USA Today best selling author Maureen Child is the author of more than ninety romance novels and novellas. Maureen is a five time nominee for the prestigious Rita award from Romance Writers of America. One of her novels, A Pocketful Of Paradise, was made into a CBS-TV movie called The Soul Collector, starring Melissa Gilbert, Bruce Greenwood and Ossie Davis. Over the years, she’s written under lots of different names and she prefers the term ‘pseudonym� to ‘alias�. As Ann Carberry, she wrote western historical romances. As Kathleen Kane, she wrote not only Americana romances, but western paranormal romances as well. As Sarah Hart, she wrote one really spectacular western paranormal that is still one of her favorites. And once, Ann Carberry even wrote a Victorian historical which she absolutely loved doing.
Under her own name, Maureen writes short contemporary novels for Silhouette Desire—books she loves to write because of their fast pace and condensed story telling. Maureen is also writing funny, contemporary paranormal romances for NAL and darker paranormal stories for Silhouette Nocturne.
Maureen writes paranormal romance novels under the pesudonym of Regan Hastings
In what world is the heroine the worthiest candidate she has no idea but when demons start popping out of the wood work for a chance to kill her and steal her magic she resigns herself to the fact that she needs training. But she has no plan to kill the queen and take the throne, all she wants is to return to her calm albeit boring life. Also, her complex love and hate relationship with the hero is weighing on her mind. The man is arrogant and demanding and under the impression that he can do whatever he wants with her and she just has to accept it. Like kidnapping her and bringing her to the Otherworld, like allowing her sister to be kidnapped by a fellow Fae warrior and worst of all expecting that he can just control her life and reap the rewards of the battle.
The hero is an old soul who has seen enough and lived through enough to know that no everyone is going to be happy with his decisions. That despite the fact it may seem cold and heartless, what he does is for the greater good. He is open with his plan to basically use the heroine to save himself and his people but at the same time he is falling in love with her. Despite her annoying personality, despite the sass and that talking, he is enraptured by her. He's waited for her for a long time after all and has always been torn between his feelings towards her and what he must do to defeat his queen. Now, they must find a way no only to defeat the evil Mab but also convince the heroine that she is destined to.
This is a pretty light romance. More sarcasm and witty (well sort of) humor than drama or real emotion. Once again, I was stuck on the surface level of this book because very little happened to give that reader a chance to see into these characters souls. It was all superficial and as such, I wasn't able to become involved in their lives. The heroine was a stereotype. Sassy, rebellious and very much a reluctant heroine, I found her very annoying and borderline unbearable. Enough with the witty comebacks or her stubborn resistant to see anything beyond herself. Sure, what she's being asked to do is a lot to take in and yes, she's really ASKED, rather informed but she's an idiot if she thinks she can just go back to her regular life after everything that's happened. She herself admitted she was bored with life and men but when the adventure of a lifetime and a sexy warrior Fae comes into her life, it's like pulling teeth to get her to do anything. The hero was a little better. Sure, he was boring at times but at least he had depth to him. He was an antihero who believed in the ends justifying the means. He was very controlling and pretty much gave the heroine no choice in acting the part of his future queen. Together they had little to no real chemistry and spent most of the book either fighting or keeping apart. Then suddenly they are in love? Nope, I'm not buying it. At the end I was left with a lackluster plotline with dull and or annoying characters and a final battle scene that was laughably bad and rushed. Not a fan of this book and have little interest in reading the sequel.
What can I say about Maureen Child's latest, "Bedeviled"? Well, it reminded me an awful lot of her 'Fiend' series for one...except with Fae instead of demons. It still entertained and amused me, even though I didn't get any hot sex included (YET), I'm still hopeful that the next book will see our heroine involved with her sexy Fae knight.
Maggie already has enough on her plate. She still has a bunch of business windows to get painted for the holiday season and she's watching her niece whose mother is off having her chakra's aligned or something like that. So when she stops by her ex's office to drop off the rest of his 'stuff' she's a bit rattled to see him being eaten (and NOT in a good way) by a female-looking creature with horns and a tail. When the creature comes after Maggie, she fights back and ends up destroying the creatures necklace...and gaining Fae powers???? Holy hand grenades, Batman...Maggie really doesn't have time for this! Not even when the Fae sex god, uh I mean warrior...Fae warrior suddenly appears in her life. Even if he does make her girly parts sing three-part harmony, she just doesn't have time to train, fight, and defeat the evil Fae Queen...nope, no time at all for that. Now if all these other creatures would just leave her alone, she'd be happy...mostly...OK, satisfied?
Very funny beginning book for Child's new series. Now if she'll just provide some hot Fae sex...I mean relationship, of course, then I'll give it five stars! Humor, the paranormal, sexy men, ugly trolls, demons, and family issues...what's not to love?
Have you ever read a book where one character was trying to tell another character something REALLY important but could never get the information out of their mouth due to interruptions, etc.? Well, that was happening so repetitively in the beginning of this book that I began yelling at the heroine, Maggie Donovan! Of course, in the next sentence, Maggie begins yelling as well; she was just as frustrated as I was. So I kept reading.
