Helpful Score: 2
Maggie Shayne was one of the first romance authors I ever read. She wrote good paranormal romance before paranormal romance was even a thing. Her Wings of the Night series was the first vampire romance I ever read and set the bar for me for what vampire romance should be. Her Immortal Witches series was actually from the viewpoint of a Wiccan and not some sexed up, demonic, Christianized viewpoint of what a witch should be. Maggie Shayne is definitely an author from a more innocent era of romance writing. Her romance is more sweet and the sex is very PG. It works for her. But even though she wrote some of my favorite romance novels of all time (check out Miranda's Viking), I grew up, and started experimenting with different and darker romance styles. I don't know if her work is quite to my taste anymore insomuch as I prefer a less sweet approach to romance. But I definitely felt a lot of nostalgia reading this new series of hers.
It had been years since I picked up one of her books. Her Immortal Witches series was always a favorite of mine and when I saw that she had written another series based on witches I just had to give it a go. I'm glad I did. She is the ONLY author I know who can write a successful romance about witches that actually accurately portrays them outside of the Christian lens. I appreciate that soooooo much. Occasionally I love a good Christian mythology based romance, but I'm not a Christian and I can't stand how often the portrayal of Wiccan/ witchy magic and symbols are misinformed. I can't stand how often the very terminology of a supposed witch demonstrates the author's lack of understanding of this particular spiritual path. Wicca and witchcraft exist outside Christian mythology. To use Christian terminology like 'pentagram' instead of 'pentacle' give a witch a decidedly Satanic /evil/ occult feel when witches are anything but.
Sorry to get on my soap box but I feel like Wicca is so underrepresented in literature as a whole, but particularly in romance where it often gets confused with a naughty Christian fantasy of a hyper-sexualized bad girl. I found Mark of the Witch a breath of fresh air in that sense. It was charming and taught the layperson a lot about Wicca without bashing Christianity. It also had a pretty sweet love story that spans 3500 years. I prefer my romance to have a little more snark and tension, so two people who basically fall in love upon immediately meeting each other because they were destined to be together takes a lot of the anticipation away for me. However, I still felt like this book was a lot of fun to read and nostalgically sweet, if not necessarily a keeper. I will definitely read the rest of the series to completion.
It had been years since I picked up one of her books. Her Immortal Witches series was always a favorite of mine and when I saw that she had written another series based on witches I just had to give it a go. I'm glad I did. She is the ONLY author I know who can write a successful romance about witches that actually accurately portrays them outside of the Christian lens. I appreciate that soooooo much. Occasionally I love a good Christian mythology based romance, but I'm not a Christian and I can't stand how often the portrayal of Wiccan/ witchy magic and symbols are misinformed. I can't stand how often the very terminology of a supposed witch demonstrates the author's lack of understanding of this particular spiritual path. Wicca and witchcraft exist outside Christian mythology. To use Christian terminology like 'pentagram' instead of 'pentacle' give a witch a decidedly Satanic /evil/ occult feel when witches are anything but.
Sorry to get on my soap box but I feel like Wicca is so underrepresented in literature as a whole, but particularly in romance where it often gets confused with a naughty Christian fantasy of a hyper-sexualized bad girl. I found Mark of the Witch a breath of fresh air in that sense. It was charming and taught the layperson a lot about Wicca without bashing Christianity. It also had a pretty sweet love story that spans 3500 years. I prefer my romance to have a little more snark and tension, so two people who basically fall in love upon immediately meeting each other because they were destined to be together takes a lot of the anticipation away for me. However, I still felt like this book was a lot of fun to read and nostalgically sweet, if not necessarily a keeper. I will definitely read the rest of the series to completion.
