Enchanted Darkly

Darkly #1

by Tarrant Smith

Jennifer MacKell had long ago suppressed her inherited magickal gifts in the pursuit of a normal life. But this choice has included a stack of unending bills, a mentally numbing job, and an uninspiring marriage to her best friend, Jim. After moving with her husband to the picturesque town of Madison, Georgia, Jen’s world is turned upside down when she meets the darkly handsome Steven Dunne. Jen is drawn to him for reasons she doesn’t completely understand, and although she fights the growing attraction, fate works against her and she accepts a job as a waitress in his café. If Steven’s untimely arrival into her life weren’t enough of a complication to her plans to remain normal, Jen has been targeted by Huiel, a banished unseelie fey warrior with secrets and an agenda all his own.

Both Steven and Hueil will force Jen on a quest of self-discovery as she questions her choices, values, and hidden nature. While learning to discern truth from fantasy, she will have to master a witch’s spellcraft and learn the rules for dealing with the dark fey in order to protect herself and the man she is truly destined to love.

A Bonus: Dark Craving, a Darkly Short Story. The sad tale of Millicent Trace and her sacrifice.

Genres: Magic, Fae, Paranormal, Fantasy

Paperback

First published April 27, 2010

About the author

Far far away and in a time long ago, Tarrant Smith graduated from Queens College in North Carolina with a degree in English literature. She currently lives in the beautiful town of Madison, Georgia with her husband, son, and two rescued stray cats who follow her around like familiars. As a kitchen witch, she has always sought out and nurtured the magick that can be found in the mundane trappings of everyday life. For more information about the author and her romance books please go to tarrantsmith.com

2020 Georgia Independent Author of the Year Award (Romance Catagory for The Love of Gods)

​​​​​​​"From cover to cover, Smith delivers insanely well-drawn characters and enough moments of levity to keep this paranormal romance moving along at a brisk pace. Never does Smith's work lack. As the author bounces from one subplot to the next and back, she keeps readers on their toes and deeply involved with each of the main characters and their tragic lives."

​​​​​​​"The entire cast of characters created by Smith is deserving of readers' adoration for that matter. Humor is a big part of Smith's writing and adds to the depth of her characters."​​​

The Love of Gods was awarded Literary Titan's Silver Book Award for June 2019.
​​​​The Fate of Wolves was awarded Literary Titan's Gold Book Award in December 2019
​​​​​​​The Dreams of Demons was awarded Literary Titan's Silver Book Award in August 2020
The Souls of Witches was awarded Literary Titan's Siver book Award in February 2021
Bound Darkly was awarded Literary Titan's Gold Book Award for July 2019.
Kept Darkly was awarded Literary Titan's Gold Book Award for August 2019.
Surrendered Darkly was awarded Literary Titan's Gold Book Award for August 2019.
Resurrected Darkly was awarded Literary Titan's Gold Book Award for August 2019.

All the Darkly Books and Short Stories are now available in on Complete Boxed Set! This is a great way to get all five books and three short stories at once. This complete set is only offered in ebook format.

Her newest series, the Legends of the Pale books, currently include 4 books but is still growing with book 5 likely to be released before Christmas of 2021.

Tarrant Smith also has a collection of Poetry and Poetic Prose available in both paperback and ebook formats. Love, Sex & Witchery is her first poetry book. A second collection has a likely January 2022 release date.

Website: https://tarrantsmith.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TarrantSmith
Substack: https://tarrant.substack.com/
Medium: https://medium.com/@starrantsmith
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Legendsofthe...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/starrants/t...
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_HC...

Reviews

[Alice Yeh · Rating 2 out of 5]

As always, I'll start with the good: the introduction. The first few screens were reminiscent of Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush, Hush, instantly grabbing your attention by dropping you into the realm of the supernatural before turning you back over to modern-day America. There was brief mention of an orgasm that made me a bit wary, but I assumed it would be similar to Practical Magic, where sexual overtones are present without descending into smut. Seeing it listed on Amazon under "Literature and Fiction," I somehow missed the tag for "erotic fantasy". Whoops.

The author does an admirable job of helping the reader identify with Jen right from the first chapter. How could the imaginings of a little girl fail to tug at one's heartstrings? Each omen introduced had me wondering whether it was a sign of something light or evil, and I was eagerly anticipating the development of the heroine's superhuman powers.

