Reviewed by Donna
TITLE: Witchy Boys: Sexy St
ories for Dark Nights
AUTHOR: Katey Hawthorne
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 64 Pages
RELEASE DATE: October 18, 2016
BLURB:
Just in time for Halloween! Two novelettes about men with magic—and the occasional demon.
“Blood Magic and the Mini Zombie Apocalypse”
Griff has a bad habit of getting talked into black magic he shouldn’t be using—but this time it’s even worse. His ex is bent on revenge in the form of a mini zombie apocalypse, and the only person who can help Griff is a hottie white magic practitioner named Blythe. The catch: one of Griff’s spells gone wrong left Blythe with a haunted apartment a year ago, and Blythe isn’t over it.
Still, Blythe agrees to work with Griff. As they unravel the ugly blood, sex, and death magic, they also discover surprising things about each other. Hopefully, it’s enough for the ultimate trust they’ll need to defeat a lot of zombies and a crazed witch, or their town will end up covered in corpses.
“Præsidium”
Six years ago, Thackeray agreed to let a demon haunt him in exchange for help hunting other demons. It’s a lonely life, but worth it to be the best demon hunter possible — to save families from the kind of evil that ruined his own childhood.
This Hallowe’en, Thackeray’s dealing with an upstart coven. A powerful, pretty witch named Matt defects to help Thackeray stop their scheme to invite god-knows-what from the other side.
Demons are much easier to fight than the urges Matt’s flirting inspires. But Thackeray can’t hook up with a demon watching over his shoulder… can he?
REVIEW:
These were both fun, fast and creepy reads. Just right for the Halloween season. First was Blood Magic and the Mini Zombie Apocalypse – with a title almost as long as the short story itself. A year ago, Griff and his psycho girlfriend, Cathy, performed a sex and blood ritual that has been maturing and building power just waiting for Cath to put it to use. Luckily for Griff, he had the sense to research the ritual to find out just what his exe was up to. Better late than never, right? When he discovers that the spell is actually a way to raise the dead so Cath can command an army of zombies, he goes to the one man he knows can help. Do-gooder, white magic practitioner, Blythe.
I guess I should have expected to be thrown straight into the action, considering the short length of these stories, but it really did feel like the story was just thrown right in my face, and it took me a little while to become comfortable with it. I enjoyed the interaction between Griff and Blythe and the sex, well, that pretty much set my kindle on fire. The author did a great job of matching these men up instantly and dropping them straight into some scorching sex. Usually I’d be wondering how it could all happen so fast, but the entire short story had a sense of urgency about it (well, yeah, zombie apocalypse!) and anything the author rushed along fit neatly within the overall pace.
Second was Præsidium, again with the good witch vs bad witch theme, but this time we had a demon thrown in for extra fun. For six years Thackeray has had no relationships of the intimate variety due to the fact that he has a demon haunting his every move. Thackeray agreed to this haunting in return for the demon’s help in fighting others of his kind. And Thackeray doesn’t regret it, except when he meets a cute and nerdy witch like Matt, who has to be off limits unless they want to put on a salacious show for Thackeray’s demon companion, Seir.
This story lacked the conflict of the first story. Yes, there were some pesky witches getting up to no good, but that was resolved easily and pretty much off page. This one was more about the two men’s attraction to each other and overcoming the obstacle that was Seir. Actually, my favourite part of this short story was the snarky, over opinionated demon. I think I could happily read this short as a full-length novel and still not get enough of Seir.
For readers that enjoy witchy, paranormal tales, this book may be just right for you.
RATING: 
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