Witchful Thinking

by HP Mallory

Published by: Random House Publishing

My Rating: 

Jolie thinks she’s seen it all, but life continues to spring surprises. The latest shocker? She’s just been crowned queen of the underworld. Jolie may possess a rare gift for reanimating the dead, but she doesn’t know the first thing about governing disparate factions of supernatural creatures. She can barely maintain order in her own chaotic personal life, which is heading into a romantic tailspin.

First there’s sexy warlock Rand, the love of her life, from whom Jolie is hiding a devastating secret. Then there’s Sinjin, a darkly seductive vampire and Jolie’s sworn protector—though others suspect he harbors ulterior motives. As the two polar opposite yet magnetic men vie for Jolie’s affection, she must keep her wits about her to balance affairs of state and affairs of her heart. Overwhelmed, under pressure, and longing for love, Jolie decides it’s time to take charge—and show everyone that this queen won’t take jack.

My Review:

I have been a fan of HP Mallory for awhile now, ever since I read the first book in the Dulcie O’Neal series. When I finished the Dulcie series, I had to pick up the Jolie Wilkins series, and I absolutely LOVED the first two books in this Jolie series.  However, while I enjoyed catching up with Jolie and reading this third book in the series, I was a bit disappointed with Witchful Thinking.

*Warning, if you have not read the first few books in the series, there are mild spoilers of previous books in this review*

Witchful Thinking picks up right where Toil and Trouble leaves off, with Jolie coming back from the dead and being named Queen of the Underworld.  From the start of the book, Jolie is unsure, seemingly more unsure than usual.  Jolie has only had a few years to come to terms with the fact that she is a witch, and now she does not know if she wants to be (or should be) the Queen of the Underworld.  She is confused as to what to do about her mage boyfriend Rand, and she has a difficult time reconciling the past she experienced in 1878 with the present.  Jolie must come to terms with her new position as Queen of the Underworld and begin to learn how to rule.

A common theme that runs throughout Witchful Thinking is angst.  Jolie is nervous about being Queen, about whether Rand will support her or leave her, and whether the modern day Rand will ever love her like the 1878 Rand.  Jolie spends pretty much all of her time worrying about these things, and not much gets accomplished.  Rand is also angst ridden through the book.  He is constantly trying to figure out his feelings towards Jolie.  He says he loves her, but he is always one foot in-one foot out on their relationship.  While Jolie needs support and stability, Rand is busy waffling on his feelings about her.  I really did not like Rand in this book, or Jolie’s constant need for him.  The angst between them got old, especially when it seemed (to me) that it was the primary focus of the book.

There is more to Witchful Thinking than the relationship dysfunction between Jolie and Rand.  Vampire bad-boy Sinjin, the third party to the angst-ridden love triangle also has plenty of book time.  It becomes pretty obvious that Jolie has a huge blind spot and denial when it comes to Sinjin.  Sinjin is the one who is always there for Jolie, ready to be by her side and back her up, whether she becomes Queen or not.  Sinjin has his own way of doing things, and he is the ultimate bad-boy.  The love triangle between the 3 gets really interesting in Witchful Thinking and actions in this book set up what promises to be a very intriguing book 4.  (Just in case you are curious, ever since book 2, I have been “Team Sinjin.”  Rand’s continual back and forth in his feelings for Jolie gets on my nerves, and well, I love those bad boys…)

As far as plot goes, there really wasn’t much in Witchful Thinking.  I felt as though Witchful Thinking was more of a summary of the past books and a set-up for the future books.  I did like how Jolie is now writing out her thoughts in journal form throughout the book, but there is so much time spent on Jolie’s internal thoughts that not much action actually takes place in the story.  Jolie’s rule becomes more established, she gets more magic lessons, and her potential for great power is re-enforced.  For me, the most interesting part of the book was the cliff-hanger at the very end.  With that ending, book 4 is looking like it may be one of my favorite books in the series yet.

Overall, I enjoyed reading Witchful Thinking.  It may be my least favorite installment in the series, but I am still fully committed to the series and the characters.  As I am finishing writing this review, I am working on getting book 4, The Witch is Back, loaded up on my kindle to I can find out what’s happening next.  I love HP Mallory, she writes books that keep me engaged in the story and the characters. She always has me coming back for more.  The Jolie Wilkins series is one of those series where you just want to get all the books at once and read them back to back, with no interruptions.  So rating wise, 3 stars for Witchful Thinking, 4.5 stars for the series overall.

Paranormal/Urban Fantasy readers, I highly recommend this series.  I would recommend reading the books in order.  However, HP Mallory does a fantastic job of explaining the backstory in Witchful Thinking.  If you were to pick up Witchful Thinking without reading the first two books, you would still enjoy the story.

For those of you who are familiar with the series: I am “Team Sinjin”  But how about you?  Are you Team-Rand or Team-Sinjin?  Thoughts?  Let me know in the comments!

Here are the books in order and the links: (Book 1 is FREE on Amazon right now!!!)