Early Review – In a Fix (Ciel Halligan, Book 1) by Linda Grimes (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Size: 336 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: September 4, 2012
ISBN: 978-0765331809
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Ciel Halligan series
Source: eGalley from netgalley.com
Rating: 3/5 stars

I got a copy of this book to review through NetGalley(dot)com. It was a pretty typical humorous paranormal romance. The idea behind the main character being able to take the form of anyone is interesting and lead to a lot of mistaken identity type situations.

Ciel is an aura adapter, she can assume the aura (shape, appearance, smell, everything) of any person she’s touched. She uses this to run a business where she does things for her client that they don’t want to do. She is out snagging a marriage proposal for one of her clients when things go crazily wrong. Her client’s fiance’ to be is snatched by modern day Vikings and Ciel is forced to call in fellow aura adapters, Billy and Mark to help her out.

This is a funny and cute paranormal romance story. This story is Molly Harperish in humor but with more investigation and some cool aura magic. This story was pretty much a basic conspiracy/crime investigation type of story. The twist is that some of the characters can take on the appearance/aura of other characters; so there is a lot of “case of mistaken identity” shenanigans.

I thought the Viking part sounded cool in the synopsis. In reality it’s not as cool as it sounds. There are a bunch of Vikings who are trying to promote their own masculinity and they have a pretty silly and contrived scheme to do this. This is the backbone of the plot and it is a very goofy plot that doesn’t make much sense.

The characters are what you would expect in a light-hearted PNR. Ciel is a bit klutzy and a bit dorky; but for some reason the guys around her think she is totally hot. Billy is a womanizer who teases Ciel a lot and is kind of goofy around her. Mark is more serious and treats Ciel like a little sister. Ciel has the hots for them both. Then a Viking Neil enters the scene….of course Ciel has the hots for him too. So much of this book is dedicated to Ciel dealing with her love…square?

The ability of the characters to switch who they are is hilarious at times. The book is decently written and an easy read.

Overall this was an okay book. The characters are fairly stereotypical of characters found in this type of book; goofy/funny female lead and the hot men who are inexplicably attracted to her. The plot was just plain old silly…a bit too silly for me. The story had a heavy dose of both romance and investigative crime/conspiracy. Tentatively recommended to fans of light and silly paranormal romance. I personally enjoy Molly Harper’s books more; but this was a decent book with a similar type of tone to it.

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