Magic And The Modern Girl (Red Dress Ink)

Customer Reviews

• Probably my least favorite out of the Jane Madison series  Oct 22, 2008 (6 of 6 found this helpful)

  I'm a huge fan of Mindy Klasky's Jane Madison series. I was eagerly awaiting the release of the third, and for now, final book "Magic and the Modern Girl". However, I felt the story was a bit iffy for me. Hence, the three stars. Believe me, I would love to be able to give it more. I just didn't love the book enough to give a higher rating.
  
  In the beginning, Jane hasn't been using her powers as a witch and has only been getting into fights with her familiar, Neko, so she let's him move out. But then she comes to realize that she's at risk of losing her powers all together so Jane recruits her warder David, Neko, her mother, and grandmother to help her get the powers back. She creates anima,Ariel who is supposed to help Jane's power come back but something goes wrong when Jane creates her. There is also a problem in Jane's love life that needs sorting out.
  
  The story was a okay but seemed to go on a bit longer than necessary. Also in this book, I found Jane to be a bit annoying. She become slightly whiny to me and I don't remember her being like that in the other two books. I had one more problem with the book. The overuse of the word 'arcane'. I felt it was used on almost every page and I wondered if there were other words Mindy Klasky could have used instead.
  
  I did, however, love the ending. It was the ending I was hoping for and it made me happy to read it. And although I was a bit disappointed by the story, it was really a joy to be able to read another book about Jane Madison. Mindy is starting a new series next year with a book called "There's the Rub" but there is also a hint on the last page that shows that Mindy may not be done with Jane's story. That would make me happy because I would love the series to continue.

• Good, but could have been better  Oct 27, 2008 (2 of 2 found this helpful)

  I really enjoyed this book, however, I was kind of confused at the change in Jane's behavior. I agree with someone else who stated that in this book, Jane seems a little more whiny than in the other books, and it's true. Part of it I understand. This is the book where Jane truly needs to decide if witchcraft is for her and where she has to learn from past mistakes, namely, her love life. And she needs to do it. How will she truly appreciate what she has if she doesn't dabble in a life without it? She lives sort of a double life, trying to recover her powers, while also dating non-magical Will. She sees the pros and cons of both lives, but seems mostly swayed towards a normal life without magic until the end of the book. And having Jane realizing what she is giving up by being a witch is totally fine by me, but I get slightly irritated at her behavior. In the previous book, Jane worked so hard to prove her magic to the Coven. Even though she didn't join, I would still think she would use her magic here and there. She didn't want to lose Neko and the books then, but in this book, she is well on her way to doing just that. The Coven was hardly mentioned in this book, and I thought that her not joining the Coven was a pretty big deal. So to begin this book to see she hasn't used her powers at all in 6 months makes me wonder what she is thinking, and you can't help but feel sorry for Neko and David, especially since Jane sees them more as nuisances. She kicks Neko out and David is forced to go back to being a file clerk. I wish there was more of her thinking about others than whining about how witchcraft can be too much of a burden. I also wish Jane would just communicate with David. Even in the end, they both never really sat down and said "This is how I feel..." or "This is why I act like this..." However, it was still a fun and easy read, as Jane has to hunt down her anima Ariel and figure out what went wrong with her spell. Jane begins to teach magic to Gran and Clara, and figures out new ways for magic to be performed. You do learn more about David, which is great since he's always been so mysterious. The ending was great, very romantic, and paves the way for another book in the series. I feel there is still more to learn about David and Jane's relationship, as well as what Jane plans to do after leaving the Peabridge and coaching other witches. Maybe there will be some sort of "war" with Teresa Allison's Coven and Jane's Coven she has already started to form? I hope so, because I feel like there is a lot more to be uncovered in Jane's world and so many questions still unanswered. A great book to read as we await more from Mindy Klasky!

• Keep 'em coming.  Oct 21, 2008 (4 of 5 found this helpful)

  Magic And The Modern Girl is the third book in Mindy Klasky's series. Book 2 started to go downhill for me, but this book was just as good as the first. It was fast paced with some romance. Im looking forward to the next magic book.

• I Love This Book/Series  Nov 23, 2008 (1 of 1 found this helpful)

  I have Purchesed all of these books through amazon and I love them all. They are a great read when you just need to escape for awhile

• Sad to see this series end...  Oct 24, 2008 (1 of 1 found this helpful)

  I love the Jane Madison books and I'm really sorry to see this trilogy come to a close. I feel that Ms. Klasky could easily extend this series... As it is, the third installment leaves us with all the "warm fuzzies" we're supposed to have at the end of a typical romance novel, but I felt like the story in the middle fell short. It was disappointing to me that so much of this novel didn't deal with Jane's magic, but rather her lack thereof. However, for anyone who was a fan of the first two novels in this series, I certainly recommend reading this one too, just to get closure on Jane's story.