Early Review – Witchful Thinking (Jolie Wilkins, Book 3) by H.P. Mallory (3/5 stars)

Reading level: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Size: 336 pages
Publisher: Bantam
Release Date: February 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0345531452
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in the Jolie Wilkins series
Source: From Amazon Vine for Review
Rating: 3/5 stars

This is the third book in the Jolie Wilkins series. I got a copy of this book through the Amazon Vine program for review. It was a fun read but the cliffhanger ending of the book made me roll my eyes and wonder if I want to keep reading this series.

Jolie’s been crowned Queen of the Underworld…whether she wants to be or not. Rand is trying to deal with all the fallout from the battle in the second book and is still unsure about his relationship (or lack of one) with Jolie. Sinjin has wholeheartedly supported her reign and has vowed to be her top protector. Constantly tugged between these two powerful men Jolie is having trouble managing her personal life, let alone all the creatures of the Underworld.

This was my least favorite of the Jolie books to date. I guess I am getting sick of the constant non-resolution between Jolie and Rand. The number of times Jolie states she needs to move on with her life and then doesn’t gets really repetitive throughout this story. This book also features journal entries by Jolie which, for the first half of the book, recap events that happened in previous stories. I think this was supposed to make the book stand on its own, but since I have read all of the previous books in the series I found this recapping a bit tedious.

The story has a lot more Sinjin than previous books and I like Sinjin as a character; but the plot hints at darker aspects of Sinjin than I wanted to know about. Sinjin was my favorite character in this series, by the end of this book…not so much.

This book is pretty soap operaish. Most of it deals with the fallout of the battle in book 2 and with Jolie setting up her reign as Queen. I found it a bit disturbing the Jolie is so weak yet is crowned Queen of the Underworld. The prophetess Mercedes is pretty much running the whole show and Jolie trusts her blindly. Jolie serves as mostly a figurehead and the fact that she never questions some of Mercedes more questionable behavior made me think a lot less of Jolie as a character. There is very little action and very little to propel the story forward; although there is mention of a new group of enemy mostly human part vampire type creatures that Jolie and crew will eventually have to face off with.

Usually these books are overly sweet and fun. While this book was well written and easy to read I didn’t find it as fun as previous books. Jolie seemed tired and I was tired with her; I just wanted her to stop letting herself get pushed around and do something.

The book ends on a total cliffhanger that promises even less resolution between Jolie and her men in the future. It made me sigh in exasperation; I mean come on let’s get on with the story and move past Jolie and Rand and their issues.

Overall, although this was a fun and easy read, it was my least favorite book in the series. Jolie seemed tired and doesn’t really exert herself as a character; she spends a lot of time following. Jolie also gets pretty much no resolution with her guy situation and I just want to move past her guy issues and get on with the evil human vampire baddies. I guess the series is a getting a bit too chick-lit for me. At this point I am not sure if I will be reading future books in the series.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Horror and Urban Fantasy Challenge
– 150+ Books Reading Challenge