The Witch and the Gentleman by J.R. Rain
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was an unexpected surprise. First of all, it came to me as a Kindle freebie. I did pay $1.99 for the whispersynch audio which made the book even better. But my goal is that I read mostly books by lady authors with strong fem main characters. Occasionally, there will be a book with an author name that only has initials and a last name. Those can be tricky as the author is of undetermined gender. I picked this book up just hoping it was a fem. It is a guy.
So, there are things I look for if it is a male writer. How well does he portray his fem lead? How do the secondary characters react to the lead? And for either gender writer, I look at how realistic the fantasy person and world is.
In this case, I didn’t have a lot of problems with the fem lead, except…crying. Geez! Planning to go take a cry? Crying a lot! A real lady doesn’t respond to a person dying in front of her by planning to cry later. She might not cry at all. Shaking, maybe, but goodness gracious! For the rest of the book I think JB Rain got it right. Don’t be putting anything on a gentlelady that you wouldn’t put on a gentleman.
Apart from the gender issue is the realism of fantasy. Allison Lopez, the main character, is a psychic hotline operator. As one who already possesses some psychic talents, why have her so afraid when the ghost appears? Not just an initial reaction but over and over it is stated how scary this is. I think a true psychic wouldn’t have been afraid once the initial introduction happens.
BUT overall, this is a fun book with a main character I could relate to. (I have been a psychic hotline operator. I have encountered a ghost or two.) What I loved was the amount a truth in developing these talents and bits about Wicca and its practices. From what research I have done, most of these practices were well done.
Oh, a word about the narrator, Francesca Townes. I did enjoy the addition of her voice to the story. Her interpretation of the male voice wasn’t the greatest, but it worked once I got used to it.
Darswords 
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