Flipping the Bird by Carrie Pulkinen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Carrie Pulkinen’s paranormal romance novel Flipping The Bird is an enchanting tale set in a small town called Shift Creek. The town received its name from the magical creek that reversed its flow on the full moon. The inhabitants of the town are magical beings that can shift to an animal form, like Alice’s ability to become a crow and her friend’s ability to change to a raccoon. Unfortunately the creek is in jeopardy as the warlock that enchanted the water is dead and only his family bloodline of Rainecourts can manage the creek. Sadly, his two known sons think very little of the town and refuse to help. One day a new inhabitant of the abandoned Rainecourt mansion appears. Donovan Drake automatically attracts Alice and she changes to her crow form to investigate who he is. She sees he has a talking mongoose familiar and she automatically assumes he is a warlock. When she leaves from his balcony she picks up a shiny green amulet from his trash can. Little does she know that the amulet is a necessity for Donovan as his magic powers are locked and he has less than a month to prevent losing them forever. Donovan runs into Alice at her store and both immediately feel a connection. The remainder of the book shows the building of a romantic relationship between the two. Does Donovan show his true issue with his powers and his heritage? Does Alice discover the power held in the amulet? Will Shift Creek lose its magic powers and disappear?

I found that Flipping The Bird was a very quick read as I finished it in one sitting. The explicit sexual content as well as the profanity makes this story for mature readers. I enjoyed the witty humor that Pulkinen included with the story. The ending of the story was an unexpected one but I felt that it was a bit rushed. I would have liked the descriptions of the scenery to be more thorough and the dialogue to have been better developed. I did like the overall story but wished the book was longer.

View all my reviews