Switching Hour by Robyn Peterman

First off if "language" in a book offends then move on right by this one.  Our heroine, Zelda, has what might be termed a potty mouth and unleashes it frequently.  So, if this is a problem for you then steer clear.  Personally, it really doesn't bother me (I could go in to a long diatribe about it all but I promise to refrain) and, in actual fact, the author does manage to squeeze some rather creative sweariness in there - just needed a couple of portmanteaued cusses and it would have reached the zenith of foul mouthed fun. 

There's the thing it is FUN, from start to finish there is a lot of humour in this short tale.  Yes a lot of it is a little broad and has a tendency to club your over the head rather than tap you on the shoulder but it's all good.  Subtle this book isn't but then, Zelda isn't exactly a proponent of subtle herself.  The thing that did annoy me was the constant and ever changing nicknames Zelda gave to Baba Yaga, the first couple of times it was blah by the end of the book I was ready to either strangle the character or punch her full in the face every time it happened.

There are also a surprising number of, ahem, erotic encounters, in the book.  Now, these are what usually puts me off a book - constant cursing no problemo, getting down and dirty makes me cringe.  Fortunately for this reader although there is a fair bit of horizontal action it is not graphic details more of an overview of the shared character experience and it did seem to actually make sense within the context of the story and not just pushed in to titillate.

The plot whizzes by, barely giving the reader time to draw breath.  In summary - Zelda is released from magical pokey after running over her familiar, the Witches Council (headed by Baba Yaga) give until Halloween to complete their challenge or she will lose her powers.  Finding out she had an Aunt Hildy who died, violently, and left Zelda her house she sets off to claim her inheritance and hopefully keep her powers.  Things start to really get strange when she arrives at an almost ghost town with rotting vegetables in the local grocery and strange cages in her Aunt Hildy's basement.  Throw in a reanimated familiar (still has 6 lives left) with a nice line in credit card fraud, some decidedly un-Snow White wild animals who camp out on Zelda's porch and mix with a healthy dose of pop culture and you more or less have Switching Hour.

Rude, obnoxious, self-absorbed and very funny; this book is the personality of it's heroine through and through.  Almost despite myself I found myself really enjoying the read and I am now toying with getting the next in the series.