Author:
Tessa Adams
Publication
Date: February 5, 2013
Publisher:
Signet Eclipse
Series:
Lone Star Witch # 1
As the
seventh daughter of a seventh daughter—and a member of Ipswitch’s Royal
family—Xandra Morgan should be a witch of incredible power. But things don’t
always turn out like you expect…
While she hasn’t lived up to her family’s expectations, Xandra has come to
terms with her latent magic and made a life for herself in Austin, Texas,
running a coffee shop where she makes potions of a non-magical nature. While
things aren’t perfect, Xandra is happy—until she runs into powerful warlock
Declan Chumomisto.
Xandra hasn’t seen Declan in years, and though she’s still overwhelmed by his
power, she doesn’t trust him. And when her own powers awaken one night and lead
her to the body of a woman in the woods bearing the symbol of Isis—the same one
that has marked Xandra since the day she met Declan—she’s filled with a
terrible suspicion, soon confirmed: the woman is connected to him.
Xandra doesn’t want to believe that Declan is capable of murder, but as the
body count mounts, and Xandra’s own powers spiral out of control, she’s not
sure she can trust her own instincts…
“Behind
me, my mother shrieks my name. In a booming voice, my father demands that I
return to the ballroom at once. But I’m running full out now, scrambling to get
away from the pity and the revulsion radiating from so many of the guests. They’ve
come from all over our territory, all over the world, to witness the Kas Djedet of the youngest, and supposedly
most powerful, Morgan daughter. What they’ve witnessed instead doesn’t bear
thinking about.” – Finished Copy pg. 5
“Two
thoughts hit me at once. First, that I was right about the power. The man who
is even now slowly, inexorably, crossing the last few feet between us, is a
warlock of almost unimaginable skill. One who straddles the line between light
and dark, white magic and black. One who even my very powerful parents speak
about only in whispers, despite the fact that his brother has been dating my
sister for years now. Though Ryder celebrates most holidays with us, Declan has
never before been invited to our house. After all, my mother is adamant that we
don’t associate with his kind of power.” – Finished Copy pg. 9
“For
long seconds, my brother doesn’t say anything. But I can feel him searching for
the truth and it makes me a little sick. Not because I don’t believe what I’m
saying, but because I need so badly for him to believe it too. I’m tired of
being poor Xandra, the one everyone in the family – in the coven – feels sorry
for. That’s why I liked Austin so much. No one there expects me to be anything
more than what I am.” – Finished Copy pg. 37
“I
don’t bother trying to sleep. One, because I have to be up at four to get to
work and two, because I’m terrified that if I close my eyes I’ll be bombarded
by images of that poor woman. Of Lina. Or worse. I’ll get sucked into a world
where I’m fascinated, instead of repelled, by Declan Chumomisto.” – Finished Copy
pg. 139
As
the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, Xandra Morgan should be an
unbelievable witch with power so great that you would need to approach her with
a shield of steel and a ten foot pole. Only she’s not. Xandra’s world is consumed
by magic and all of her loved ones expect her to carry on with the magical
gene, in fact they will stop at nothing to help her obtain her own witchy
powers. However, Xandra comes into a gift all her own; she starts to have
visions that lead her to corpses and she begins to see the cause of death. This
gift she has obtained turns out to be a little more dangerous than she could have
ever imagined and puts her between a rock and a hard place: good and evil.
This
cover of this book really drew me in and I was spellbound by it; no pun
intended! Xandra Morgan appears helpless and naïve within the first few pages,
but readers quickly learn that she anything but that. She is a strong, brave,
and ruthless heroine who I will follow as long as this series continues. Her
behavior after learning that she doesn’t possess the same powers as her family
was so overwhelming and I greatly admired her. I wanted to get to know her
better from the first page and I was Team Xandra the entire way through. Half
the time didn’t even care what might be going on with other characters; I just
wanted to know how she fit into the situation. I love characters like her who
get me so involved with the plot of the book that I feel like I am the Robin to
their Batman!
In
books like this one world building is key. From the very beginning I was thrown
into a world full of dark magic, witches, warlocks, and things that I could
never dream up even within my wildest imagination. The new terminology was
awesome and the suspense had me on the edge of my seat. Sometimes I think that
only with supernatural worlds like this one you can come across this intense
character building and suspense that plays on the nature of the world that the
characters are submerged in.
Overall,
I was extremely pleased with this new series and I will be anxiously awaiting
the next book. Declan was a great “bad boy” character and I loved the romantic
aspects of this book as well. Xandra appeared more scandalous and sexy when he
was around, and it was nice to see a different side of her! So fearless!
***A
big thank you to the publishers at Signet for providing me with a copy of this
book in exchange for my honest review***
No comments:
Post a Comment