Review: Magic’s Not Real by J.L. Hendricks

Posted April 15, 2017 by Lola in Fantasy, Review / 8 Comments

LolaReview

Magic's Not RealMagic’s Not Real: A Voodoo Dolls Story
by J.L. Hendricks

Rating: 3 stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy

Blurb:
When magic IS real, what would you do to protect yourself?

Jenna and her three adopted sisters, the Voodoo Dolls, run a tourist shop in New Orleans, Louisiana (NOLA). They are also The Voodoo Dolls, an indie rock band who don’t believe magic is real.

That is until someone tries to kill Jenna using a death curse. Rico and his pack are there when it happens. They decide to protect Jenna and the Dolls, while going after the evil that tried to kill the beautiful lead singer.

What the dolls don’t realize is that everything from their nightmares is true! When they discover magic IS real, they all discover the terrible truth about vampires, shifters, and magic wielders. Will Jenna survive the evil which is after her? Will she be able to accept the assistance of a wolf shifter and his pack? Or will she fall prey to the creatures that live in the night.

If Urban Fiction with hints of romance is your thing, you won’t want to miss this newest tale from J.L. Hendricks!

My Review:
This was a fun short read. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I picked this one up, but the cover caught my attention and after reading the first page with the look inside function on amazon I decided to give it a try. The premise was kinda neat. It’s about four girls we are all adopted, but have grown up as sister have a band together and run a voodoo dolls shop. They don’t realize magic is real until one night when everything changes.

Magic’s Not Real was a pretty fast paced and short read, things go from normal to them learning about magic and everything out there very quickly. At times it felt a bit rushed as things happened so quickly after another I had a hard time getting a feel for the characters and the world. But I think this is a sort of prequel from one of the sisters her point of view mainly, so maybe this really is just a set up for the first book. At least that’s what I think so far. This worked well as introduction, but it didn’t quite hook me as much as I wanted. I am curious about how things continue and what is more is going on. Strangely enough the first chapter where they are in their element in their shop was actually my favorite part.

As this book was relatively short and mostly story focused I felt like I didn’t get a good feel for the characters. I mainly did my best to remember who they were in the band and around that slowly tried to piece together their personalities a lot. But I did struggle a bit to remember who was who simple because we don’t learn a lot about anyone and it was hard to remember who everyone was. I did like how the focus was on four girls, who are close like sisters even though they aren’t, but they did grow up together. they seemed pretty close and I enjoyed seeing them interact with each other.

There was also some dialogue that felt a tad off? A bit stilted or unrealistic? I can’t quite put my finger on what was off about it, but it just didn’t flow natural. There are also multiple point of views, which I personally thought was unnecessary for such a short novella and it didn’t really add much that couldn’t have been told from Jenna her pov.

The world building is very minimal. The four sisters learn what’s out there and there’s a small plot line surrounding someone who tries to kill Jenna. But it’s all pretty rushed and happens fast and gets resolved fast as well. So besides the basics, I didn’t feel like I got a good feel for this world. I do figure that with this being a novella, most f the world building probably is reserved for the next book.

It may sound like I didn’t enjoy this one, but overall I did think it was a fun read and I enjoyed reading git, but one the other hand as it was quite short and a tad rushed I just felt I couldn’t connect as well with anyone and the novella didn’t quite hook me as much as I had hoped. But while I was reading it, I still had fun mostly.

To summarize: This was a short and fun read. It feels a bit like an introduction to this series as it’s pretty short, but we get to know the main characters and how they find out magic’s real. I liked the set-up for this book, but unfortunately the book itself didn’t hook me as much as I had hoped. Magic’s Not Real is quite story focused and fast paced, even a bit rushed at times. I had some trouble remembering who was who and didn’t really connect to the characters. The conversations felt a bit off and stilted at times. The first chapter were they worked in the shop was probably my favorite part of the story as that felt well written and well paced. I also enjoyed the bond between the four sisters and I am curious what more we don’t know yet. I still enjoyed reading this one even with the issues I had and I might continue this series.

Links:
Goodreads
Amazon

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Amazon.

What’s the last (prequel) novella you read?

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8 responses to “Review: Magic’s Not Real by J.L. Hendricks

  1. Hmm, so it introduced the girls and their life and flipped between them all. That would be hard to keep up with at first. It does sound like just an intro. I felt that way with a few prequels. Lit Fuse was a good one I read back in January that introduced the characters, but also had a pretty good plot though it ended on a cliffhanger so you had to get book one to see what happened next.
    Glad you liked this one even if it was a bit off with the dialogue and confusing.
    Sophia Rose recently posted…Review: Just Drive by L.A. Witt, Narrated by Nick J. RussoMy Profile

    • It mostly followed one character, but there were some chapters from other characters. Which felt a bit necessary to me. And there were a lot of characters, so it could be hard to remember who was who. It did read pretty much like an intro, so I am curious what book 1 will bring.

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