Review: Spellbinder by LJ Smith (Night World book 3)

Her name is Blaise and she's irresistible to boys. Her dark, smoldering beauty is an invitation to jealousy and madness. And now she's ready for the kill. Eric Ross is the perfect catch, a star athlete who wants to be a vet. "Hands off," warns her cousin Thea, who is determined to protect this particular human boy from the girl who was born to destroy men.

Blaise's black magic is powerful. The only way Thea can fight back is to use her own white magic, to bewitch Eric herself as a bluff. But soon Thea finds herself getting to close to Eric, feeling forbidden emotions, breaking Night World laws. Falling in love. As Halloween and the Night of the Witch draw closer, can Thea save Eric--and herself--from Blaise's vengeance.

In the third Night World book (1996) we turn from vampires to witches. In the nineties witches were paranormal characters du jour, thanks to fantastic movies like The Craft and Buffy's Willow. There's witchy books around today, but not like the ones we had in the nineties. For some reason witches were huge in the nineties. I want to say something snappy about third wave feminism, empowerment and speculative fiction, but I'll keep off my soap box until I've formulated a coherent thought!

I found the setting that Smith created in Spellbinder was more vivid than that of the previous Night World novel, Daughters of Darkness. I loved the shop full of crystals and herbs, the descriptions of Blaise's jewellery making.

I finished reading this book about a month ago, so unfortunately I can't go into too much detail here. It's going to take me a little while to catch up on my reviews, and they may suffer because of the lag between reading the book and writing the review. I can recommend Spellbinder as an excellent addition to a witchy fans library. It's also a fantastic continuation of the Night World saga as there's a sense of those that defy Night World rule are beginning to band together--Thea seeks out Ash, the human-hating vampire who fell in love with a human girl in Daughters of Darkness. Ash is so far my favourite Night World character, and I hope he keeps popping up in more books in the series.

Next in the Night World series is Dark Angel, which is about a fallen angel in love with a human girl, aka Proof That LJ Smith Did Everything That's Popular Now Back in the Nineties!