Review – Midlife Witch Hunter (The Forty Proof Series, Book 6) by Shannon Mayer (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 368 pages
Publisher: Hijinks Ink Publishing
Release Date: February 1, 2022
ASIN: B095Y5FW3C
Stand Alone or Series: 6th book in the Forty Proof series
Source: Borrowed through Kindle Unlimited
Rating: 3/5 stars
“All Bree really wants is to bury her head in the sand, somewhere in the south of France while a hot pool boy rubs lotion on her back.
Instead, Bree gets blackmailed by the Council of Savannah into a job she doesn’t want—though it does take her to France. They need her to bring a witch back to Savannah for a trial that Bree is sure is a load of hooey.
But not just any witch. The first one. The oldest one. The one who makes a t-rex look like he’s howling about a sore tooth. The one who makes the wicked witch of the west look like your sweet old nanny, the one who . . .well you get the picture.
Bree’s job? Find her. Befriend her. And convince her to come back to Savannah for safekeeping.
But someone else has gotten a head start, and their reasons for tracking down the miserable old witch are far worse than the council’s reasons.
None other than a sexy, growly blacksmith with pretty eyes who makes Bree’s panties melt even though she knows he isn’t for her. And he is looking for the same miserable old lady.”
Series Info/Source: This is the 6th book in the Forty Proof series. I borrowed this book for my Kindle through Kindle Unlimited.
Thoughts: I found this book disappointing. Some of it might be because I just finished the last book in the Leveling Up series by K.F. Breene and the books are fairly similar in theme, so I can’t help but compare them…and I like the Leveling Up series a lot more. This book starts a bit slow, feels disorganized, and Bree makes a lot of bad decisions right from the get go. The excessive amount of age jokes (when Bree is only in her 40’s) and the constant man-bashing continue to be annoying.
The premise is that Bree gets sent to France by the Council of Savannah to protect the first witch so that the first witch’s soul can’t be used to summon a legion of vampires. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen until nearly half way through the book because the beginning of the book has Bree angsting over Robert, dodging Karissa’s minions and trying to gear up. Another hot new male character is added, and he is intriguing. However, I continue to have a large complaint about the way Bree treats the male characters in the book.
The theme of male incompetence is still very thick in this series and continues to annoy me. It’s sexism at its worst. I love strong female characters but respect goes both ways. Throughout the book Bree continues to objectify the men around her (how many times does she say she needs to get laid by whatever hot man she is pressed against?) She also continues to be disrespectful and dismissive of the men around her in a very unreasonable way. Again, in comparing this to the Leveling Up series…you can have a protagonist that has gone through a bad divorce and hates that one man but they can still have healthy, respectful, relationships with other males. There is little balance and growth here and a lot of hate and this is the main reason I plan on stopping reading this series…that and how scattered and amateurish the plot has gotten. Bree needs to grow up some and learn to respect her team, the men around her need to stop taking her disrespect in stride.
My Summary (3/5): Overall I thought this was a disappointing addition to this series and am perplexed by the high reviews here. The good points are that there are some interesting supernatural creatures and I liked the change of scenery. However, there are a lot of negatives here as well. The plot is scattered and sloppy, Bree hasn’t grown as a character and continues to make horrible decisions, and another hot man is added for Bree to drool over. The bad age jokes and Bree’s constant overdosing on Advil and alcohol continue in earnest; in general most of the humor is in poor taste.. The story is rampant with sexism; the men are treated as objects and disrespected…there is no balance and no healthy relationships here…I am done with this series.
