Kamillia does not know she is a witch. One day as she is working on her book, Luca appears at her front door saying she must go with him, so the Mastema does not kill her. Luca takes her to her grandfather's where she starts to learn the truth about herself and her parents' deaths. While there she is attacked by a dark force. It is through her grandfather and Luca abilities that she is saved. Luca receives a sign, and they must go to Italy. This is not a place that Kamillia wants to go. When they arrive, she learns why they were sent here. Can she help? Can they defeat the darkness?

I am not sure I can say wholeheartedly that I enjoyed this story. It is dark. Yes, Luca and Kamillia love each other but the ending was unsatisfying for me. After all they went through to have it end like that is a letdown. I would have preferred a more positive ending, especially for Kamillia. I liked Kamillia and Luca. I liked that they had a back story, but their present story was more positive. I wish Ahti (kind of Luca's "boss") would have been able to make some changes to their present and future.

This was not a HEA in the way I am used to in romances. I would say it's an as good as it can be romance. ( )

Kamillia, the heroine of Kiki Howell’s A Modern Day Witch Hunt (eXcessica Publishing, 2009), is like a female version of Harry Potter, mixed with Sookie Stackhouse and Sarah Connor.

Kamillia, as far as she knows, is a fantasy writer. Like Harry Potter, she has no idea of her true powers. She’s a witch, just as her parents were. Like Harry, Kamillia lost her parents to an evil group of dark wizards. Like Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse, Kamillia can read minds, an ability that has made it difficult for her to fit in with others. Like Sookie, the orphaned Kamillia was raised by a fiercely honest, deeply beloved grandmother.

Luca, a Watcher who appears to be eternally twenty-five years old, was sent to protect her. This part of the story reminds me of Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor in the original Terminator movie. Like Kyle and Sarah, Luca and Kamillia are headed down an inevitable path of attraction. Unlike Kyle, Luca sees colorful auras swirling around human beings. He’s acutely sensitive to emotions, and the way human emotions affect the world around them.

The love scenes? Scorching, yet still achingly romantic and mystical. The sadness? Just as overwhelming. Although Luca and Kamillia feel an inexorable attraction to one another, his job as a Watcher, watching over the river of life, means he will inevitable have to leave her. When Kamillia and Luca must travel to Florence, Italy, they learn their lives have been linked for centuries. Are they destined to be star-crossed lovers for eternity, or will the universe finally let them be together? It will take a powerful kind of magic to right the wrongs that have been done to them, but Luca just might know a way. ( )

For a quick read, Modern Day Witch Hunt wasn't half bad. However, I can't say that it was my favorite either.

I think the main thing that lowered the rating for me was the lack of connection between the characters. I know, this is an 'erotica' novel, not straight romance. But, for me at least, romance is still a key part of erotica novels as well. Maybe the sex takes a front seat for a while, and it's much more explicit, but the romance should still be there. Right?

Despite this flaw, the writing in general was good. Howell does a nice job at describing the setting, allowing the writing to flow, et cetera. However, the one thing I would have liked a bit more detail on is the magical world this was set in. I wanted to know so much more about the 'Watchers', what they are, and especially a bit more about Luca's past. There's so much potential with this plot line, but it was like we only got a skim from the surface of it, when I wanted to submerge myself in the world instead. If this part of the book had been expanded a bit more, with a lot more details -- and characters too (really, I don't remember any besides h/hr!) -- I'm sure my rating would have gone up more.

Even though it was a novella (short novel), I felt like the basic plot for the book was a bit too rushed. The build up, the back ground information, it didn't quiet flow as smoothly as I would have liked. Maybe it would have worked out much better if this had been a full length novel instead.

BUT, I still liked the book, and I'll still look for Howell's future books. A few flaws here and there won't throw me off the author for good. And it could be that I was looking forward to more of a romance novel at the time that I picked this up-- it's an opinion only, so I can't say the problems I had with the book are completely the author's fault.

3 STARS! If you like to read erotica novels, then maybe you should put this one on your next wish list. A nice, quick read, Modern Day Witch Hunt manages to tease your interest, but in the end, it leaves you wanting more-- maybe a future book about the Watchers introduced in this one? If only Halloween wasn't over, I'd suggest this as a good one to read that night. ( )