Bedeviled is a story about Maggie, a human with Fae blood in the woodpile, and how she breathes in demon dust after walking into her future ex-boyfriend's office and finds him 'not alone'. But the naked lady "eating" Joe is not human (yes, THAT kind of "eating") and Maggie freaks out, accidentally killing the demon with her loaded tote bag. When a very hunky Fae shows up to tell her it is time for her to fulfil her destiny and save the male Fae from wicked Queen Mab, Maggie doesn't exactly jump at the news that she is prophesied to defeat Mab and rule in the Otherworld. She's got too many commitments in the here and now. Maggie is an artist, and she's got lots of Christmas window scenes to get on glass before Thanksgiving.
At first I wanted to smack Maggie and her Fae because both of them were so annoying and inept, but that changed soon enough and I had several good laughs at snarky Maggie who had such great comebacks ready all the time, her New-Agey sister Nora and Nora's statistic-quoting preteen, Eilleen. I never think of those smart remarks fast enough! Even with all the humor and the not-wanting-to-save-the-world drama, I thoroughly enjoyed the romp thru this book. Ms. Childs deftly developed the characters and her world was ours; I can easily believe that Otherworld exists only a portal away. Oh, and did I say that Ms. Childs believes ALL her Fae men should be hot-hot-hot?
The rating for this is more along the lines of 1.5 stars because it was just that bad. The premise of the story is a good one: Maggie has some Fae blood that is about to be awakened in a very dramatic way. She sees her ex-boyfriend being eaten by demon, defeats said demon with a lot of luck and then gets imbued with gold Faerie dust from an amulet. Yep that's really how it goes, weird I know. Why would I keep reading you say because the beginning was so terribly written.....Boredom. It was a really fast read events come together quickly and I was systematically dragged through the book because I kept wondering, much like Maggie, if it could get any worse. And oh yes it did! The ending was terrible and left me with a big "Huh?" and not even remotely interested in reading anything more in this series.
I enjoyed the premise of the story and i loved the world. I only had a few problems with the book and those were: 1. The main character believing none of this was real even though she saw it happening. (she dose eventually snap out of it.) (I still love the main character though. :D) 2. I thought the fight scenes were a tad too short.
I didnt finish book. I know that I should try and the more I tried the more I just felt like it was a waste of time. The story itself is ok. But more than anything I just found it annoying. Maggie just got on my nerves and her love interest was just kinda boring for me.
This isn't my usual choice in books, but during the Pandemic, when a book shelf is found and everything is free, you try something new. This is more a human/fae story than romance (that is so not my thing), but the back and forth 'conflict' of the main characters became tiring and took up most of the book. The climax consisted of the last 1/18th of the story and could have been drawn out better. It was a surprising twist I didn't see coming, though.
I didn't finish it. 32 pages in and I gave up. Reading this is like talking to a teen in the early 2000s. It got old, really fast. The FMC (female main character) is ditsy, can't believe things, and is so stereotypical it was boring. The MMC (male main character) was dark, mysterious, and just as boring. It was a "destiny" setting which caused a metaphorical yawn. The only interesting character so far was the FMC niece.
I didn't like any of the characters. I read about half way through then skipped to the end. I bought this book years ago and I think I might have lost my interest in fae stories.
1. How did it go from Maggie walking into Joe's office where he's being eaten, to her fighting the demon and trying to save Joe. The demon disappearing, to the body of Joe being basically not a body any longer? If he were no longer intact, why try to save him then?
2. She seems to talk to herself a tad too much.
3. When Culhane shows up inside her house she thinks he's a nut? I could see maybe from the way he's dressed or the kind of stuff he's telling her but even after he disappears? She keeps commenting about the bad day she's had and thinks it's all just talk?
4. Why is Culhane so surprised that Maggie doesn't believe him?
5. I would love to see a set of zig-zag stairs that basically covered only 2 feet. haha Seriously though, that sounds neat.
6. On page 49, Maggie refers to Culhane as 'Culhane' obviously. BUT, he hadn't told her his name yet! Am I wrong? It's like as soon as she said his name I thought to myself "when did he tell her his name?" I went back through the pages and couldn't find it either.
7. What happened with Joe? Where was he working to where no one knew that he had been dating Maggie? Or his family or friends? As in police wanting to question her....? It's like he was eaten and nothing.
8. Would someone really go rushing home after being informed that their sibling was visited by faeries and pixies? Seriously? I get that Nora was into that kind of stuff but really? When she's in another country? She just automatically jumped on a plane without trying to call Maggie and find out what was going on?
Okay I just read more and have come to the conclusion that Nora is an idiot. She actually asked Quinn if he was a demon, he says no and that's it? Really?
9. How would Culhane eating a piece of fruit in Otherworld prove to Maggie that it was safe for her to eat, without getting stuck? Hello, he's a faerie!
10. So after Maggie kisses Culhane and then finds out that she's basically being used. Why is she so surprised? Asking Culhane if she's anything more to him than a weapon? What did she think that he was there to fall in love with her and the two of them live happily ever after?
