Witch Way
This review appears here: http://www.guyvestal.com/home/2014/09/witch-way-review/ as well as Amazon.From the publisher:
"Evil isn't something you are, it's something you become."
Jessica O'Rourke is learning the dangers that young witches face when dabbling in not-so-good magic for personal gain. All of the women in Jessie's family are witches. Not the kind of witches that fly on brooms or cast spells with pointed sticks. They're the kind of witches that Jessie's mother called practical witches-that is, until she got killed.
This book is a lesson in book cover importance.
I came into this with average expectations. I liked the cover, and so did just about anyone I had exposed it to around the internet, and here in memes.
If you liked the television series "Charmed", you will recognize a lot of the character, plot, and world building.
The star of the show, "Jesse" is a teen who goes through the normal trials and tribulations of having to mature much too quickly, having her father brutally murder her mother, then to find herself a ward within the system in California, to eventually be allowed to have herself placed under the guardianship of her aunt Rhiannon, who resides with her younger sisters, and a small child of one of them.
Jesse befriends the small child in particular, and the relationship progresses to being more intimate than the older aunts, which is plausible, seeing as "Maybelly" is the only one with an existing Mother, ergo she is drawn to her.
The Charmed theme rings loud and clear here.
-Dead Mother
-Dead Grandmother
-Sisters
-Sister Commercial Business Interest
-Sisters Fighting Warlocks
-House and Sacred Space focus
-Law Enforcement Privy to Secrets
-Good vs. Evil overfocus
Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and being a fan of Charmed, it did bring about quite a bit of comfortable familiarity.
Problem is that it is slow to start, but picks up quickly enough, then paces naturally until the end, where the character, plot, and world building come to a painfully screeching halt, and a few small chapters are used to lightning fast bring everything to an unsatisfying close, with an attempt of using some remaining page space, and an epilogue to tie up the many loose ends left behind from a chaotically short, "wrap-up".
I was doing fine, and the book was moving at a four star pace until the end, then it dropped to three stars, and I really stopped giving a damn about the final pages afterwards, that really never accomplished the job of closure.
I paid $11.69 at Amazon, and the material itself was of average quality, nothing spectacular in quality, a bit overpriced when I purchased it, and quite overpriced in retrospect. The type is clear, the ink is dark, and there were maybe 3-4 editing errors at most. The cover was enticing, and looked very well when seen in person. The book folded and read well, the binding held up nicely.
