Readers love to visit USA Today bestselling author Barbara Bretton's Sugar Maple. There's just one problem-it's fallen off the map!
Chloe is always losing things-but an entire town? Just when she was about to settle down in Sugar Maple with her soul-mate Luke MacKenzie, her Fae enemy Isadora strikes, and her new hometown is gone. Even the Book of Spells, her lifeline to magick, can't help her now. Just in the nick of time, her friend Janice roars up in Chloe's ancient Buick with Penny the cat and her yarn stash in tow. If she is going to save her home she has to go back to Salem, where family secrets and centuries- old feuds pull her into the fight of her life.
Barbara Bretton is the USA Today bestselling, award-winning author of more than 40 books. She currently has over ten million copies in print around the world. Her works have been translated into twelve languages in over twenty countries.
Barbara has been featured in articles in The New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Romantic Times, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Herald News, Home News, Somerset Gazette,among others, and has been interviewed by Independent Network News Television, appeared on the Susan Stamberg Show on NPR, and been featured in an interview with Charles Osgood of WCBS, among others.
Her awards include both Reviewer's Choice and Career Achievement Awards from Romantic Times; Gold and Silver certificates from Affaire de Coeur; the RWA Region 1 Golden Leaf; and several sales awards from Bookrak. Ms. Bretton was included in a recent edition of Contemporary Authors.
Barbara loves to spend as much time as possible in Maine with her husband, walking the rocky beaches and dreaming up plots for upcoming books.
Está terminado o 3º volume da trilogia Sugar Maple! O final do 2º livro tinha-nos deixado com água na boca para saber o que ia acontecer a seguir... Por isso foi com entusiasmo que peguei neste livro para o ler. Nele são-nos revelados os segredos que estão por trás da vida da protagonista Chloe e da vila que ela ama, defende e quer proteger (Sugar Maple). Voltou o sentido de humor que tanto gostei no 1º livro e gostei do final, embora previsÃvel... sem duvida que me parece possivel uma continuação desta história, que eu leria com prazer se vier a acontecer
This is really bordering on the 3.5 to me and that's only because Bretton introduced Samuel and we got a glimpse of Aerynn.
Chloe and Luke have just defeated Isadora (literally just finished, this book starts where the other finished) and they realize that oops, the town is missing.
By missing I mean gone.
Ok, so here's the thing. Nothing really happened until toward the end of the book. Only "mysterious things" which did lead somewhere but could've been used so much better.
The Salem ghosts pop up only when it's convenient and even the chemistry between Luke and Chloe seemed a little (pardon the pun) lukewarm until the end. Janice wasn't as fun as usual and even Penny the cat annoyed me.
Chloe alternated between whiny and stubborn or feeling helpless and actually being helpless.
The whole thing just felt very 'hand of the author'. Everything happened with absolutely no subtlety and even the final battle felt rushed and only there to tie up what the author had already set in motion. It wasn't even that much of a battle.
On the whole, just very disappointed with this installment and hope for a better one next time.
Imagine losing your home, your shop and your friends! Chloe Hobbs’s hometown has disappeared and in desperation she travels to Salem for answers, in Spun by Sorcery by Barbara Bretton.
The third in the Sugar Maple series follows immediately on from Laced with Magic. Chloe has finally managed to banish the Fae queen, Isadora. Unfortunately Chloe also seems to have expelled the whole town of Sugar Maple and all of its occupants as well!
Chloe is half human and half sorceress but despite living amongst the magickal community in Sugar Maple all of her life, she is only beginning to discover her own magickal powers. Her lineage goes back to the founding of Sugar Maple in Vermont shortly after the witch trials in the late 17th century. She is therefore also the de facto mayor of Sugar Maple.
Chloe owns Sticks & Strings, a highly successful yarn store. She is devastated by the loss of her shop and yarn stash. You can understand this if you are a knitter; losing my yarn would be like the loss of a part of myself!
Now °ä³ó±ô´Ç±ð’s shop, her home and her friends have disappeared in the blink of an eye â€� just removed from the face of the earth, as if they hadn’t existed! °ä³ó±ô´Ç±ð’s first resource is the Book of Spells. This tome contains the magickal wisdom of over 300 years worth of Hobbs women; but when she tries to call it there is no response.
Thankfully Chloe has Luke, Janice and Penny with her. Luke is the love of °ä³ó±ô´Ç±ð’s life; he is fully human and is the local law enforcement officer. Janice is a witch and °ä³ó±ô´Ç±ð’s close friend. Janice has managed to retrieve Penny (°ä³ó±ô´Ç±ð’s ancient black cat) along with °ä³ó±ô´Ç±ð’s old car and some of her yarn stash.
