Dangerous Magic

by Stephanie James

Sleeping her way to the top was not Elissa Sheldon's style... Sure, she had skills and intelligence, but senior work colleague Wade Taggert was convinced that Elissa had slept with a married man to advance her career. Elissa was furious at Wade's assumptions and was very tempted to quit her job--but when he had the nerve to blackmail her into an affair of his own, the opportunity for revenge was too sweet to pass up. The trap was set. She would manipulate him into falling in love with her, and when he was on his knees begging her to marry him...she would shoot him down for the dirty dog that he was. But what she didn't count on was falling in love herself...

Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Harlequin, Category Romance, Historical Romance

250 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 1982

About the author

Jayne Ann Castle was born on 28 March 1948 in Borrego Springs, California. Her mother, Alberta Castle, raised her with her two brothers, Stephen and James. In 1970, she obtained a B.A in History at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and later she obtained a Masters degree in Library Science from San Jose State University, where she met Frank Krentz, an engineer. After her graduation, they married and moved to the Virgin Islands. She worked in the Duke University library system, where she began to write her first romance novels. The marriage moved to Seattle, Washington, where they continue living.

Now, Jayne Ann Castle Krentz with her seven pennames is considered a pillar in the contemporary romance genre. For some years, she only uses three pennames for each of three different periods from time: "Jayne Ann Krentz" (her married name) from the present, "Jayne Castle" (her birth name) from the future and her most famous penname: "Amanda Quick" from the past. She is famous for her work ethic, beginning her writing by 7 am six days a week. Her heroins never are damsels in hardships, they are often heroes. Her novels also contain mystery or paranormal elements.

Enthusiastic of the romantic genre, she has always defended its importance. To help educate the public about the romantic genre she became the editor and a contributor to Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women: Romance Writers on the Appeal of the Romance, a non-fiction essay collection that won the prestigious Susan Koppelman Award for Feminist Studies. She established the Castle Humanities Fund at UCSC's University Library to allow the library to purchase additional books and has given money to 15 Seattle-area elementary schools to enhance their library budgets. She is also a member of the Advisory Board for the Writers Programs at the University of Washington extension program.

Psuedonyms:

Jayne Ann Krentz
Amanda Quick
Jayne Castle
Jayne Bentley
Jayne Taylor
Amanda Glass

Reviews

[*CJ* · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Dangerous Magic" is the story of Elissa and Wade.

So let me put this out there- this book will not be everyone's cup of tea.

An UBER obsessed H who goes like a rabid dog behind our h forms the crux of the book. The H is a successful businesswoman, waiting for a promotion when the H is appointed as her new boss. Not only does he not give her the boost, but he accuses her of sleeping with her supervisor. The h vehemently denies it, but the H propositions her instead. Blinding her with his passionate kisses and one track mind, the h still tries to teach him a lesson by stringing him along so she can humiliate him. But as she finds herself falling for the H, will she finally be able to thwart him?

Very jealous, chauvinistic H who is head over heels mad for the very resistant h. The book is a sizzling battle between the two, and though his possessiveness can be a bit tiring, I overall enjoyed this book. The ending was beautiful!

Safe
4/5

[Maria · Rating 1 out of 5]

Published in 1982, this is one of my least favorite Jayne Ann Krentz books, mainly because the premise of being overlooked for a deserved promotion is such a sensitive subject to most women in the job force. I would have liked it better if Elissa Sheldon had quit right then and there, and Wade Taggert had been forced to other stratagems to win her back. This book is one of the few Krentz books where she does not create great characters. Wade comes off as a bully and Elissa as a wimp. At least until the wrap-up, by which time it was too late to salvage Wade or Elissa in my eyes.

[Azet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite some time i read any book by Jayne Ann Krentz aka Stephanie James that consists a Arrogant and Pompous Ass-hole of a Tyccon Hero! Oh but Wade Taggert have his charm-and the conclusion to his burning pursuit and manipulations against the heroine made me swoon...!

Wade willingly let Elissa Sheldon plan her vengeance so that he could go in his way to win her...what a Awful smart man he is,haha! A very savage jealous hero of this authors, he saw Elissa as a enchanting witch (he usually calls her a "Lady Witch") and he hated every man who even got near her! "Dangerous Magic" came to be a sensual promise of a Keeper and it was Amazing to read about this stubborn couple in the journey of love and their banter was so funny i laughed out several times..!

[Dot & Needle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This really didn’t age well, although I don’t know whether blatant sexual harassment in the workplace and blackmail was acceptable in romance back then either.
I really just wanted the heroine to punch out the hero and report him to HR 😂

[Viv · Rating 1 out of 5]

actually would rate this book as I loathed it. Book was dated and no woman with any brain would of put up with this situation.

