skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Halfway Hunted
Terry Maggert
(Halfway Witchy Series, #3)
Publication date: June 2nd 2016
Genres: Adult, Paranormal
Some Prey Bites Back.
Welcome to Halfway; where the waffles are golden, the moon is silver, and magic is just around every corner.
A century old curse is broken, releasing Exit Wainwright, an innocent man trapped alone in time.
Lost and in danger, he enlists Carlie, Gran, and their magic to find the warlock who sentenced him to a hundred years of darkness. The hunter becomes the hunted when Carlie’s spells awaken a cold-blooded killer intent on adding another pelt to their gruesome collection: hers.
But the killer has never been to Halfway before, where there are three unbreakable rules:
1. Don’t complain about the diner’s waffles.
2. Don’t break the laws of magic.
3. Never threaten a witch on her home turf.
Can Carlie solve an ancient crime, defeat a ruthless killer and save the love of her life from a vampire’s curse without burning the waffles?
Come hunt with Carlie, and answer the call of the wild.
EXCERPT:
There were only two reasons for me to be awake on my couch, staring up into the gloom of the pre-dawn hours. The first is my house itself, which complained against the
deep cold with creaking pops like the knees of a guy who played sports a long time ago when he was younger and had more hair.
The second was Wulfric. My lover was out there in the Adirondack winter somewhere, his vampire skin now as cold as the deep snows that settled on Halfway with a heavy hand. I missed him every second of every day with an ache that started in my heart and ended in the emptiness of my arms. Living without him was like swimming through wool that took my breath and will at every turn.
Everything was hard. Little things made me sad.
Smiles died on my face and I knew if I didn’t find the magic to save him, moving on was going to take the rest of my life and all of my tears. In the midst of my somber reverie, my giant familiar Gus put one of his Maine Coon cat paws on my shoulder. His rumbling purr calmed my mind enough that I sighed and began absently rubbing the magnificent fur of his Tabby neck.
“Brrrrtt?” He asked me, his bronze eyes fixed on me like two coals floating in the dark.
“I miss him. Sorry. I know I should sleep. Or listen for spell requests . . . or do anything except lay here having a pity party.”
Gus answered with a head butt and an even deeper bumble of contented reassurance. He stretched along me from hip to head and I was reminded again that my cat is nearly as tall as I am. Or he would be, if cats could walk upright, but he doesn’t because that would be weird. I felt a small grin touch my cheeks and let it bloom, then looked across the room to the kitchen. There, I saw another friend who was always near.
Even in the heart of a mountain winter, the moon always finds a way to touch me. Laying on my couch in the middle of a frigid night, I watch the square of moonlight light dance across my kitchen floor like the slowest ballet possible. The brilliant smudge of light comforts me, telling me that no matter how short the days and how deep the snows, sunshine will use the face of sister moon to reach across the dark and set my spirits to right.
So I watch, and I wait.
I listen for the telltale creak of my mail slot, an old brass hinge that swings inward when someone needs me. Or, to be more accurate, they need my magic. When the moon is high, I spend my nights listening for the telltale footsteps on my porch. Those are followed by a hesitation as the person decides if they can go through with their request—they always do—and then I wait a bit longer. It’s understood that to ask for my family magic, you must write a note in natural ink, then fold the note within an envelope that is hand made. Hand crafting invests meaning into something as simple as a note, and the poignant pleas I get range from simple to impossible.
But I always try.
Tonight, there was no slide of an envelope on the floor of my foyer. Perhaps it was too cold, although Adirondackers are tough people. A few feet of snow and subzero temperatures wouldn’t stop a local person from asking for help if they needed it, which meant that at least or tonight, my town was free of unusual heartache.
In witch parlance, the night was clean. Spirits were at rest, and after casting a final wish across the snowdrifts to Wulfric, so was I. Before dawn’s gray could pierce the low
clouds covering the mountains, my eyes grew heavy, I let the sadness leave me, and then, when there was nothing else to fight, I slept.
Author Bio:
Left-handed. Father of an apparent nudist. Husband to a half-Norwegian. Herder of cats and dogs. Lover of pie. I write books. I've had an unhealthy fascination with dragons since the age of-- well, for a while. Native Floridian. Current Tennessean. Location subject to change based on insurrection, upheaval, or availability of coffee. Nine books and counting, with no end in sight. You've been warned.
Hosted by:
Title: Halfway Bitten
Author: Terry Maggert
Series: Halfway Witchy Series #2
Publication: February 9th 2016
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Purchase On: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository
Rating: 4/5
Review copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.
Take a bite out of evil.
The circus came to Halfway, and they brought the weird.
When clowns, vampires, and corpses start piling up in town, Carlie has to break away from her boyfriend, Wulfric, to bring her witchy skills to the table- or grill, as the case may be.
When the body of a young woman washes up in the lake, it unleashes a spiral of mystery that will bring Carlie, Gran, and Wulfric into a storm of magical warfare.
