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Liked It “Zoe Calderone had learned early not to believe in magic and wishes, but when her nine-year-old daughter, Mary, coaxes her to try conjuring a djinni in an attempt to brighten Zoe's mood, the hardworking single mother and computer analyst can hardly refuse. |
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“Zoe Calderone had learned early not to believe in magic and wishes, but when her nine-year-old daughter, Mary, coaxes her to try conjuring a djinni in an attempt to brighten Zoe's mood, the hardworking single mother and computer analyst can hardly refuse.
emeraldfire wrote this review Tuesday, October 28 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Simon of Kaf has spent the last millenium bound to Earth as a virtual slave granting wishes. Unable to fully trust humans due to a vicious betrayal which still haunted his memories, he was an exile among his people.
When Zoe summons Simon, the djinni takes this, his ninety-sixth of 101 summonings, as his chance to locate his stolen amulet. He tries to manipulate Zoe's wishes, not realizing that, beneath her staid exterior, Zoe hides a wounded heart like his. I enjoyed this paranormal romance and gave it four stars.”
“This is Ms. Nance's debut novel. The sequel, MORE THAN MAGIC was one of the kickoff stories for Love Spells new Perfect Heroes line.
PNRGroupManager wrote this review Friday, October 26 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Multimedia specialist Zoe Calderone no longer believes in wishes or men. Her every wish had ended first in disillusionment and then abandonment by the two men who had mattered most in her life (her father and husband). When her neighbor Elvina and 9-year-old daughter Mary invite her to participate in a conjuring, Zoe refuses. When Mary makes Zoe an offer she can't refuse, Zoe capitulates but only to teach her daughter one of life's tough lessons. Zoe repeats the words in the spell book and lo and behold, three strands of smoke, one from each of the three ceremonial candles, twine together to form a man. Not any man, a gorgeous naked man, a bound Djinni named Simon, who demands that she declare her wishes. This just won't do. Zoe refuses to wish, knowing that the wishes will inevitably backfire.
Simon for his part doesn't trust the treachery of human females. Once he had trusted his hearted and his true name to once such as her. He had thought to marry the human, but instead was betrayed. His faith in the female resulted in his binding, a state intolerable to a free spirited Djinni. He was sentenced to grant 3 wishes each, to 100 summoners. He has served 92; Zoe is summoner number 93. Simon has already suffered 1000 years of binding, and in recent years belief in magic has dwindled. His only wish is to rapidly grant her wishes and find the remaining 7 summoners so that he may finally be free to return to his people. The greed and avarice that has marked the wishes of his previous summoners hasn't done much to change his opinion of humans. It hasn't prepared him for Zoë's stubborn refusal to wish. He tries tricking her into wishing.
To prove to her daughter that wishes are futile, she makes a harmless test wish. She wishes for a new car. Simon, not having been summoned for so long, doesn't have a clue of the requirements, and invents his own. The car is totally unsuitable. Oh it's a major improvement over the typical vehicle, that's the problem: it just won't fit in.
Zoe's refusal to wish causes Simon no endless frustration, but it also affords him time to get to know and care for the woman. Her company is being sabotaged by a well-heeled rival and her ex-husband is involved as well. Her daughter's custody is threatened. Simon wants her to wish. His need for her to wish becomes unbearable and her resorts to evil forces to coerce her, but he can't go through with it. She has come to mean a great deal to him.
He takes her to his world hoping to make her understand. On Kaf, Zoe learns the true extend of Simon's burden. She realizes that the stereotype of the bound genie is not the norm, that Simon's people are free. She also finds that Simon must live as an outcast in his own world until his sentence is served. She returns, determined to make her wishes, perhaps to wish him free.
Upon return, Simon uses his ma-at (magic) to help Mary overcome a learning problem. He hoped to prove how good the ma-at can be, but Zoe is fiercely independent. In her fury she wishes Simon could live as a human for 2 weeks to understand her feelings about hard work over taking the easy road. She doesn't realize what she's done. Djinn living on Terra (Earth) must return to Kaf every 12 days to revitalize. If they do not do so they die. Naturally Zoe's enemies choose this time to do their nasty deeds. Simon must find a way to help her without his magic, in doing so he becomes very weak. Zoe can't use her wishes to save Simon's life for he can't grant them, thanks to her thoughtless wish. She realizes that she believes in him and loves him with all her heart. Can she find a way to save his life? If so, is she strong enough to set him free, knowing that she will lose him anyway?
This was an interesting new prospective on the genie theme. The story got kind of slow toward middle, but the pacing improved considerably in the sequel, so I don't see it as a major stumbling block for Ms. Nance's future.
Reviewed for PNR Reviews”
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