[Janice Hildreth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't both reading, contains sexual harassment as foreplay

[reeder (reviews) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hero: Haha! You are a fool because you had sex with the married OM to get a promotion when you should have had sex with me to get the promotion because I have more authority. To punish you for choosing poorly, I have given the promotion to your innocuous but less experienced coworker. Now love me.

Heroine: Haha! You are a fool because I was only helping the not!OM plan a surprise party for his wife, which I'm hosting at my apartment. I will lure you there by pretending I'm succumbing to your sexual harassment, but then you will see your mistake and I will feel avenged.

Hero: Haha! You are a fool because I will pretend not to believe you even though there's an entire party right here in your home, thus denying you your vengeance while nibbling your delicious canapes. Love me!

Heroine: Haha! You are a fool because I will pretend to consider your offer of future career advancement in exchange for sex, but I will be working my wiles to persuade you to propose to me. Then I will reject you and I will feel avenged.

Hero: Haha, you fool! I recognize your vengeful tendencies and am secretly using your plans for revenge as bait to keep you focused on me. LOVE ME!!

Reader: *looking around at the heroine's decor* You know, I used to have fantasy landscapes of isolated castles and lunar wolves on my walls, too. When I was in the eighth grade.

* * *

Dangerous Magic is a testament to corporate culture for professional women in the 1980s. The quid pro quo sexual harassment is just the tip of the iceberg. By throwing the surprise party on behalf of her male supervisor, the heroine is functioning as an office wife. Even better, the surprise party had been her idea, but she encourages the not!OM to take credit for it. It turns out that "a lot of people come up with brilliant ideas" when they're exposed to the heroine's manipulative influence, and she feels only smug satisfaction that these people are stealing her ideas. Her self-effacement is a deliberate strategy: the heroine is portrayed as cleverly maneuvering through a system that didn't reward women for being assertive. Welcome to life before leaning in. This book is straight-up social history.

But let's get back to the romance. The hero is an aggressive lone wolf who has achieved his corporate success through relentless hard work and ruthlessness, while the heroine has succeeded "effortlessly" through her charisma. As a JAK heroine, she is unquestionably competent and a hard worker; she's just really charming with it. Yet she is also emotionally distant from these people she is manipulating because they are so easily manipulated. She needs a challenge in her life. Now the hero wants to become part of -- actually, he wants to take over -- the heroine's charmed inner circle (a phrase which is probably only 70% a euphemism for her lady parts), and he's willing to blackmail her with her career prospects to get in there.

Frustrated that her plans for revenge-by-party didn't work out, the heroine decides she'll get her revenge by charming the hero into a proposal of marriage and then heartlessly rejecting him. To get to that point, she lets him believe she's considering his blackmail and hangs out with him for a week, verbally jousting, fending off his attempts at seduction, and comparing their tastes in art and music. Impatient with her lack of progress, she dangles a purely fictional proposal from another man in front of him to get him to pull the trigger. Then she alternates between feeling disappointed that he only proposed because of her manipulation and feeling pre-remorse for her plan to reject him publicly at their quickly-planned engagement party that weekend.

Meanwhile, an OW -- the daughter of the CEO of the company they work for -- pops in to illustrate the hero has no interest in other women (thank you, JAK) and to prove the heroine has deep knowledge of the H's inner soul as revealed in the art on his walls. (The OW also provides me with feelings of secondhand embarrassment for all womankind because she's such a soap opera stereotype. JAK's OWs always feel awkward to me. Either they were shoehorned into her plots by insistent editors or they exist only to make the point that a man who can be distracted by another woman is no hero at all.)

Finally, the night of the engagement party arrives and the heroine can't bring herself to destroy the hero in front of his staff. She is somewhat vindicated when she hears the staff gossiping that this explains why she didn't get the promotion she so clearly deserved: their new boss must have wanted to avoid the implication that she was promoted as a result of their personal relationship (oh, irony). After the party, the heroine confesses her thwarted plan for revenge and attempts to give the hero his ring back, explaining that she'll go on their planned honeymoon as "his woman" not his wife. This prompts the hero to reveal his stealth courtship method where he always knew what her plans were and had been manipulating her to keep her interest. It's mutual love and HEA, with evidence that these two will live out their fantasies as a power couple in business, relying on their complementary strengths.