11. I just have to state that I really cannot stand Maggie. She's constantly complaining about everything and seems to always be in a bad mood or having some bad PMS. She annoys me so much. I wanted to stop reading this book because it's like she never gave up with the attitude.
After finishing this book, I have to say that I won't be moving on to the next in the series. I love a good supernatural type book, but this just did not do it for me. It was boring and I felt like I was more skimming, looking for something actually going on, than reading it. The fight between Mab and Maggie, seemed to go by way too fast and seemed too easy for Maggie.
Really the only good thing about this book was the cute guy on the cover, although I did like Bezel too.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
When Maggie Donovan takes a carton of her ex-boyfriend's stuff to his office, she finds him being eaten by a naked female demon. Without thinking Maggie attempts to pull her off and in the struggle grabs the heavy pendant from the demon's neck. The pendant breaks releasing a mini tornado that turns the demon to dust and then slams into Maggie, endowing her with Fae power. When she gets home she finds a Faery warrior there who tells her she is destined to battle the Faery Queen Mab for control of the Otherworld. Despite wanting nothing to do with the battle she finds her superpowers growing. She needs to be taught to control them and prepare to fulfill her destiny.
Interesting premise but I found the main character's smart mouth and stubbornness off-putting. Just didn't make me want to look for more in the series.
This book is great!! I really like this author, and this book hit the mark!! Maggie Donovan Is the heroine in this story and we get a good idea what she's made of right of the bat when she has to kick the crap out of this "thing" that is eating her ex-boyfriend. And she does just not all clean and tidy like you see in the movies. No she killed it, but just barely. And it wasn't pretty. Then she gets the hell out of dodge and just when she thinks she can go full blown freak out, she gets home to find a smoking hot Fenian warrior named Culhane, standing in her living room telling her of stories of of she is the new Fae Queen and how she has to do the right thing and help her people and Get The evil Queen Mab taken care of. There is good tension and confusion between Culhane and Maggie that is good and keeps you on the edge of your seat thinking "do it do it kiss her already let's see where this leads " quit soon after they meet even though she doesn't trust him. The Battle at the end was good, it could have been longer but the twist at the end when Queen Mab grabs maggie and tells her what she tells her( I don't want to ruin it)About Culhane totally makes up for it!! I can't wait to getthe next one!! Keep em' comin! I'm already hooked!
This is apparently the first in a [at least:] two book series. It entertains but is not a keeper. If you read her Fiends series - it has much the same feel. I don't like the fact that it basically has a cliff hanger ending [a personal hangup of mine, delayed gratification is annoying:]. The characters are enjoyable but I thought a touch overdrawn - Maggie spent a lot of time acting like it would all go away if she ignored it and Culhane did a lot of looming while doing his 'mighty Fae warrior knows best' routine. I felt a frequent urge to smack him.
Bedeviled Beguiled: A Queen of the Otherworld Novel
I know it seems to have taken me forever to get through this book and that was because it didn't keep my interest. I will say that this book had some fun moments and it is a good jump into the genre if you are not a typical fantasy reader. However, the characters are slightly dull. I did not feel attached to them at all, and I really wanted to be. The ending left something to be desired. Child seems to want to follow on the heels of C. Harris, making the reader go through another book or more until resolution. And since it took me awhile to finish this one, I'm sorry to say I'm not sure I want invest my time in for the next in the series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This is a story about Maggie who went to deliver her ex's stuff back to him and finds him being eaten by some creature. she winds up killing it and somehow before she becomes it's food, she gets gold dust in her. Maggie finds herself having to deal with the fact she is half fae and a fae warrior named Culhane who has been waiting for this time to help her fulfill her destiny. This book is part of a boxed set of the Dangerous Dozen.This book was great. I enjoyed it very much and was glad that I read it, you won't be disappointed.
The book is about a girl who is the "chosen one" to fight the Faery queen to help save this Fae (fairy warrior). A little weird. I'm not to into the whole fairy world, but I'm giving it a try. Ok! So now that I finished the book I can say that it was ok. Not the best book, but it is a love story with a twist. I guess I will have to read the next book to see what happens between her and the fairy warrior.
While reading this book, I realized that the plot is very similar to that of MaryJanice Davidson's Undead series. Still, just because the storyline is wholly original, it doesn't mean the book was bad. In face, it was quite the opposite. Maureen Child is a very gifted author whose books I cannot wait to read more of.
I love a good book with Fae and the Otherworld, good vs. evil. This one spins a tale of Humans falling for Fae and having half breeds. When they come into their power and their lives are turned upside down, they have to fight to keep normalcy and learn to use their powers. A great spin on a tale told before. I love it.
Read this book before joining Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ , so I rated this just by what I feel after I finish read :'). And apparently one of those books that contain fae and Celt myth back then before it featured everywhere 10 years laters
The story is ok but sloooooow. Not much happens in it honestly. But i still liked it mostly because of Maggie's snarky come backs. Also her niece Eileen was hilarious with her stats quotes. I'm gonna give book 2 a chance, now that she's queen, we may get more action?
Okay overall, but seems hard to take "seriously" when she finds her soon-to-be-ex boyfriend being eaten by a demon, and it's just kind of blip that's mentioned off and on.