Somewhere around the 30% mark on my e-reader, I started noticing the frequency of errors. Well, the first instance was "loosing" instead of losing - twice - as well as "thought" instead of "though" and the ever-present (and increasingly annoying) use of "cafe'" instead of "cafe" or "café," and yes, that extra apostrophe was intentional as far as I can tell. Still, I pushed through, despite the thinning of the plot that had held such promise. We're expected to believe Jen's sudden shift from novice to budding master, as well as her odd lack of wariness about her newly rediscovered talents after the one who sparked her interest in the occult turns out to be a fraud. Clearly, the author was trying to mask these deficiencies with frequent sex scenes. (I confess that I skipped those, expecting the storyline to be able to carry its own weight. It didn't.)

At 64% and fifteen errors later, I came across a misplaced period and couldn't move on. (It was used instead of a comma.) Perhaps this is being technical, but if one is expected to purchase a piece of literature, one ought to receive a product that isn't riddled with mistakes such as "site" for "sight," proof that it was not properly proofread prior to publication. A handful of these flubs are allowable, but I ran out of fingers and had to move on to my toes in order to keep track of them all.

After a hot shower and some freshly brushed teeth, I considered that my assessment may have been a bit harsh. I returned to the novel and worked my way through three screens of descriptions of a culinary nature before I hit a reference to "Billy Holiday," shortly after the description of a roux as a "rue." At that point, I had to shut the e-reader off. Perhaps the conclusion to the novel is fantastic, but the author lost me at sixty-four percent. If I'm feeling generous, I may finish the other thirty-six someday.

[Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am about half way through this book and am enjoying the story. However, the bad editing seems to overshadow the story. I've never seen so many typos and grammatical errors. For example, on Page 123, ""Who was you're fantasy man?" he demanded, . . ." I mean really, isn't "your" and "you're" (you are) one of the first things about writing that you're taught in school - right up there with their, there and they're. This isn't Facebook people where grammar is over-looked. So, as I continue to read this book, with highlighter in hand, I'll let you know how I like the story once I finish correcting it.

Update - sorry, I'm really trying to like this story. It started off okay, but at this point I'll finish it just because I'm the type of person to finish what I started. Right now I don't really like the characters. It's more of a slutty romance novel than a good story, so if you like that go ahead, otherwise, don't waste your time. Right now, I'm hoping the fey wins and both Steven and Jennifer get killed off, but I doubt that will happen.

I'm giving it one star because of the cover of the book.

[Katharine Wibell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming debut novel full of steamy romance and supernatural intervention, this book was a nice start to a fey inspired series.

[Chani · Rating 3 out of 5]

So it actually took me a really long time to get through this one. The story just seemed to drag on at first with nothing really all that important happening. However, I loved the aspects of magic, and appreciated the hints of subtle witch craft that allowed the story to seem realistic instead of completely forced. As the first book, I understand that there needs to be a lot of explination involved in order to set the story for the next additions. I do feel though, that the over all plot could have been sped up a little. We don't even really see the fey until waaaaaay through. I read the description and that's what made me buy it. The author should push that plot line a head so that people feel that they're getting what they paid for sooner rather then later. I'm contemplating getting the next one, because I am curious to see how it'll go. I'd probably recommend this to anyone who likes stories that just barely cross the line into unbelievable. There's a very human aspect to this book, and the characters all have different distinct personalities which is a very good thing. Even the dogs had their differences. The author is clearly great at character development, it's just the plot development that needs a little work. But like I said, this being the first book in a series that's too be expected. There's just so much information that has to be told.Though at the same time those other books (for the most part) deal with other characters so there was way too much time spent setting up a word that later on the reader sees only a tiny part of again.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

""Shit!" Who the hell does he think he is showing up in my life now? She couldn't deny it, but could she ignore it? "It" being the tumbling dice of fate, the shifting ground, the complete rightness she felt being near him."

Really enjoyed this book. It was very character driven with a slow steady development of the two main characters and a realistic presentation of of the disintegration of a marriage. The plot had a few problems toward the end, but honestly I identified so much with the characters by then that I really didn't care. I will definitely be reading more in this series. This is an author who writes from the heart telling the story she wants rather than following the accepted practices of the publishing industry.

[Tai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay this book was so not what I expected. Overall I give it 2 1/2 stars. The ending (like the last 30 pages) the major reason for that high of a rating. I just wasn't able to get into the book and while I could see the path of the plot it didn't really connect and pull me in until the end.

[Kathy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately this book has way too much sex & language for me. I didn't get very far before I realized I should have read a few more reviews and paid a little better attention to the description of this book before requesting it. I love fantasy but erotic fantasy is not my kind of book.

[Mrs. Badass]

2.99