Finding Your Mojo [Mass Market Paperback]

After her father was murdered and she and her mother were ushered into Witness Protection, Lorey has always longed to reconnect with her lost teen lover, Zane Riley. Now an adult, and answering to the name Gloria, she has just taken over a law practice in the small Louisiana town of Mojo. Imagine her shock when her law clerk suddenly dies after she handles a voodoo doll, and she is introduced to the new police chief, none other than Zane. The quirky town of Mojo is filled with folks who believe in voodoo and consult tarot cards. Gloria finds herself falling for Zane all over, particularly when she learns what drove him to pursue a career in law enforcement. When she learns that the culprit behind her father's murder is getting a new trial, it becomes imperative to bring Gloria and her mother in, but mom left WITSEC years earlier and she has no idea how to locate her. Besides, a budding romance with her first love is in full bloom. When Zane discovers her true identity, will it be the end of their new beginning?

Bond has a great ability of combining humor, intrigue and romance to tell a refreshing story. This is the second in a 2-book series (In Deep Voodoo), and readers who have not read the first might be a little confused at times; since I read them out of order, I am looking forward to getting the first one. The story is fun, engaging, and has some great dialogue.

Over a dozen years ago Lorey Lawson had been a normal teenager living a normal life in Mojo, Louisiana. It all changed one night when a hitman broke into the house and killed her father in cold blood. The assassin told them that if Maggie (Lorey's mother) testified in a racketeering and money laundering case against Bernard Riaz, someone would return to finish the job. Maggie and Lorey disappeared into the WITSEC program.

Gloria Dalton arrives in Mojo to open her attorney's office. The previous attorney is now deceased and Mojo is happy to receive a new lawyer in the area. Gloria meets Marie Gaston, acting as the Welcome Wagon, and hardly has time to say a thank you before a vehicle comes crashing through the glass window.

Gloria is shaken when she learns that her new paralegal, Steven Chasen, died en route to the hospital. She is more unnerved to find that the new police chief is Zane Riley, the boyfriend she had when she had to disappear all those years ago. Zane changed during Gloria's time away. Zane has hardened to the world and deals only with facts. Gloria shows him a voodoo doll that had arrived earlier, dressed just like Steven, but Zane blows it off since he does not believe in voodoo.

But more dolls appear, followed by dead bodies, and Gloria seems to always be around when someone dies. Zane believes Gloria a suspect, no matter how attracted he is to her. Gloria believes that Riaz's thugs have found her again.

**** Author Stephanie Bond takes her readers back to Mojo, Louisiana, for another visit with the colorful locals. Mystery, romance, comedy, and a bit of suspense blends together to create a delightful story that will chase boredom out of your life, at least temporarily. ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

This was a book I had an incredibly hard time getting through. Usually I can finish a book in like 1.5-2 days, but this took me about 5 days. It was just chock full of problems and not all that interesting. I was really tempted to just stop reading and chuck it back on my bookshelf.

There were a number of critical problems in this book, and right off the bat, I had issues. The book ties in with Bond's previous novel "In Deep Voodoo" in that it takes place in the same town, has common characters, and some minor plot tie-ins. I love connected books; they are some of my favorite's to read. But I hadn't read the 1st book in the series when I started this one, and it ended up being a problem. Bond constantly references the previous story, but with glancing mentions about events. She never bothers to do a couple paragraph summary of the plot of that book, which makes things extremely confusing. You keep hearing about this and that happening and wondering "what are you talking about?" It really took away from the readability of the story when you're left in the dark about things. Bond made the mistake in assuming that anyone reading this book read the previous one. Connected books are great, but they also need to be able to stand solidly on their own. All she had to do was summarize in a couple paragraphs and all would have been fine. Without those paragraphs, the story just...suffers.

A bigger issue for me with the book, though, was the fact that Bond focused utterly and completely on the Gloria POV. The whole entire story is solely focused on Gloria, her thoughts, actions, etc. She never once goes into Zane's perspective. It left the story very one-sided with the reader unable to relate to Zane. It made it seem like he was just some guy, rather than the hero of the story. As a reader, I really wanted his perspective, but it never came and it made the romance and story overall a bit flat and dull. Why Bond chose to go this route, I don't know. I can't think of another romance book I've read that had only 1 POV.

Aside from those 2 things, there were smaller issues. There were way too many extraneous characters and I kept forgetting who was who. I didn't believe some of the Witness Protection aspects; they just didn't work for me. The storyline goes every which way with like a million different things happening that just cluttered up the story. And the ending was really trite.

All in all, just a thoroughly lackluster book that wasn't in the least worth reading. But if you should want to give it a try, make sure to read the other book in the series first.

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