Editor’s World Review
by J. Lee Moffatt
   
       

Anya Bast - Elemental Witch Series

I am not a lover of romance books. It’s been a long, long time since I found one remotely interesting or exciting. The formula for romance just bored me, and eventually not even the sex kept me reading. I’ve been known to toss an “urban fantasy” the minute it crosses into “paranormal romance” territory.

But then I met Anya Bast. The woman was so nice, so genuine and so generous that I felt like a bitch for not reading her books. Anya is a class act.


So I dove in and grabbed the Chosen Sin to start since it was about vampires. I love vampires, and I figured I could get past the romance parts. It’s billed as erotic fantasy. And erotic it is. Her twist on the vampire myth was original but not too far out there. It was fun. Anya created a futuristic world – a bit like vampire meets Firefly – and wrote a book that I flat out loved.

After enjoying the hell out of the Chosen Sin, I slipped my toes into the waters of the Elemental Witch books. These are billed as paranormal romance, so I was prepared to force feed myself the books. But I didn’t have to. They were brilliant.

Anya created a world that is just a few steps through the mirror away from our own. The Witches and Warlocks are in a constant, yet covert, battle for power and control of the world.

The Witches and Warlocks are born to their gifts with an affinity to one of the four elements – fire, air, water and earth. The Warlocks use dark magic to make deals with demons, and they are ruthless in their pursuit of power. Anya’s spin on what gifts each element shares and how her witches use them are unique and best of all they make sense. I didn’t feel the need to press the “I believe” button at all.

The characters are all vibrant as well. They aren’t cookie cutter boring puppets that have been moved from one stage to another. They are all different with pasts that have molded them into complex interesting creatures. Each book is centered a new pair of Witches who must fight to survive and save each other from the darkness.

And then there’s the sex. I asked Anya once how someone so sweet could write such dirty things and she laughed. Because trust me on this, Anya Bast writes the best erotica I’ve ever read, and there isn’t a lot of difference between the sex in the Chosen Sin and the sex in the Elemental Witches except for a few sex toys and the C-Word. The sex in the Elemental Witches is hot, charged with emotion and it can happen anywhere. It is a part of the story and the characters. It isn’t just thrown in there gratuitously. It matters, and it’s fun.

The fourth book to the Elemental Witches - Witch Fury - is available for preorder from Amazon.com. It comes out June 2, 2009.
 
 
 
  Anya Bast is the author of numerous works of romantic fiction, mostly all paranormal and mostly all scorching hot. She lives in the country with her husband, daughter, eight cats, a dog, and an odd assortment of rescued animals.

She grew up in Minnesota and still favors the colder climates. After high school she moved to the southeast United States where she attended college. While in graduate school she sold her first book and decide to pursue her lifelong dream of writing instead of a career in psychology.

 

Somewhat reclusive by nature, she can be drawn out with a good bottle of red wine, classic movies, or good music. When she’s not writing, she can be found trying to grow organic vegetables, shopping in thrift stores for that perfect piece of clothing, or dreaming about travel to some faraway country.
 
 
 
 
 
     
   
 
 

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