Wytch Fury by Anya Bast

Sarafina Connell is a corporate data entry drone whose had the suckiest life ever. After her religious freak mother burned herself to death after attempting to kill Sarafina- who she was utterly convinced had the fire and evil of the devil buried deep inside her, she was dumped into the foster care system and shuttled from home to home.

Finally finding a woman who loved her and took care of her, Sarafina grew up still scarred by her past. When her foster mother dies, she is kidnapped from her home shortly after attending the funeral, along with her dog, Grosset, by Stefan Faucheux, the multimillionaire financier and wild child. Drugged, she is whisked from her home and to a small farmhouse in the middle of nowhere.

There, Stefan tries to convince Sarafina that her mother was right. Sarafina does have demonic blood and fire in her, for she is a witch and partly demon-blooded, the offspring of past liasons between humans and beings from another world called Eudae. Now, Stefan wants Sarafina to join his rogue witches, who do not countenance the magic they have being used against unpowered normals, and rule the world over the normal humans without magic.

Sarafina thinks that Stefan is crazy, but is more surprised than anything when he pulls her magic to the surface, and it takes the form of a ball of fire. But before she can tell him to go to hell, the farmhouse is attacked by the Coven, a group of witches who only use their magic for good. Sarafina and Stefan are captured, and her presence in Stefan's company makes her look like she is on his side. She is interrogated by Theo, an earth witch who is one of the most powerful earth witches in the Coven. He finds her enchanting and desireable, but doesn't want to fall into her clutches... until he finds out that she's a kidnap victim and barely even knows what a witch is- except for what Stephan told her.

Sarafina would like nothing more than to get out of the too-tempting Theo's clutches and back into her real life, but there is a Eudae named Bai who wants her for his own, and without the aid of either Stefan or Theo, she'll be all to easy for Bai to get to. When Bai appears in her dreams, Theo takes her into his rooms at the coven to both teach her and keep her safe. Sarafina agrees- Theo is the only man she feels safe with, and the only one she trusts to teach her magic.

But Bai, one of the strongest kind of Demons, the Atrika, will not be denied- he wants Sarafina for his mate, to give him strong children. Sarafina feels there is no way in hell that she will let Bai touch her, but when Stefan escapes with the help of Bai, she is needed to go undercover in Stefan's organization and pretend to be on his side. Theo, with a magical disguise, accompanies her, but can he keep her safe from Bai and his fellow Atrika demons when there is a war brewing in Eudae involving the Atrika and the Ytraiyi? Can Sarafina and Theo keep their relationship secret from Bai, or will the discovery of their love and physical relationship cause the demon to kill Theo?

More important, can Sarafina and Theo save the coven from a treacherous attack by Stefan aimed at destroying the magic of the Coven and the witches who call it home? Is there any hope for the survival of the coven if the leaders lose the magic of their strongest witches for good? And will the Atrika kill the King of the Ytrayi and steal the mantle of Kingship over Eudae?

This last in the Witch series by Anya Bast sets up a huge magical conflict between the forces of the Coven and the Rogue witches led by Stefan. The Rogues have the Atrika on their side, and a magical bomb that can steal all the magic power from any witch it touches. So, is there any hope for the Coven witches to survive? Their leader, Thomas, turned down the offer of alliance with the Ytrayi when it was offered to him. Will that be the kind of mistake he'll be kicking himself for for the rest of his very short life?

I was rather disappointed in this book, because the events are all wrapped up in a single volume. The tipping point for the coven witches goes from probable defeat to overwhelming victory almost too quickly. After a good setup, the conflict before the end seemed lacking. The coven witches just won too easily, which, for me, took all the tension out of the book.

As a book, it's not bad. It's still readable, and if this wasn't patently the very last in the series, I might have enjoyed it more. But it seems as though the writer abruptly lost interest in the story and the series and just decided to end it all at once so stunningly and completely I felt like saying, "That's *it*?" Like a flying bird suffering a deadly heart attack, the book is soaring, then chokes and lands with a flat, dull "THUD" within a chapter or two of the ending. I was left disappointed.

I might recommend the others in this series, but not this book, which ends entirely too soon and shortly, as if the writer endured a sudden loss of interest right in the middle and didn't even have the heart to try any more. I'm sorry I had to endure this ending to the series. It deserved better. Much better.