Book review: White Witch by Trish Milburn

Title: White Witch (Book 1 of the Coven Series)

Author: Trish Milburn

Publisher: Bell Bridge Books

Release Date: 03/01/2012

ISBN: 9781611940831

Witchcraft Is Her Family's Business.
No One Quits The Family And Lives To Tell About It.

"Jax" Pherson has power, enough power to know her future will end in service to the dark coven her father controls. Unless she can stay hidden in a small community in the mountains of North Carolina. She must find a way to live without magic and deny the darkness she feels welling up inside her-the same dark power that fuels the covens around the world.

All she wants is a normal life. A boyfriend. Friends. Some place to belong, but all too soon Jax's barely begun new life hangs in the balance when she discovers that the boy she's attracted to is sworn to kill her kind. He's a hunter with good reason to kill everything that goes bump in the night.

Even the most fleeting use of her power is tantamount to signing her death warrant and will bring both hunter and coven down on her. But can she walk away when her friends are threatened by an old evil? Something created by the magic of witches? Jax's only hope of survival is to convince the boy she loves to forget everything he's ever been taught and help her find a way to fight the covens. To believe there is some good in her.

I have to say that while this book wasn't perfect, it was insanely fun to read. A lot of the trends for witch books have been to cast witches as poor misunderstood groups with factions who "just" misuse their powers. This book has witches who appear to have deliberately tainted their magic with darkness and are very much the epitome of evil witch. Minus the ugly part, though. Apparently one of the bennies of being twisted around is that you all look drop dead gorgeous.

One of the things that this book has going for it is that while there's a lot (and I mean a LOT) of familiar literary tropes in here, Milburn has such an addicting writing style that you really don't care that you've seen similar versions of this story before. The characters here are easy to like, but I'll admit that it's the secondary characters of Stacy and Toni that I really got hooked on to. I loved Toni because she had the most description (plus she's a Whedon fan) and Stacy was fun because well, it's always fun to have a snotty mean girl around.

I did like the sparks and chemistry between our main character Jax and her love interest Kellan, although part of me does feel that it's more lust driven at times than romantically driven. Don't get me wrong, they do make an excellent couple but I just couldn't see the "OMG love" development until later in the book. Since there's at least two more books for this, I figure that there's enough time to have the relationship develop past the extremes and have more scenes that are more tender and less action or lust driven scenes. This I sort of think was a result of the book moving so insanely fast. Milburn has the book progressing at a pretty fast pace, with me wishing that some things (such as the romance and more background info on Jax and the covens) were given more screen time to develop.

Overall this was a blast to read and if you're a fan of books like Tiernan's Sweep, you'll probably like White Witch. It's well worth purchasing, in my opinion. There's enough here to make me seriously long for the next two books in the series.

4 out of 5 stars

(Arc provided by Netgalley)

Book Review: A Perfect Blood by Kim Harrison

Title: A Perfect Blood (Hollows #10)
Author: Kim Harrison
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Release Date: 02/21/2012
ISBN: 0061957895







It's coming down to the wire now, folks. After this book there's only 2 more books left to the series, with the potential of a bonus book afterwards. I ended up getting this through eBay and I have to say, it was money well spent. Harrison is worth spending money on.

Ritually murdered corpses are appearing across Cincinnati, terrifying amalgams of human and other. Pulled in to help investigate by the FIB, former witch turned day-walking demon Rachel Morgan soon realizes a horrifying truth — a would-be creator is determined to make his (or her) own demons. But it can’t be done without Rachel’s blood.

As a bounty hunter, Rachel has battled vampires, witches, werewolves, demons, and more. But humanity itself might be her toughest challenge.

Things are heating up in this book and I mean that in multiple ways. First off, the tensions between the Inderlanders and certain factions of humanity are heating up. There's always been a portion of humanity that hated the Inderlanders and wanted them wiped off the face of the earth, so it's no surprise that Harrison would eventually revisit this idea. What's being done in this book is actually pretty chilling, and HAPA (Humans Against Paranormals Association) is a pretty lethal force here. I've never wanted to reach through a book and slug someone as much as I did in this book.