The friends have very little understanding of how their town has disappeared, let alone how to get it back again. They reluctantly agree that their only course of action is to drive to Salem. Salem is the town where the residents of Sugar Maple escaped from during the witch trials of the 17th Century. Could there be any magick left in Salem to will help them with their quest?
The trip leads Chloe to discover the origin of the town’s most longstanding familial rivalry. She faces life threatening perils along the way, but in order to win the battle for Sugar Maple, Chloe will have to question her feelings, confront her desires and demonstrate that she is worthy of her ancestry.
I loved the knitting chat in this book, especially between Chloe and Janice on the drive to Salem. There is a lot of knitting related articles at the back of the book. Some of these articles include patterns for a miniature sock, a mini stocking cap and a scarf amongst others. These are fun and an enjoyable addition to the book.
Barbara Bretton is a wonderfully creative writer, as she showed in the two previous books in the series. In Spun by Sorcery she gives us more background about the history of Sugar Maple, which I enjoyed. She also answers some questions about the relationships between the characters in the tale. Although not my favourite book in the series, Spun by Sorcery provides an interesting exploration of the bonds between the town’s characters.
I’ve grown to like Chloe and Luke. Although their relationship does not really move on much in this story, I enjoy their dialogue and the interesting take they have on issues that confront them. I also liked the cat Penny; a sort of familiar who has been with °ä³ó±ô´Ç±ð’s family since the move from Salem. I did miss some of the other quirky Sugar Maple towns folk, though.
I am glad that there were not too many additional characters introduced into this book; this helped continuity of the story. Each of the major new characters brought in added to the story and were pleasurable to read.
I thought that the drive to Salem was a bit longer than necessary. It did not add to the tension for me. I also thought that the final battle scene was too quick so it was rather anticlimactic.
I did, though, enjoy the humour in the book. Barbara Bretton’s writing style is a joy to read and there are some really strong scenes. I especially liked the Salem lighthouse as a setting for some of the later scenes.
I would recommend that you read the other two books in the series before this one. Although it can be read as a stand-alone tale, it makes it more enjoyable, in my opinion, to understand the references from the previous books.
Spun by Sorcery by Barbara Bretton has plenty of fun, fantasy and magic. The end of the book is left open for a return to the series. I look forward to the continuation of the story.
I read this book on Kindle. My review is available at:
I love these characters and the battle for the town of Sugar Maple! The magick is flowing wild and furrocious in this volume! Great laughs, deep fear, and edge of my seat moments kept this one rolling to its excellent conclusion!
I’ve found a new series! Love it when that happens. The third in Barbara Bretton’s Sugar Maple series, SPUN BY SORCERY is a magical trip to Salem and back as half-sorceress Chloe Hobbs tries to figure out what happened to her beloved town of Sugar Maple, which seems to have disappeared right off the map. Accompanied by love-of-her-life Luke, friend Janice, and thousand-year-old cat Penny, Chloe reluctantly travels to Salem in an effort to find what magic sent her town away and what magic can bring it back.
Along the way, she finds out that her honey, Luke, hasn’t spoken to his rather large family in several years, ever since the death of his wife and daughter. She didn’t even seem to realize he had such a big family or show any desire to meet them, which made me think she was a bit self-centered. However, I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt because I haven’t read the other books in this series (though I plan to!) and because they were in the middle of a crisis when they passed near ³¢³Ü°ì±ð’s hometown. Speaking of family, she learns more about her witch-y side of the family, which helps her find the key to saving Sugar Maple and bringing it back into this world.
I enjoyed the word-play of the characters. Chloe and Luke had great chemistry and truly seemed to love each other, as evidenced by both their actions and their words. There wasn’t a whole lot in the way of romance, just a quick, very tame love scene, but that didn’t diminish their connection. Janice and Penny were great additions to the story, helping add to the tension and mystery. I liked the concept of Penny as a familiar who’s been with the family since the beginning.
When I first picked up this book, I had to laugh—I’ve been thinking about trying my hand at knitting and here was a book where the main character not only owned a knitting shop, she was completely obsessed with it (to the point where she was highly distressed by the fact that, not only had her town gone poof, her fiber and yarn “stash� had disappeared, too. Actually, she seemed more upset by that than anything. I thought it was funny but a knitter would probably get a huge kick out of it.). I’m taking it as a sign—guess I’m going to have to pick up some knitting needles and some yarn and see if I catch the knitting bug!
