A Witch in Love (Winter Trilogy #2) - Ruth Warburton
Grade: YA
Rating: 4/5 stars
Anna still finds it hard to believe that Seth loves her and has vowed to suppress her powers, no matter what.
But magic – like love – is uncontrollable. It spills out with terrible consequences, and soon, Anna is being hunted. (Description from Goodreads)
~ * ~ * ~
I've been reading a lot of witch books this year, so I was pretty excited to pick up 'A Witch in Love' - sequel to the magically awesome 'A Witch in Winter'. I think my expectations were a little high this time around, and there were parts that didn't quite meet up with them, but I really enjoyed the story and it left me with a lot to think about for the final book.
Anna Winterson is a witch. When she moved to the town of Winter the previous year she discovered hidden powers that have been plaguing her ever since; mostly because of her relationship with the incredibly gorgeous human - also known as an 'outwith' - Seth Waters. 'A Witch in Love' throws us straight back into their relationship dramas and spends a fair bit of the book focusing on it too. Anna and Seth have had a rocky courtship because of Anna's powers. After an accidental love spell brought the two of them together, Anna struggles to trust Seth's feelings for and it brings a fair bit of trouble to the table. I was never all that invested in their relationship. Seth just doesn’t do it for me. I think it’s cute how they seemed to want to love each other so much, but I also had trouble with the amount of time that was spent on the two of them, because I just can’t see the connection. However, the growing attention from Abe definitely caught my eye. He makes me smile more than Seth does – even though I’m almost certain nothing will come of it.
What I love about this book is that you’re never sure who the evil people are going to be. In the first book, we were introduced to the Ealdwitan (the magical governing body) – this time they don’t feature as much. I was concerned that we’d had this big build up for the enemy and then it was falling away to nothing. But no, they were just being replaced by a more troubling enemy. The Malleus Maleficorum, a human vigilante group responsible for the witch hunts of the past. And I thought magic would be the biggest problem for the series. It’s interesting to see the extreme opposite of what we saw in ‘A Witch in Winter’, the horrors of the non-magical society taking matters into their own hands. It makes me curious to see what will happen in the next book, because I feel like we haven’t seen the end of the Ealdwitan and the Malleus Maleficorum.
I was really looking forward to seeing more magic in this book. Despite the drama from the last book, and Anna’s promise to never use her powers around outwith again, I figured she’d be doing magic still – after all, she is a witch. But this book lacked planned magic. Almost everything was accidental. Anna tries so hard to hold her magic in that it pours out of her in unexpected times and causes considerable damage. Because of Anna’s unwillingness to learn how to control her magic, there wasn’t much of it explored in this book. It made me a little sad to have a powerful witch on the pages and only see her cause accidental drama. However, that changes towards the end of the book and I’ve got hope that the next story will bring a lot more magic.
‘A Witch in Love’ is very much a book of discovery for Anna. Discovering the truth about her relationship, discovering that she can’t repress her magic without consequences and most importantly discovering family. Anna’s mum has been missing for her whole life, and Anna’s knowledge of her is very limited. Well, she finally gets the chance to understand her mother a bit better. I liked this part of the book; it gave the story a purpose. There was something to grab hold of – something to find, hunt and explore. I really enjoyed digging into Anna’s past.
‘A Witch in Love’ was a fun continuation of the Winter Trilogy. I’m looking forward to seeing where Anna’s life leads to next.
4/5 stars
Kim
(Originally Posted on Goodreads)
0 comments:
Post a Comment