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The Forty-Year-Old Virgin Witch
by
Raven Storm
paranormal romance, sexy romance in a Kindle edition that was published by the author on January 9, 2022 and has 209 pages.
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First in the Aggie’s Boys sexy paranormal romance series set in a small village in England and revolving around a virgin witch in hiding.
My Take
This was different! And for an erotic ménage à quatre, quite mild. It also has quite the family feel to it with each of the men accepting the idea. Okay, it’s also fairly comic. That initial meeting between Karl and Luka sets the tone for the whole story.
Sure there’s some kicking, but it’s very mild. The real drama comes with Karl’s Elder and Aggie’s nasty mother. Jesus. That reveal about Varos’ other children was interesting . . . hmmm . . .
Storm is using first person quadruple protagonist point-of-view from Aggie’s, Karl’s, Luka’s, and Quinn’s perspectives, which allows Storm to fill us in on their thoughts, feelings, and backgrounds.
It cracks me up that Aggie is so nasty and proudly loves being a bitch. “It was what kept her safe.” I do love the sound of her cottage. A bit small for me, but it does sound lovely . . . and that garden!
Part of the sweet is how protective all three men feel about Aggie. Karl is so self-effacing while Luka has a controlled passion and Quinn . . . Poor Quinn is so confused, and he keeps screwing things up.
The culture Storm has created around the witches is both wonderful and brutal. It all depends on your perspective and greed. Aggie’s family is on the wrong side of their culture. IMO.
Aggie’s village is filled with old men — she reckons she’ll be safer. The downside is that the women seem to be desperate for any good looking guy who shows up, much to Luka’s and Quinn’s dismay.
There are quite a few prejudices that get knocked down, although Aggie’s mother is definitely worse that I could’ve thought.
One of my niggles is Karl’s age. It sounds like he was turned when he was still a child, and yet Storm mentions his having some experience with women. And if he’s been a vampyre for 50 years, then he must have been turned sometime in the 1940s although Karl states his mother was a single mother, raising him in the 1930s, which would make this story’s current timeline sometime in the 1990s. It’s probably just me, assuming the story is set in the twenty-first century. As for being turned into a vampyre against his will, that’s not how it sounds, earlier in the story anyway. Storm also avoided any emotion over the death of Karl’s mother, which did not ring true.
Another niggle — that made me hopeful — was when Karl realized Aggie had taken his curse. I gotta say, I wonder about how intelligent Karl is that he never thought of Quinn’s suggestion before.
My biggest niggle? Storm ends the story on a “convenient” cliffhanger. It was very annoying. It did make sense, but . . . ahem.
It’s a sweet romance as the boys prove their love with each realizing they can create their own pack/clan/family.
The Story
It’s Aggie’s fortieth birthday, and she’s still a virgin. A state she intends to keep. No men for her. No sirree.
Unfortunately, a bit of temper at the pub reveals more than Aggie wants known.
The Characters
Agatha “Aggie”, a gardening witch, has suppressed what magic she has for the past twenty years. Damon is Aggie’s sentient black cat, her familiar. Her bloodline is one of the original seven, from France. Vicky had been Aggie’s best friend back in her childhood.
Karl is a young vampyre — he’s only 50. His maker, Varos, is an Elder and four hundred years old with quite the reveal at the end! Jontavious had been a previous scion. Karl believes his mother might have been a witch.
Luka is a lykos with alpha potential and Mrs Halfpenny’s nephew. Most of Luka’s pack, the Tatra, is in Slovakia and Hungary.
Quinn, a warlock, is a mercenary kicked out of his coven. Ayah is his falcon familiar.
This is an English village where most of the men are over 60 and where Davie tends bar. Some of Aggie’s customers include Mrs Margo Halfpenny, Mr Edinboro, the widowed Mr Barner, and the cancer-stricken Mr White. The slutty Donna owns the florist shop.
The Gaelic witches — they prefer to be called druids — have plans. Róisín is the witch who was attacked.
The council is a group that terrifies supernaturals, although they are supposed to keep the bad supernaturals in line, to ensure every supernatural creature has the right to exist. Seth, the son of Samael, is a notorious incubus. Athene had been on the council.
The Cover and Title
The cover has a white background with a huge spiderweb. The title is in green with the author’s name in black following the contours of a pair of radii. The graphic of a pair of legs encased in horizontally striped green and black wearing black pointed-toe high heels with one leg flat and the other cocked, cracked me up.
The title is true, for Aggie is The Forty-Year-Old Virgin Witch.