Review: Daughter of The Spellcaster by Maggie Shayne

Title: Daughter of The Spellcaster

Author: Maggie Shayne

Series: The Portal, book 2

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Publisher: MIRA

Source: Review copy from publisher

Format: E-book

“Has a spell been cast? 

Lena Dunkirk is a practicing witch, Ryan McNally a wealthy playboy. Logic says mismatch, yet from the first they share a passion that defies reason, as if they know each other from another place, another time. Then Lena gets pregnant and runs for the safety of home. 

Months later, when Ryan appears at her door looking to help raise their child, Lena doesn’t know whom to trust–particularly now that “guru to the stars” Bahru has taken an interest in her baby, offering gifts forged of magic. 

Soon she and Ryan are sharing eerie dreams of ancient lands, while a vengeful demon plots to take possession of their child. As the moment of birth approaches, the demon’s power rises, forcing the hand of love to wield the blade that will decide the fate of a child’s soul–and the future of the world.”

Daughter of The Spellcaster is the second book in The Portal Series by Maggie Shayne.

Daughter of The Spellcaster is Magdalena’s book; she is one of the three witch sisters (Indira, Magdalena and Lilia) that were sacrificed in old Babylon after been accused of witchcraft. In Mark of the Witch we met Indira and learned about the pact the sisters did before dying. The pact to reincarnate over and over again until the time they could meet again to save Lilia’s lover, Demetrious’ soul. Indira already did her part (Mark of the Witch), now it’s Magdalena’s turn.

Magdalena (Lena) is not your typical heroine; to starts she is almost nine months pregnant and a powerful witch. I really wanted to like her but couldn’t. She’s supposed to be a strong woman but I really didn’t feel it. She is moody, naïve at times and made one bad decision after another. She blames many of her outbursts to her pregnancy hormones, I think they were a mixture of hormones and a weak personality. One thing I really didn’t like about her was that she kept her pregnancy from the father of the baby, Ryan. She said she was going to tell him before the baby was born but months have passed, she has only a couple of weeks left and if it wasn’t for something that forced her to see him I don’t believe she would have told him. If she were really a strong woman she would have faced her problems instead of hiding from them.

Everybody thinks Ryan is playboy, with not a care in life, while in reality he’s completely the opposite; he just uses that image as a way to protect himself from being hurt. Ryan’s father was completely heartbroken after the death of Ryan’s mother; looking for answers he dedicated his life to travel the world in search of spiritual enlightenment, leaving Ryan behind to be raised by nannies. After seeing how much his father suffered because of love, Ryan tries to do anything in his hands to protect his heart. When Lena comes to his life he knows she is special and he’s afraid of falling hard for her; after she disappeared without any explanation he looked for her but couldn’t find her. Now months later, she is back in his life and pregnant with his child. Ryan is a responsible man and doesn’t want his child to grow up without both parents. But for Lena to accept him in their lives he will have to leave his fears behind to be able to give all of himself to them.

There is a connection between Lena and Ryan, one that comes from previous lives. The romance is subtle and somewhat different because of Lena’s condition and misgivings. I felt like Ryan was giving hundred percent of him while Lena wasn’t. I blamed it on her insecurities.

We know many of the events because of previous book, Mark of the Witch, but still Daughter of The Spellcaster felt different because it was from Lena’s point of view.

From the very beginning we know who the villains are and the plans they have, knowing that I still find the story entertaining. I think if I hadn’t had problems with Lena’s character I would have loved this book.

Page after page I was hoping to see Indira and Tomas (Mark of the Witch), there are some references about them and they only have a little cameo at the end of the story. I really hope they play a bigger role in next book of the series, Blood of The Sorceress (January 22^nd, 2013).

Blood of The Sorceress will be Lilia’s book and it will also be the conclusion to the series.

If you want to try this series you can start with the prequel Legacy of the Witch. At the moment this review was written it was free on Kindle and on E-Harlequin.

My Verdict: 3 ½ Stars

Other books in the series

Legacy of the Witch (prequel)

Mark of the Witch

Daughter of The Spellcaster

Blood of The Sorceress (Jan. 22^nd, 2013)

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