Wicked: Witch & Curse

Wicked #1-2

by Nancy Holder, Debbie Viguié

Complete text of Witch and Curse in a single volume.

Holly Cathers's world shatters when her parents are killed in a terrible accident. Wrenched from her home in San Francisco, she is sent to Seattle to live with her relatives, Aunt Marie-Claire and her twin cousins, Amanda and Nicole.

In her new home, Holly's sorrow and grief soon give way to bewilderment at the strange incidents going on around her. Such as how any wish she whispers to her cat seems to come true. Or the way a friend is injured after a freak attack from a vicious falcon. And there's the undeniable, magnetic attraction to a boy Holly barely knows.

Holly, Amanda, and Nicole are about to be launced into a dark legacy of witches, secrets, and alliances, where ancient magics yield dangerous results. The girls will assume their roles in an intergenerational feud beyond their wildest imaginations...and in doing so, will attempt to fulfill their shared destiny.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Paranormal, Witches, Magic, Romance, Fiction

672 pages, Paperback

First published September 9, 2008

About the author

Nancy Holder, New York Times Bestselling author of the WICKED Series, has just published CRUSADE - the first book in a new vampire series cowritten with Debbie Viguie. The last book her her Possession series is set to release in March 2011.

Nancy was born in Los Altos, California, and her family settled for a time in Walnut Creek. Her father, who taught at Stanford, joined the navy and the family traveled throughout California and lived in Japan for three years. When she was sixteen, she dropped out of high school to become a ballet dancer in Cologne, Germany, and later relocated to Frankfurt Am Main.

Eventually she returned to California and graduated summa cum laude from the University of California at San Diego with a degree in Communications. Soon after, she began to write; her first sale was a young adult romance novel titled Teach Me to Love.

Nancy’s work has appeared on the New York Times, USA Today, LA Times, amazon.com, LOCUS, and other bestseller lists. A four-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award from the Horror Writers Association, she has also received accolades from the American Library Association, the American Reading Association, the New York Public Library, and Romantic Times.

She and Debbie Viguié co-authored the New York Times bestselling series Wicked for Simon and Schuster. They have continued their collaboration with the Crusade series, also for Simon and Schuster, and the Wolf Springs Chronicles for Delacorte (2011.) She is also the author of the young adult horror series Possessions for Razorbill. She has sold many novels and book projects set in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Saving Grace, Hellboy, and Smallville universes.

She has sold approximately two hundred short stories and essays on writing and popular culture. Her anthology, Outsiders, co-edited with Nancy Kilpatrick, was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award in 2005.

She teaches in the Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing Program, offered through the University of Southern Maine. She has previously taught at UCSD and has served on the Clarion Board of Directors.

She lives in San Diego, California, with her daughter Belle, their two Corgis, Panda and Tater; and their cats, David and Kittnen Snow. She and Belle are active in Girl Scouts and dog obedience training.

Reviews

[Kasey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Warning: The following contains spoilers but PLEASE do yourself and favor and be spoiled.

Title: Wicked
Book One And Two: Witch and Curse
Authors: Nancy Holder & Debbie Viguie

Caption on the cover: "The first two novels in the captivating series..."

Summary: Holly Cather's world shatters when her parents are killed in a terrible accident. Wrenched from her home in San Francisco, she is sent to Seattle to live with her relatives, Aunt Marie-Claire and her twin cousins, Amanda and Nicole.

In her new home, Holly's sorrow and grief soon give way to bewilderment at the strange incidents going on around her. Such as how any wish she whispers to her cat seems to come true. Or the way a friend is injured after a freak attack from a vicious falcon. And there's the undeniable, magnetic attraction to a boy Holly barely knows.

Holly, Amanda and Nicole are about to be launched into a dark legacy of witches, secrets and alliances, where ancient magics yield dangerous results. The girls will assume their roles in an intergenerational feud beyond their wildest imaginations...and in doing so, will attempt to fulfill their shared destiny.

Captivating - not exactly a word I'd use for this book, let alone the series. As an objective reader the amount of novels I have actually put down and left down could be counted on one hand. Indeed I am all for toughing it through the slow, the stupid and embarrassing as long as I feel there is something to be gained by the end...

The first book (which I assumed was the middle) is 361 pages of point form plot. The characters are flat, two dimensional and completely unremarkable. But to be fair it is kinda hard to get substantial characters from: "Micheal kept smiling. "That's right, son." Gave him a wink. Left the room. Thought about killing him."

Simple, to the point - Micheal is obviously the bad guy. *yawn* So what? Without anything to link me to the characters I've become a detached, unconcerned outsider looking in on series of unfortunate events. Boring!