Spells will fly. Curses will rain. Amidst it all, Carlie will make waffles, protect her town, and find out if a man from the distant past can join her in happy ever after.
With love and honor at stake, Carlie has no peer.
Halfway Bitten is the thrilling sequel to Halfway Dead and I loved it. Although I liked the first book for sure I had my reservations with it so I'm really happy to say that I thought this one was better. It was really great and I could hardly stop reading it.
I think part of what made this book better for me than the first book was that I was already familiar with the characters. And I also the writing has improved a lot also (though I thought the writing was already excellent with book #1).
Halfway Bitten features the characters we got to know and love from the first book. Carlie, Wulfric, Gran and some others. This time the mystery involves werepanthers, vampires, dead bodies and even clowns. And of course there a big amount of magic.
I loved the mystery of the circus that came to town and how Carlie and the others once again had to try to figure everything out. There's also romance involved between Carlie and Wulfric, who is her boyfriend now. The end, though, kind of freaked me out and maybe broke my heart a bit.
Overall, Halfway Bitten by Terry Maggert ended up making me want and need more of this world. Especially with an ending like that. Carlie is quickly growing into one of my favorite heroines ever!
Born in 1968, I discovered fishing shortly after walking, a boon, considering I lived in South Florida. After a brief move to Kentucky, my family trekked back to the Sunshine State. I had the good fortune to attend high school in idyllic upstate New York, where I learned about a mythical substance known as "Seasons". After two or three failed attempts at college, I bought a bar. That was fun because I love beer, but, then, I eventually met someone smarter than me (a common event), and, in this case, she married me and convinced me to go back to school--which I did, with enthusiasm. I earned a Master's Degree in History and rediscovered my love for writing. My novels explore dark fantasy, immortality, and the nature of love as we know it. I live near Nashville, Tennessee, with the aforementioned wife, son, and herd, and, when I'm not writing, I teach history, grow wildly enthusiastic tomato plants, and restore my 1967 Mustang.
Title: Halfway Dead
Author: Terry Maggert
Series: Halfway Witchy Series #1
Publication: June 29th 2015
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Purchase on: Amazon
Rating: 3/5
Review copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.
Carlie McEwan loves many things.
She loves being a witch. She loves her town of Halfway, NY—a tourist destination nestled on the shores of an Adirondack lake. Carlie loves her enormous familiar, Gus, who is twenty-five pounds of judgmental Maine Coon cat, and she positively worships her Grandmother, a witch of incredible power and wisdom. Carlie spends her days cooking at the finest—and only—real diner in town, and her life is a balance between magic and the mundane, just as she likes it.
When a blonde stranger sits at the diner counter and calls her by name, that balance is gone. Major Pickford asks Carlie to lead him into the deepest shadows of the forest to find a mythical circle of chestnut trees, thought lost to forever to mankind. There are ghosts in the forest, and one of them cries out to Carlie across the years. Come find me.
Danger, like the shadowed pools of the forest, can run deep. The danger is real, but Carlie’s magic is born of a pure spirit. With the help of Gus, and Gran, and a rugged cop who really does want to save the world, she’ll fight to bring a ghost home, and deliver justice to a murderer who hides in the cool, mysterious green of a forest gone mad with magic.
I really liked Halfway Dead. It definitely ended up being something right up my alley with the way this story involved witches, witchcraft and diverse magical creatures.
I have to admit that this book didn't hook me right from the start. I actually had a bit of a tough time getting into it. It took me a little over the first half of the book for really starting to like it. Some things confused me a bit but I hope this doesn't scare people away because it really is a great story.
As much as I wasn't sure about the main character, Carlie McEwan, at first, I ended up loving her. She's a witch so that makes her awesome already but she's also very snarky and very good at her witchcraft.
The story really started picking up once she, together with Jim, went into the forest to find these special trees. Not long after that they meet Wulfric, an ancient vampire. These three made quite the pair and I loved their dynamic.
Overall, Halfway Dead by Terry Maggert had a bunch of great characters, magic galore and good writing. It was pretty great even though it took me a while to get into it. The second half and the ending certainly saved it all for me. Gotta love that!
About the Author:
Born in 1968, I discovered fishing shortly after walking, a boon, considering I lived in South Florida. After a brief move to Kentucky, my family trekked back to the Sunshine State. I had the good fortune to attend high school in idyllic upstate New York, where I learned about a mythical substance known as "Seasons". After two or three failed attempts at college, I bought a bar. That was fun because I love beer, but, then, I eventually met someone smarter than me (a common event), and, in this case, she married me and convinced me to go back to school--which I did, with enthusiasm. I earned a Master's Degree in History and rediscovered my love for writing. My novels explore dark fantasy, immortality, and the nature of love as we know it. I live near Nashville, Tennessee, with the aforementioned wife, son, and herd, and, when I'm not writing, I teach history, grow wildly enthusiastic tomato plants, and restore my 1967 Mustang.