Although the protagonists' openly comparing themselves to their favorite fantasy archetypes felt immature to me, I confess I like the pairing of the ruthless warrior felled by the charming witch (and vice-versa) and am weak to the many hints that the hero yearns for the warmth/domesticity he imagines he sees in the heroine and apparently can't achieve on his own. However, most 21st century readers won't make it past the sexual harassment and 1980s chauvinism, and I can't blame them. (There's a scene where she provokes his anger/jealousy, and when he threatens violence, "Elissa resorted to primitive feminine instinct. Enraged males were to be placated, appeased. It was the weaker female’s only defense when matters had gone this far." So...yeah.)

JAK checklist
Pacific Northwest setting: We've hit the bullseye: Seattle
Familiar professions: She manages the writing department of a tech firm. He's a divisional manager in the same firm, with his eye on becoming CEO someday. He's actually atypical for a JAK hero, in that he works for rather than owns the company.
What's in a name?: Elissa has a certain fantasy-protagonist vibe to it; Wade? Not so much.
Marital status: Both single, never married. 
Age: She's 27; he's 35.
Heroine's eye exam: blue-green, sea-colored
Hero's eye exam: silver-gray, icy gray
Hair color: He has near-black hair with wings of gray at the temples. She has dark auburn hair.
Pets: None. She's a metaphorical witch! She needs a familiar.
Vehicles spell success: He drives a silver Jaguar.
Metaphors are for flogging: The heroine's preference for fantasy fiction is being actualized via metaphor. Her charms become spellcraft, and his devotion to work is reimagined as a lonely warrior battling unspecified enemies. 
Hero threatens to spank heroine: Spank? No. Beat, yes, and she has to plead with him to talk him down from it. The hit to her pride just further sparks her thirst for vengeance.

(I copy the checklist from review to review, and the physical descriptions in this one were nearly identical to Relentless Adversary.)

[Lakshmi C · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 RTC

[Mara · Rating 1 out of 5]

As someone's else said this is the story of a bully and a stupid wimp. I honestly wonder how this writer could actually face herself in the mirror after having written this misogynistic drivel.
No wonder for years no one wanted to touch romance even with a pole.
You don't need the #metoo movement to understand how appalling this story is. In 1982 women in the workforce weren't a smudge, feminism was mainstreaming and I can't find it in me to forgive this kind of stories. But what I loathed was the quivering mass of fake hormones that the heroine stands for. In all her past romance the only thing the male character has to do is to touch the weak female and she stops thinking.

Shudder worthy

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's no doubt that these early 80's romances don't stand the test of time well. When read thirty (!) years later, it makes you wonder what you were thinking back then. Still there's a nugget there of JAK's essential romance philosophy of "dangerous men and adventurous women" that I'll keep this book tucked away for an occasional re-read.

[Farah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wade's method of courting Elissa was outrageous but somehow it worked , the way things progressed had me giggling a lot !! Elissa trying to get an apology out of Wade and Wade manipulating the whole situation to get Elissa .. it was very entertaining.

[Nancy Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed it

[Teri-K]

DNF -
I'm one of those readers who generally gives books written in earlier times a pass on political correctness. In fact, I like the view into how people used to think and act when I read. But I couldn't stomach the so called "Hero" of this book. He's a name-calling, manipulative, slime ball who forces an employee to have sex with him because he thinks she slept her way up the ladder with another man. I read about 100 pages and found nothing to like or respect in him. The heroine should have spit in his face and then told her employer, the one she wasn't sleeping with, what was happening. But she didn't, for no reason I ever saw explained. So I stopped reading with great relief. 0 stars

[Arlette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the dynamic in this entire book. A big bad business men under the big bad wolf spotlight vs a skillful witch. In all honesty loved how the male character worked around and showed his female who was boss and never gave her a dull moment. The only reason I gave it a four star review is I was hoping for a tiny bit more in the end.

[Michelle Reddy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sorry this book is so not for me.

[The Grumpy Romance Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, this was awful. The only magic in this book is the main dude evading strangulation all his life. How did Miss James get away with such writing. How did this pass as romance? UGH

[Lara · Rating 2 out of 5]

a HR nightmare…

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this book less and less the more I read it. Although the writing is good and the dialogue great, I feel that the woman should have at least used her knee a time or two and if she couldn't do that stomping on his foot would have worked just fine. I realized it was the times but it's hard to take.

[Priyanka · Rating 3 out of 5]

All the books I've read so far of Amanda Quick/ Jayne Ann Krentz were good. Attention seeking and steady paced. But this one... It was a total bore. But I still liked it. This one was slow-paced. Don't read it unless you're just bored and wanna pass your time!

[Kalea · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunatelly not one of author´s better works...

[Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Her characters are always different than expected. I enjoyed all of her 80's books and took them for the era they were in and what was selling.