The plot is confusing, lapsing time in all directions without any sort of structure or flow. The sequence of events is interrupted by point of view changes every other paragraph and constant 'flashbacks' of background history. Many promising plot points were left uncompleted by the rapid jumps in time leaving many important events unresolved. Overall it felt like was reading a summary of potential brainstormed ideas hammered together rather then reading a 'captivating' novel.

- Very little detail on witches,warlocks and magic (which is what the book is about)
- Dry, uninteresting characters and practically no dialogue
- feels death is used to force along plot (someone dies every other page >.> almost)
- Weak beginning, no middle and didn't get to the end
- Unrealistic : Holly and Jer (almost) have sex without EVER (they only know OF each other) saying a single word to each other.
- Amanda walks in on Holly and Jer and poof - something happens and they all get burned and Holly hits the wall and breaks her arm.
- No explanation - things just...move on as if the last thing never happened
- Jer dies (or does he?)
- I put down the book, PISSED.
- Glared evilly at it
- Left the room
- Thought about killing it

[Tracy · Rating 2 out of 5]

OK. My friend Mandy and I picked this up on a whim. "Cool cover" we said to each other. Little did we know it is a series that has been out since 2003 and seems to have been published by a small publishing company. The two books in the store are really the first 4 books. The final book comes out in September. Apparently there was some publishing house issues. I am telling you all of this because. I feel so sorry for the people who read this book in 2003 and had to wait until 2009 for the conclusion. Each book ends with a cliff hanger. I have read A LOT of YA this year. I have fought demons and vampires and witches oh my. I have struggled through the adolescencs agnst of some twisted love stories. This story makes those stories feel like a cool breeze on a spring day. I have never felt some much frustration and sadness. It is fight after fight, denied love after denied love. And I-being the glutton for punishment-keep coming back for more. My heart fell when I realized we would not get the conclusion until July 7, 2009! Then I thought, I could be one of those waiting for 6 years. It is a good story. In order to hang in there with it you need to have your LOST or Damages cap on. There is a lot of time flipping and people being possessed. The point of view changes a lot--for each main character and there are several. The fact that they can weave the many POV together and tell essential two stories is amazing. It is an adventure reading about an family feud (witches against warlocks) that gives forbidden love at a new meaning.

[Micheline · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this book when I bought it. Being that I'm a huge fan of anything having to do with witches, I was excited by the premise and the write-up seemed promising. After about 100 pages though, I had to give up and stop reading. I very rarely give up on a book, but this one is sadly, a DNF. The plot was difficult to get into, the explanations on the world and it's characters were sorely lacking. I didn't care for the protagonist, and the stereotypical dark magic was disturbing and quite frankly weird. It may have gotten better as the story went along, but I couldn't muster up the interest to keep going.

[Joanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Witch - I have always been fascinated as magic. As a child, I found magicians and the idea of magic just so awesome; I was in awe of Paul Daniels, he was practically a god. As I got older, my fascination didn't fade, but grew as I discovered there were real people out there who thought themselves witches. Whether or not people believe they have any power is down to each person's individual opinion, but I'm fascinated by the witches' personal beliefs. So, understandably, I was ecstatic to discover that the fictional story of the Wicked series is based on the beliefs of those who are Wiccan - serious research has gone into this series and I think it's awesome!

So I read the first story in the first book, Witch. I really liked it! The whole idea of witches and warlocks who can perform magic and spells, as I said, is fascinating to me, so the story of this girl who not only finds out that she is a witch, but has the burden of dealing with the present day conflict based on the events of centuries past is just awesome! There are so many characters, so many POVs, six that I can remember, and so much going on, you'll be completely gripped throughout.

There are qite a few characters that play quite a big part. First there's Holly, the main character. She struggles with the loss of her parents and her best friend, and having to fit in with these family members she never knew she had. Her greif is such a big part of this story that the only other thing you know about her is that she likes horses. Amanda and Nicole, Holly's twin cousins, are completely different; nice, mousey, friendly Amanda, and vain, popular, and selfish Nicole. There's Aunt Marie-Claire, who I disliked immensely, I felt she was just so shallow. The best characters in my opinion are Jer, Holly's love interest, and his evil father Michael. Their relationship is brilliant, and finding out about their beliefs, desires and goals - they are the story for me.

To be honest, I found the story of Jer and his evil family more interesting than Holly finding out. It just felt to me that there was more research put into what Jer and his family believed and did, as they grew up knowing of their power, it was more solid. Where as Holly puts two and two together after strange things happen. That was a little odd, though. Although it took Holly a while to come to that conclusion, when she did start adding things together, she came to the conclusion of magic straight away, and automatically guessed she must be a witch. I think it would be a little more believable if she tried to believe it was something else first, or questioned her sanity. Then she tells her cousin, and her cousin believes her straight away, no problem. It just felt a little off.

