Far From Reality

Title - Opal Fire
Author - Barbra Annino

Genre - Urban Fantasy
Pages - 260

Ill start off by saying, Murder mystery is not my genre, but add in some good old fantasy elements and witches plus a kick butt female lead, an adorable and loyal great dane and some well rounded, humorus friends and the genre dosnt seem so bad to me.

Stacy is a witch, but she dosnt want to be, she just wants to continue being a reporter and get the big stories, too bad fate has something else in store. A fire has broken out at her cousin, Cinnamons bar when the story starts, what seems like a regular electrccal fire, unearths something sinister. Soon Stacy, Cinnamon, Leo (her cop boyfriend) and a host of other characters are wrapped up in a murder mystery that spans centuries.

The characters are well thought out and i found myself laughing at some of the antics, witty retorts and general crazyness that happens throughout the story. Of course, there is a bit of swearing but it is not much and it fits in with the context. I loved Stacy, Thor (her dog) and Cinnamon, they were strong woman (except Thor who is a very good dog) and they did what had to be done when it came down to it. I also enjoyed Angelica, Stacys aunt, she was just as i remember my grandma to be, the italian always cooking, always saying 'Sit, Mangia! Mangia!" it made me smile. While there were some characters i could do without (Leo for instance) the book had its charms.

Speaking of charms, i really appreciate the authors use of spells, herb knowledge and stone knowledge. No facts of Witches in this book were fake, made up or basicly BSed. The writing is also neat, told well and the pace was not too slow or too fast. The second book Bloodstone is due out in July 2011.