The only thing I didn’t like were the shifting first person perspectives, where both Chloe and Luke took turns telling their side of the story. I’m not a big fan of this type of point of view for the mere fact that I’m easily confused. Luckily, the author did label each chapter/section, which made it a little easier but, to me, if you’re going to tell a story from multiple perspectives, I really prefer you do it using third person omniscient. But, again, that’s just my preference.
Spinning in a great sense of humor and strong pinch of mystery, Barbara Bretton knits together a magical story about the power of connections, family and love. (How’s that for overuse of knitting references?) Oh, and for all you knitters out there, at the end of the book, the author includes several patterns for you to experiment with.
Okay...Sugar Maple desapareceu. Sim...pufff...foi-se. Ficaram apenas Chloe e Luke. Sem «famÃlia. Nem amigos. Nem comida. Nem carros. Nem casa. Nem roupas. Nem móveis. Nem gatas. Nem dinheiro. Nem documentos de identificação. Nem computadores portáteis, nem telemóveis»...bem, já ficaram com a ideia certo?!
Depois de Janice vir ao encontro de Chloe e Luke com a gata Penny e o calhambeque de Chloe, traçam colectivamente os objectivos principais: descobrir o motivo que levou Sugar Mapel a desaparecer do mapa e como a poderão recuperar...e partem todos juntos para Salem, a terra do Julgamento das Bruxas.
Toda a repetição de conceitos e eventos, junto com o «arrastanço» do livro começaram a irritar-me de tal forma que já não fui capaz de apreciar a conclusão da história. Terminá-lo tornou-se uma missão. Apenas.
Este livro recordou-me aqueles filmes super aborrecidos de domingo à tarde que só vejo quando estou a tentar soçobrar numa bela sesta. Cheguei a divertir-me com o primeiro livro e gostei do segundo mas este último deu-me apenas uma tarde entediante, uma grande dor de cabeça e um mau humor dos diabos...
This is a surreal series for adults! Volume III hits the ground running. Volume II is a cliff-hanger so I leaped into “Spun By Sorceryâ€�. I advise savouring the former. Both concern changes of cosmic proportions. It’s helpful to take a break with a different novel. At first it lacked gusto. Other than grief over your cats and home vanishing; there was a cheesy part about rescuing wool. Stock is replaceable! Evacuating your cats, wallets, and a car are essential. It’s touching that ‘J²¹²Ô¾±³¦±ðâ€� risked being separated from her family eternally. At first I disliked progressing like a comedy film road trip and knitting cropped up more often. I loved leaving ‘Sugar Mapleâ€� and acquainting Janice. ³¢³Ü°ì±ð’s idea was exciting: seek old clans in Salem. Some did not migrate with °ä³ó±ô´Ç±ð’s ancestor ‘A°ù±ð²â²Ô²Ôâ€�.
With a trip encumbered by magick I merely found annoying, this headed for 4 stars... until we reached Salem. Staggering discoveries and unbelievable originality soared! What becomes revealed has a wondrous impact. It’s hard to fathom there is a more arduous battle, when the last was essential. Stakes are even more vital. I was moved by a great deal of this story and held my head out a window, at the description of a knife! This series has the makings of blockbuster motion pictures. Barbara should win an award for her riveting images of a largely mental battle: revolting, excruciating, mesmerizing, and with seamless incorporation of the funniest scenes I’ve ever heard. I’ll try to do justice with a single quote.
“She doesn’t like it,� one of the orbs observed. Another offered, “Any second and she’ll need a paper bag to keep from passing out!� The rest of them bounced with laughter, bumping into each other in what seemed to be the glitter orb equivalent of high-fiving�.
As únicas partes que realmente gostei no livro foram as que falavam do Samuel e Aeryn e dos pais de Chloe, o que juntas equivalem a menos de 1/4 do livro.
E o final foi uma desgraça! Onde está a reacção?! Já tinha lido que o final não era grande coisa, mas conseguiu ser ainda pior do que o previsto!
Percebo a intenção da autora: uns twists para não tornar o livro previsÃvel e um final com uma revelação bombástica para nos deixar ansiosas pelo próximo volume. Mas por mais que me custe dizer, a previsibilidade e um final mas desenvolvido resultariam muito melhor.