Secondly, things are heating up between Trent and Rachel. I know that none of us forgot the kiss from Pale Demon, and neither has Rachel. Her hormones are kicking in big time, but I'll warn you: there's not a lot of progress on this front in either direction, but then any progress is good progress. I have a feeling that whatever might ultimately come out of this relationship, it'll probably happen in book 12 and not a page sooner. There is some friendship brewing here, which is good since Rach needs someone who can keep up with her and understand where she's coming from. But regardless of whether or not they end up in a relationship, the tension between the two is so palpable that I'm beginning to think that they'll have to end up in bed together just to relieve it and get it over with. However, there's also the introduction of another potential interest in this book, although I'm not sure what chances he'll have against the Rachel/Trent combo. (Then again, I'm a fangirl of Rachel and Trent, so I tend to think this way about any other guy that comes into her life.)

There's a definite feel of loose ends beginning to get tied up and it's a good feeling. Harrison might have had a bit of a slump mid-series, but this is the Hollows that I fell in love with early on in the series and couldn't get enough of. It's good enough to make me want to re-read the series and is a worthy successor to Pale Demon. Oh, and the minor characters in this book rock. Hard. We finally see Rachel get her pack tattoo (a mild spoiler, but one we all knew was coming) and her tattoo artist is interesting enough to get a spinoff book of her own. (A tattoo artist that works on Inderlanders and humans? There's some material for you right there!)

And before anyone asks, yes Al is in this book. And of course he's awesome. Al is always awesome, even when you want to punt kick him across the room. His interactions with Rachel- and especially his last actions of the book- make me wonder where Harrison is going to go with his character next. There's a lot of potential here for him to be bad in the future, all with incredibly interesting results. I honestly can't wait for the next book to come out so I can see what'll happen next.

If you loved the last book, you'll really love this one. It's a fun ride and I had a blast reading this book.

5 out of 5 stars

Book Review: The Dark Glamour by Gabriella Pierce

Title: The Dark Glamour

Author: Gabriella Pierce

Publisher: HarperCollins

Release Date: 09/06/2011

ISBN:0061434906

When I read the first book I was a little confused as to how to classify this book. It isn't what I'd classify as chick-lit but it isn't exactly an urban fantasy or a paranormal romance. After I finished the second book I'm only slightly less clueless as to which genre I'd shelve this in, but the most important reaction is still the same: this is a very fun series to read.

Jane Boyle married her prince charming and moved into his upper east side castle—but she didn’t get her fairy-tale ending

It’s hard to live happily ever after when you discover your demanding and controlling mother-in-law is literally a witch, determined to steal the magical powers you didn’t even know you had. Jane narrowly avoided Lynne Doran’s clutches when she escaped on her wedding day, and has been hiding out in New York City. But she can’t hide forever.

When Jane learns of the one thing Lynne wants most, she sets out to provide it, hoping her good turn will persuade her mother-in-law to stop hunting her. Unfortunately, Jane’s daring plan will send her right back into the witches’ den—the Doran clan’s multistory town house on Park Avenue. But thanks to a tricky spell, blond architect Jane will be transformed into Ella, a dark beauty with a whole new look . . . and all of Jane’s budding powers. Though the stakes are life or death, nobody said “Ella” couldn’t have a little fun along the way, too.

This isn't exactly a dark and gritty read, but neither is it as light and fluffy as I was expecting it to be. We have the wonderfully luxurious wish fulfillment of being able to live vicariously through Jane but then we also have moments where Jane takes on her new persona with reckless abandon. I was a bit surprised to see the lengths she goes to (and the people she takes up with) in order to get back into the house of Doran. While Jane isn't exactly doing anything absolutely horrible, it is a little bit out of the norm for books in the chick-lit or general paranormal romance genre. It does make sense though- she's fighting for her life. Jane can't afford to be prudish.

Pierce has found a decent rhythm in her second book. She's beginning to shake off the "new author" awkwardness and is becoming more confident and familiar with her style. While parts of the book are disappointingly predictable (I was able to see the big surprises coming a mile away), there are a lot of good interactions between the characters and I absolutely loved how Pierce portrayed Jane's reaction to having a completely different form. The descriptions here are very well done, helping to set each scene nicely.

This book improved on the last one but those who weren't able to get overly into the last one will probably want to stick to getting this from the library. For those who loved the first book, this will be an absolute "must buy". It's fluffy fare, but darnit... it's good fluffy fare, the type you curl up with on the beach or on a rainy day.

3.5 out of 5 stars

(ARC provided by Netgalley)