Wayward (The Witch Wars Saga, #1)
Born without magic, seventeen-year-old Helena “Hex” Wayward is an embarrassment to her power-hungry relatives.
As the weakest member of the world’s most deadly magical family, Hex learns early how to avoid confrontation. There’s no defending herself against an errant curse or the pit-demon that her cousins like to summon during family reunions.
When the dark magic inside of her — magic that she never dreamt even existed — erupts in a violent display, it kills a member of a rival family. Now, Hex’s family hopes to use her magic for their own sinister purposes and their enemies just want her dead. Abandoning her magic will leave Hex defenseless but she’s seen how quickly power corrupts even the best intentions.
She has to make a choice:
Save her life or save her soul.
In of itself, the story is interesting. It’s about witches, the most powerful witch – Wayward – to be exact, who doesn’t agree to use her powers at all, never mind for evil. However, she’s being forced into it by a deal she can’t refuse. I love witches, them and necromancers are probably my favourite supernatural beings, but I found this one fell a bit flat and had a lot of inconsistencies.
For starters, I didn’t understand why Wayward refused to use her powers, especially when it came to defending herself in a fight. Would someone know if she used them? Then why would she use magic to make a girl choke just cause she didn’t like her? I didn’t understand. Then there was her family – her siblings. Why was she so afraid of them? What was Marco planning to do to Sam? She was saying “eat her”… was that literal? Is he a witch or a vampire? Huh!!? o_O
The most prominent factor that I’ll call a flaw, is that the villain wasn’t very villainy. I wasn’t afraid of him – or understood why Wayward was either. We’re told he runs the Blooded – powerful beings that kill witches who tell humans about the magic – but we’re never really made to be afraid of the Blooded, so why am I supposed to be afraid of Valentine again? I thought he was fairly sweet at the beginning. It also wasn’t made clear if she hated him or secretly loved him.
Those were the biggest issues I had with the book. I did like the protagonist, Wayward, and the romance in the story. Wayward is a really likeable character. She wasn’t full of herself or dumb. She knew what was going on and she didn’t let anyone walk all over her. For the romance, I liked how it was realistic. It wasn’t love at first sight or perfect from the get-go. It was normal, awkward high school romance; cute and sweet.
It wasn’t horrible, it just never really captivated me. I was also let down by the ending and lack of deep plot development. If you really enjoy witches, you may still want to give it a try. You never know.
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| 2/5 hot espressos |
“In My Mailbox” is a meme, created by Kristi at The Story Siren, that features books I’ve received/purchased/borrowed during the current week. Let’s see what I got this week. (click on images for Goodreads synopsis)
I have received for review: I have gotten from giveaways: Freebie on Smashword: I am actually off to go shopping for books bright and early tomorrow morning: My favorite thing to do when I’m not reading! I will feature those next week. What did you get this week?
Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days, #1) Susan Ee First published May 21st, 2011
It’s been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.
Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.
Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.
Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels’ stronghold…
This week’s hot releases
Fresh Batch features some of the hottest releases this upcoming week. These are exclusively chosen by Giselle.
Flavour of the week:
Lola and the Boy Next Door Stephanie Perkins
Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn’t believe in fashion . . . she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit — more sparkly, more fun, more wild — the better. But even though Lola’s style is outrageous, she’s a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood.When Cricket — a gifted…
The Willows: Haven (The Willows, #1) Hope Collier First published September 13th, 2011
When tragedy strikes, seventeen year-old Ashton Blake sets out on a cross-country road trip, leaving the comforts of Malibu for the mountains of Kentucky. Along the way, she encounters Gabe Willoughby—the mysterious drifter with eyes like the sea and a knowing smile. Getting to know Gabe raises questions about her past. But no secret can be buried forever, and Ashton soon finders herself in a world where water is air and myth becomes reality.
Just as Ashton comes to accept her newfound heritage, she’s summoned to fulfill a treaty laid down centuries before — a treaty that will divide her love and test her loyalty. In the end, her future isn’t her biggest concern, her humanity is….
First Grave on the Right (Charley Davidson, #1) Darynda Jones First published February 1st, 2011
Charley sees dead people. That’s right, she sees dead people. And it’s her job to convince them to ‘go into the light’. But when these very dead people have died under less than ideal circumstances (i.e. murder), sometimes they want Charley to bring the bad guys to justice. Complicating matters are the intensely hot dreams she’s been having about an Entity who has been following her all her life…and it turns out he might not be dead after all. In fact, he might be something else entirely.
“You rented the apartment with a dead guy in the corner?” I shrugged. “I wanted the apartment, and I figured I could cover him up with a…
Blood Magic (Blood Journals, #1)Tessa GrattonFirst published May 24th, 2011
For Nick Pardee and Silla Kennicot, the cemetery is the center of everything.
Nick is a city boy angry at being forced to move back to the nowhere town of Yaleylah, Missouri where he grew up. He can’t help remembering his mom and the blood magic she practiced – memories he’s tried for five years to escape. Silla, though, doesn’t want to forget; her parents’ apparent murder-suicide left her numb and needing answers. When a book of magic spells in her dad’s handwriting appears on her doorstep, she sees her chance to unravel the mystery of their deaths.
Together they plunge into the world of dark magic, but when a hundred-year-old blood witch comes hunting for the bones of Silla’s…
Giveaway is now CLOSED. Winner is Ashley of Book Labyrinth.
Very happy to have reached 100 followers already. I love my fellow bloggers, and since you’re all so awesome, I’m giving away an ARC of Legend to celebrate. It’s a great dystopian novel by author Marie Lu. Check out my review here.
Release date: November 29th, 2011
Details:Open internationally!Must be a GFC followerUse the Rafflecopter below to enter.
Make sure to check out my other giveaways. Thanks so much for following my blog! Giselle
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