"makes sorcery and witchcraft seem genuine in a world filled with computers"

Paige Winterbourne has spent much of her twenty-threes years of life in trouble with the Elders who felt her defiant ways made her unfit to succeed her highly regarded mother as head of the American Coven of Witches. However, nine months ago, the Elders and Paige no longer had time when her mother was murdered. Paige "adopted" a young teen witch Savannah Levine who also saw her mom die. Conversely Savannah's dad, the powerful sorcerer Kristof Nash, wants his child that he ignored for years as he recognizes the evil potential.

Besides the common thread of mourning their losses, Paige knows that Kristof dabbles in malevolence and will use his offspring in the dispute against witches and others. Kristof will do anything to obtain control of this "weapon" including murder and framing Paige as the culprit. Her best hope to stop Kristof is attorney Lucas Cortez who is a sorcerer and everyone knows that sorcerers and witches are like oil and water so why does she think he is such a hunk.

DIME STORE MAGIC is a terrific contemporary fantasy that makes sorcery and witchcraft seem genuine in a world filled with computers even if it is unbelievable that a witch would ever depend on a sorcerer. The action-packed storyline is fast-paced and provides strong characterization especially the heroine, the villain, the hero, and the teen target. Fans will want to be BITTEN by the Armstrong aura that mystically leaves the audience wondering how their time was STOLEN by an author with the magic to engage the reader in one sitting spells.

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted April 2, 2004

Summary

Forget the cackling green hag in The Wizard of Oz, forget Samantha from Bewitched. Real witches are nothing, NOTHING like this. For years real witches have hidden their powers, afraid of being persecuted. They have integrated so well into the community, you could have a witch living right next door and never know about it. Take Paige, for instance, whom we first met in Kelley Armstrong's novel Stolen. Just an ordinary twenty-something who runs her own website design company, worries about her weight and wonders if she'll ever find a boyfriend. Okay, so she's leader of the American Coven and guardian of Savannah, the teenage daughter of a black witch. Really, life is ordinary. But then a telekinetic half-demon, Leah O'Donnell, shows up to fight for custody of Savannah. And although Paige is ready for her, she's not quite so prepared for the team of supernaturals that Leah brings with her, including a powerful sorcerer who claims to be Savannah's father. When all hell breaks loose -- literally -- and Paige is accused of witchcraft, Satanism and murder, the Coven, fearing exposure, abandons her. Cut off from her friends, Paige is forced against her better judgment to accept the help of a young sorcerer lawyer. And she quickly comes to realize that keeping Savannah could mean losing everything else.