Livro lido no Blog Ring, cedido pela Tink. Obrigada*
I thought the drive to Salem took a few too many chapters. The storyline was great just thought some of the driving chapters could have been shortened to make room for more backround. But overall a much better book than the second one, in my opinion.
Good story, but could have used a bit more reminder of what had happened previously at the beginning since it had been years since I read the previous book.
But the journey to Salem to save the missing town was interesting, as was finding out more of how Sugar Maple came into being originally.
The very vivid fight to recover Sugar Maple and show herself worthy of her Ancesters. Chloe rediscovers her power side by side with Luke. And by the very end of the story we get a glimpse of the future...
I still like the series, but I guess it's starting to be a bit more of the same for me, that's why I rated it lower than the first two volumes; still it IS an enjoyable read, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it all resolves in volume 4
Gostei! Foi um seguimento lágico dos outros dois livros.... Um livro com uma certa dose de humor, com ritmo e com um final feliz!!!!!!!!!!!! Recomendo
This was a great series. I enjoyed the story and I enjoyed the characters. There was absolutely nothing I didn't like about this book. I'd definitely recommend.
The third book in the Sugar Maple series finds Chloe, Luke, and Janice looking for Sugar Maple. It has totally disappeared: no streets, no people, no stores....nothing. In her battle with Isadora, she lost the village.
All that they have left is what Janice hastily packed in the Buick including yarn for a road trip. They head to Salem to find out if there is a way to make the village reappear. As they head to Salem, the three of them are beset with snowstorms, tornadoes, and so much more. Obviously, someone doesn't want them to get there.
Once they arrive, Chloe is in for a surprise. Will they figure it out, or will the Fae in the mist succeed? Battling for her village may be the death of all that she loves.
Lots of knitting advice and suggestions follow the conclusion of the story. For those who knit, there are plenty to appreciate.
Chloe has found her soulmate in Luke MacKenzie and she is hoping that he will stay on as chief of police and live in Sugar Maple with her and a town full of magick. What she did not expect is to lose the entire town. Sugar Maple has disappeared, and Chloe is at a complete loss of how to bring it back. She may be half-human/half-magick and still trying to come into her magick but she is sure that there has to be some way to rescue the town and return things to normal.Ìý
Sugar Maple is the perfect town, filled with all different types of supernatural beings which make this book series one you don’t want to miss. There’s love, fighting, feuds, knitting and more! This series will bring a smile to your face and happiness in your heart.Ìý
I’ve had this book forever, and never read it because it’s cover was meh. Well the story was also meh. I didn’t know this was a series, which is probably why it felt like I was reading a few chapters as opposed to a book. However, when I’ve read books from other series, I’ve still felt like each book had its own flow, and story. I also am not a knitter, so maybe that’s why the constant knitting references annoyed me. I’ve dabbled in knitting. Twice. I might try again, not because of this book though, just because I want something to do with my hands other than eating. The attempts at humor were cringe. Some parts were interesting, like the magic parts, and Salem, but other than that, it was meh.
This third book in the series just didn’t have the same hold as the first two. It’s too long and drawn out without a whole lot of meaty story. There’s backstory on Aerynn and Sugar Maple and fake vs Magic’s but somehow it just comes across as boring. Even the battle scene is dull. And when it was all over I’m not quite sure what was accomplished. Chloe supposedly lost Sugar Maple for loving Luke and then his daughter “more than the town� (talk about subjective measure) but in the climatic scene that’s exactly what she did again yet somehow, someway “won�? It made no sense. The part after that made some sense in terms of leadership but the whole story just didn’t mesh for me.
After a big battle with her Fae enemy, Isadora, Chloe Hobbs and the human love of her life, Luke MacKenzie, return to their town of Sugar Maple, Vermont. Only... it is not there! The whole town has completely disappeared. It is like it never existed. Chloe, Luke, Chloe's closest friend Janice, and Penny the cat embark to Salem, MA to look for clues and answers. Modern and newbie sorceress meets up with Old World magic that is strong, complex and deadly. Secrets are unveiled while the trio races to bring Sugar Maple and it inhabitants back to this dimension. This was an exciting installment to the series. As with the previous books, I had a hard time putting this one down.
I found the first book quite by accident but searching out books 2&3 was no accident at all. I'm invested in these characters and I'm invested in this town. I love how human the feelings are all written. I'm going to recommend this book to my family and friends!
This got silly. Even for a piece of fluffy knitfic. It just...got silly. I still liked it, and I'll still read the next book but it wasn't quite as enchanting as the previous two.