If Lucifer is capable of true love, is he really such a bad guy? Misty Evans’ Witches Anonymous series keeps teasing me with that question.  Jingle Hells is the second book in the series, and I’m having even more fun following Amy Atwood’s adventures in the town of Eden, as she tries to resist Luc’s charms and stay true to her vow of “no more magic”.

Amy’s boyfriend, Adam the actual first man, is off on a trip to the Middle East to find the location of the Garden of Eden. Amy is lonely for Christmas, and her ex, that old devil Lucifer himself, would just love to worm his way back into Amy’s bed, and into her heart. The fact that Luc really is thinking about Amy’s heart makes me think that Luc isn’t such a bad guy after all, which is a very strange thing to say about Satan. Even romantically speaking.

But while Adam is out of town, Amy has a whole bunch of otherworldly visitors–also of biblical origins. For a girl who has already sold her soul to the Devil, Amy is suddenly receiving an awful lot of signs from the godly side of the street. First both Samson and Delilah burst into her ice cream shop wanting her to solve their millenia-old lover’s squabble. Then two bands of angels arrive, one from above, one from below. And get this, it’s the so-called “good” guys who want to keep Samson and Dee apart! And then there’s this cat…and Luc arranges for a delivery of the Bible, with instructions for Amy to read Genesis, just before Adam returns from his trip.

If you read the last book, you might remember that Amy’s sister Emilia started everything by getting luring Luc into her bed. Well, she’s back. And it’s all her fault.

Java Brownie Chip ice cream is the cure-all for breaking up with your boyfriend. There’s a liberal application of it required in this story.

Escape Rating B: This is fun stuff. I like Amy. She’s someone I’d want to have coffee with. Or better yet, some of that ice cream of hers. There was less of her Witches Anonymous group in this story, which was too bad, because some of them are hilarious, but more clarity about the folks in Amy’s personal life. I liked the backstory on how Amy met Luc, and where Keisha (her partner/coworker) fits into things. Adam’s role was much clearer.

Gabe, AKA Gabriel the manipulative Archangel, made a cameo appearance. He will clearly be back as the man/angel of mystery.

Emilia got off just a little too easy. She needs to feel some serious guilt and remorse for the mess she caused. I hope that comes in the next book, but right now, Emilia’s story feels a tad unfinished to me.

I like Luc more everytime he shows up. Which goes back to my original question. If the devil feels true love, how bad can he really be? Just bad enough to be really, really good?

Witches Anonymous, by Misty Evans, is almost as deliciously tempting as the Dove chocolate square that the main character keeps promising herself if she manages to resist all of the other temptations that keep getting thrown her way. Poor Amy, most of us find Dove chocolate difficult enough to resist!

Amy Atwood is the witch in Witches Anonymous, and we meet her as she is about to attend her first meeting of the self-help group. Yes, WA is modeled on AA, complete with 12-step program. Amy used to be perfectly okay with being a real, honest-to-badness witch–up until she caught Lucifer with his devilish hands (and other body parts) all over her sister Emilia.

Until Amy caught them in the act, Emilia had always been the “good” witch, and Amy had always been the “bad” witch. Now the tables are turned. Emilia has turned to the dark side, and Amy has sworn off cursing and hexing and all spell casting. Because as everyone knows, one spell leads to another, and once you start down that slippery slope, it leads right back to having Lucifer in her bed, and Amy is through with him. If he wants Emilia, he can have Emilia. He only gets one sister. Period.

But at her first WA meeting, Amy meets Adam on her way in. Adam, tattooed, Harley-riding, Adam, looks like more than enough “bad boy” to keep Amy happy, even if he is only human.

But nothing is quite as simple as it seems. Adam really is Adam. As in Adam and Eve. That Adam. And the Archangel Gabriel has arranged for him to re-enact that original temptation, with Amy cast in the role of Eve. Gabe is hoping that Adam will resist this time, and that Gabe will get to play God in Eden, the revised edition. But Lucifer has other plans. You see, he really is in love with Amy, and he wants her back. Bad. But can a devil who truly loves actually be all bad?

And Amy’s formerly goodie-two-shoes sister? She really is kind of a demon.

Escape Rating B-: Oooh this was fun! Witches Anonymous is mind candy of the purest form. Which is a really good thing. I giggled all through dinner reading it. This is a “put your ereader in a baggie and read in the bathtub” book. I liked Amy a lot. She’s a fun character. I got less of a handle on Adam, or Luc. I was never quite sure how much Adam, the Harley-riding firefighter, knew about his role as Adam, the first man and possible resetter of the cosmic balance.

But I loved that Gabriel, the angel, was actually the bad guy and Lucifer was actually the good guy. Very cool.