What also felt a little off was the "relationship" between Holly and Jer. I have no problem with unexplained magnetism, I can deal with that, I find it quite intriguing. But with Jer and Holly, there was hardly any build up, any interaction between them before, BAM, the big deal that's happening between them is, well, happening.

The action is fantastic though! Seriously. I can't even begin to really go through it without spoiling it, but it is based on some awesome spells and chants and other things linked with Wicca. Seriously awesome story, and I'm hoping Curse will be just as good!

Curse - If Witch was great, then Curse is amazing! I absolutely loved it! Curse picks up a few months after Witch finished, and not a huge amount has happened other than the Cahors Coven has grown in strength and knowledge.

Curse is a darker novel compared to Witch, and more action packed. It’s a lot more graphic, but not sexually, rather in terms of what one does when practising black magic. You find out in the first story, but you actually see it in this book. It’s a little disturbing, which shows how great the authors’ talent is as they’re doing their job and effecting the reader. With the darker elements, you find yourself sucked into the book that little bit more.

There are so many points of view in this story, you get to see through almost everyone’s eyes at one point or another. Where in Witch the blood feud between Isabeau and Jean is explained, in Curse, we get more history, but from after the events we already know about from the 13th century to the 17th century. The history is just fantastic, the detail that has gone into it so that present day story is more understandable.

A lot of the story is the history. There is quite a bit of action set in present day, but most of the story is relating the history to now. A whole slew of great new characters in introduced in this story, involved in a connected subplot, a new coven. I can’t go into detail about them without spoiling the story, but I’m sure they will play an integral part in the future book when paths cross.

I wouldn’t say there was a resolution to this story, it’s more of a progression; both sides make moves, consequences happen, and more questions arise. This is not to say that nothing major happens, a few major things happen, but there is no definitive end to the story. All I can say is that the next book, Wicked 2: Legacy & Spellbound, is going to be absolutely rivoting! I implore you to pick up this book, it’s fantastic!

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sort of a Romeo and Juliet with witches. No real character development, I never grew attached to any of the characters and I couldn't understand why the "Romeo and Juliet" were in love at all since they spent a cumulative maybe 2 hours in each others presence over the course of almost 2 years.

The villains, the Devereauxs, have little to no sense when trying to kill the Cahor, or Cather, women. They weave these long complex spells that make all manner of monsters and goblins appear when I honestly think that a well placed paid off sniper would be more effective. Perhaps this goes to show that the warlocks are stuck in another century of thinking but I'd believe in a more adapted villain better.

Time passes entirely too quickly with not enough detail in the events that pass. There is a whole year that passes while Holly is learning magic but we never actually get to witness this education. The story skips around to the parts where "battles" take place, leaving me with the sense that the characters are almost always under siege when in fact there are usually a few weeks to a month between attacks.

On a positive note, yes there is one, the family feud is not a cut and dry good verses evil. Not all of the Devereauxs are entirely evil and the Cathers well, there are different kinds of evil and theirs is a more subterfuge than all out brawl type. Some credit is due for forcing the characters (in their somewhat developments) to discover their moral limits (as well as the readers.)

[Renamski · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book started out ok. With many characters and motivations it had a lot of potential. The first book was a good introduction... lots of action, star-crossed lovers, evil bad guys to destroy. But, in the second book (this book is two in one), the story begins to unravel. The main character, Holly, loses momentum in the second book. Her story line just seems to plod along. One of the secondary characters, Nicole, is actually far more interesting in this book.

The second book lost me when Holly did something VERY out of character. ***SPOILER ALERT*** She kills an animal that loves and trusts her with absolutely no emotion and little cause or motivation.*** SPOILER OVER*** It's not the act itself that bothers me as much as the fact that it was way out of character. Nothing led up to her making such a deviation from what she would normally do. The story was ruined for me after that. :( It may pick up and get better, but integrity of characterization is the most important part of a story for me.

[Ancient · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was recommended to me by a acquaintance. After reading the works of Nacy A. Collins, Laurell K. Hamilton & J.R. Ward I can take the dark. I've got spoilers in my review, read on only if you don't care/mind.

So after reading the first book I thought that this had some potential with some interestingly and surprising dark situations for a YA novel. Clearly shouldn't be in that section at all. This is put in the wrong section and marketed towards the wrong audience. I'm not saying YA readers can't handle "the ugly truths of life". Just because you have a teenage hero/heroine doesn't make your work YA.

What was interesting was the idea of reincarnated souls being in the present and having to deal with their past. I feel like that was hurried along as was the introduction of characters. If you're going to have reincarnated souls, then please have a feeling of de javu or the character drawn to certain things from that era.

