A Book Obsession..: Early Review: Under a Spell by Hannah Jayne

Early Review: Under a Spell by Hannah Jayne

, by Kt Clapsadl

Under a Spell by Hannah Jayne

Underworld Detection Agency #5

Count your blessings, guard your curses—and watch your back…

Sophie Lawson was seriously hoping life at the UDA would get back to relative normal now that her boss Pete Sampson has been reinstated. Unfortunately, her new assignment is sending her undercover into a realm where even the most powerful paranormals fear to tread…her old high school. Being a human immune to magic is no defense against soulless picture-perfect mean girls—or a secret witch coven about to sacrifice a missing female student. And Sophie's Guardian, uber-proper Englishman Will, is determined to convince Sophie he's the kind of temptation she should indulge in permanently. Now, as the clock ticks down to apocalypse, he and Sophie will have to summon every trick in the book to battle devilish illusion, lethal sorcery—and betrayals they'll never see coming…

Sophie Lawson has just been handed her worst nightmare of a case: going back to her old high school. The mere thought sends her into a state of utter panic, but with girls going missing and a witch coven at suspicion, she doesn't have much not choice. Not if she doesn't want those girl's deaths on her conscious. So, teamed up with her Guardian, Will, she'll be headed back to the one place she swore never to return. Vampires, ghouls, and even the devil himself have nothing on this school's mean girls.

Sophie drove me absolutely insane in this book. She's rash and crazy, and honestly a little insane. Her constant visuals of her kicking butt are so far from reality, it's laughable. I'll admit that her antics were initially rather amusing to me earlier in this series, and largely the reason I've continued on with these books. That being said, she went from amusing to annoying in this installment, and it really turned me off. I cannot count the number of times she got herself into trouble where just even a little bit of forethought or listening to other's advice would have largely prevented said trouble. To make matters worse whenever one of the two leading men looked at her or heck even breathed, it turned into this inner discussion of her lady bits getting turned on etc etc. It was rather excessive, especially since A. 99% there was no real trigger for that kind of reaction, and B. She made it clear that there wouldn't be any funny business anyway, so enough about the lady bits already I say!

Now, onto the romance. I don't even know where to begin, considering there wasn't any, which frustrated me to no end. In the beginning of the series, there was a thing between Sophie and Alex. And then in the third book things got hairy when Will was added to the mix, making for a dreaded love triangle. Then in the very next book Will goes away, and is suddenly all forgotten about. And now in this installment it's back to Alex wanting nothing to do with her, and Will does, yet Sophie is firmly in the Alex camp despite him being a jerk. Confused yet? So was I. The romance has been so all over the place in this series, and then for there to be absolutely no real romance or hell even one single real kiss in this whole darn book, well you can imagine my frustration.

I had hard time staying interested in this book as it just couldn't seem to hold my attention. Between my annoyance with Sophie and the really messed up love triangle and the plot that never seemed to end, this was a very frustrating read for me. Honestly, I have to admit that I'm not too sure of this series any more. It seems each new installment only brings more frustration rather than any progress in any department, be it the romance, or the overall story arc. I just need a little more than has been given. Since I don't like to quit series this far into things, I'll give things one more shot, but if the next one isn't more impressive, this series and I may just have to call each other quits.

(Received a copy from the publisher)

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