So he was avoiding Blaine because he was human, but his mother wanted him to marry a woman even though he is gay. It was very tiring to read Killian being over dramatic and trying to hook up with randoms. I’m here for the romance between the two main characters, and yet most of the plot is interludes between Killian and his cat, or Killian and random hook-ups.

A huge part of the book ended up being about his cat and it was really awkward. The cat was like cockblocking Killian and hanging out 24/7 rubbing all over him (as cats are wont to do). The hanging out part was ok, but it became this huge scene-eater and it got weird because Killian kept bringing up the cat’s balls. I was like is Killian into his cat in a bad touch way or….

The other part that put me off this book was that suddenly Blaine and Killian were like irrationally emotionally attached and super into each other. I get lust, but the emotional obsession part was super creepy. I also really disliked Killian because he is snobbish and bratty, and a myriad of other things that are really annoying to read. This part of his personality only got worse the more we got to know him, so I was like RUN BLAINE be free.

On top of this cluster there is extra drama because Killian is a witch who has to keep things hidden and he has a homophobic mom. Let’s start with the witches: They don’t really explain or give me enough info to really care about them being witches. There wasn’t a lot of magic or anything, so it was them awkwardly talking about being witches and it was really boring. So Killian wouldn’t date Blaine because he was human (he never asked him or tried to figure out if he was), and we had to spend a huge chunk of the book reading him banging other guys.

Onto the mother thing. Look guys, can we just stop with the whole homophobia/gays vs straights thing for extra drama? Either do it right and write it well, or don’t bother, because it’s an insult to people who have had issues with homophobia or anti-gay parents/friends. It’s not a party trick to throw in because you can’t come up with a decent plot.

So this entire book was a complete let down because I wanted a well written romance between a witch and a non-witch and all I got was nonsense.

Tara Lain, like so many novelists, wrote her first book at five. Writing ability got her through college when there wasn’t enough time in the day, and, shortly thereafter, it became a marketable skill. Very early in life, people started paying her to write — scripts for industrial films, brochures, magazine articles on semiconductors. She became a really successful non-fiction “ghost-writer”.

Find Tara online at http://taralain.com/