Reviewette: Demon's Delight --- Witch Way by Mary Janice Davidson

Publisher: The Berkley Publishing Group
Pages: 1 - 63

From the Cover: Can a witch and a witch-hunter find common ground ..... without killing each other first.....

Image being told your whole life that you're going to die at thirty...at the hands of your mortal enemy...that you're a witch to be killed by a witch-hunter.

Image that you have been trained your entire life to defend yourself...against an unknown enemy...and being told on your twenty-first birthday...that you have two years to live...two years until you must take a life to save humanity from the greatest evil ever known...

It's Rhea Goodman's twenty-first birthday and Flower and Power (Stephanie and Bob a.k.a. Mom and Dad) want to talk her. What have they done now? Robbed a bank? Protested animal cruelty? Whatever it is, she's sure she can fix it. But, not this time, this time they tell her that she is destine to fight a great evil, all the target practice they have forced their children to learn has been in preparation for the fight of her life.

Chris de Mere can smell a demon, literally smell it, they stink. He follows his nose and dispatches yet another evil dude. Does he get a thanks? No. And he still has to worry about the Goodman that's going to kill him. He's been going to every Goodman he can find to try to avoid being killed on his thirtieth birthday. Well, Boston's next on the list, maybe this will be his lucky city; Massachusetts is where the Salem witch trials were held.

When Chris pulls up at Rhea's family home, he is told to go away, Rhea has two more years to learn to kill him. They don't know is neither has to die if they come to an agreement.

The legend say that the curse can only be broken when the witch shares their greatest power with the hunter, and vice verse. A Goodman has to trust a De Mere, will that ever happen? When Power near kills Chris by running him over while Chris and Rhea tussling on the ground, Rhea has an epiphany! But Chris takes off before she can share what might be their only chance. Maybe the curse can be broken, now to find Chris.

Chris is back to hunting the demons stalking women around town. He wants to believe that the curse will be broken, because he really doesn't want to die. As he comes upon the demon pair, Rhea finds him. As they kill the demon duo and Rhea tells him her big plan. She teaches him to rhyme, and he doesn't kill her; and together, they make a baby. Curse broken, problem solved. Right? Well, at least no one has to die....

In Witch Way, Mary Janice Davidson comes through again. She writes an engaging little tale that you're sure is going to end in a dastardly deed. But, she turns the table and leaves it upside down. Rhea is a sweetie, who will do anything to protect her mom and dad and the various other ankle biters better known as her siblings. She's strong like all MJD's heroines, speaks her mind, and doesn't take any sh** from anyone, not even when it comes wrapped up in a cute little package by the name of Chris De Mere. Chris is a good guy who has been portrayed as the evil doer, when he's nothing of the sort. Well, there is this little voice in his head that keeps telling him to be evil, but he doesn't listen to it (at least not often, and he tells it to shut up all the time). When Rhea and Chris come together, sparks fly in more ways than one. Witch Way was a quick little read that was just a lot of fun. Demon's Delight is a great anthology from a group of talented writers that give a new meaning to the words angels and demons. I recommend this book to the reader who wants to take a sweet little break and have a blast. Literally, that Chris can cast a wicked spell, if only he could rhyme.

MJD - I hope you're feeling better, rest up!