If your going to do flashbacks, please make them relevant to the plot. I realize that most of the historical flash backs were to show the history between the Cathors/Devereux. That's fine I get that, its just that more characters were introduced than there needed to be with all the flashbacks. I couldn't keep any of the ancestors straight and I didn't care by the end.

I found the shifting back and forth between times a bit annoying by the end of the second book. Instead of letting the reader find out who was at a location we were told. Times, dates an places are fine if your jumping around, but let the reader discover who's there.

As a practitioner of Wicca I find the "dark magic is okay" theme to be way out of line. There were no repercussions for practicing the "dark magic". Karma is not a factor here. I failed to see the lessons, if any that this was trying to get across. The biggest points of wicca is "Harm thee none, do what ye will" and Three/Ten/Hundred Fold Law [What you put out comes back to you.:] weren't even bought up. I realize that this is fiction, but come on no attempt was made to even try to keep to the ideas behind it.

The Cathors made no attempt to seek out anyone for guidance until the second book. I don't even remember any of the girls [Holly, Amanda or Nicole:] attempting to read anything about the craft.

The sacrificing of animals in this book was just passed over like it was okay or treated like a item on a to do list. Killing a animal is not done lightly I don't care for what reason.

Characterization would have been interesting if there had been some continuity from the first book. By the second book I found that the heroine, Holly had become so one dimensional and I didn't find anything to like about her at all. Hey, I like to find a reason for motives behind even my villains.

By the second book I was more interested in Nicole than any of the other characters. I found Amanda whiny and childish. Jer was stagnate, Eli a sad shadow of a lackey. Michael and Luc couldn't have been more Villian 101.

I made it through this book in three days, and I'm very likely not to read anymore of the series at all.

[Brianna · Rating 1 out of 5]

(Based only on WITCH, the first book/ first half)

I can honestly say that this was one of my least favorite books I have ever read...

1) Okay, so when I read the back of this book, it seemed like a book that would be a rather light read. The summary on the back of the book seemed so far off about what this story was truly about. It's supposed to be about Holly... But it really isn't.

2) To me, it seemed like the author was trying so hard to make sense of why the Cahors and Deveraux hate each other that it only made things more confusing. Really, only a simple explanation was needed. Due to the way the author was struggling to come up with a decent plot, several other important aspects of the tale were left out, such as...

3) The characters were so terribly underdeveloped. I don't ever recall reading a description about what Holly looks like, and I almost always remember that. I can't even tell if she's sarcastic and witty or bratty or sweet, she just seems so incredibly FLAT... Usually if I don't like the book but the characters are amazing, I say I enjoyed the book anyway. The only two characters I'm fond of are Tommy and Amanda.

4) I didn't understand a lot of the book. Some of it just didn't make sense... It seemed so preconceived, like a bad fanfiction with tons of plotholes. A lot of this book seemed rushed to me. Like "Ladida suddenly I love Jer! Whoo-hoo!" But she never acted like it until he died. Sure they loved each other in past lives, but I feel like there's so much more the author could have done.

5) The back of the book states that it is about Holly when in reality, the POV changes so much, I just wanted to hurl the book out the window!

6) What's with the flashbacks? Was there really a necessity for quite so many? The author could have condensed that into one chapter and spent the rest of the time on some of the above issues.

All in all, I'm still deciding whether it's worth my time to read the other half of this book and the following even though I already own all of them.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

No matter how hard I tried I just couldn't really enjoy this book. I think that the overall story was an awesome concept but the delivery was crap. There are way too many characters so it makes it in credibly difficult to keep track of whose who and when. Well I guess the main characters stay the same but they jump back and forth through time and some people remain the same while other change and it just gets utterly confusing. I also didn't like the writing style, I dobnt really know how to describe it except that it was like watching a movie you can't wait to see only when you finally get to see it the acting is terrible and the special affects totally suck. Thats what this book reminded me of. I know it seems harsh but I really do love the main point of the story just not the way its written. Which again is disappointing sinced the Author wrote the books that two of my favorite shows were based on :(. . I will read the first half of the next book and if it's not any better than I'm moving on to something else.

[A · Rating 1 out of 5]

Picking up these books, I expected something good, based on the synopsis. Instead, I got something truly awful. I'm sorry, but this is a terrible excuse for a book. Warning: long review because I've really got reasons for disliking this. If you so wish to just see my reasons and not the reasoning, look at the following paragraph.

It had a plotline that went all over the place, the characters were flat, there were no consequences for horrible actions, a romance that was completely unrealistic, gore that seemed to be there for no reason, unrealistic and untrue magic, hard-to-believe situations, and it had the killing of animals. Adding to that, here's these little tidbits: idiotic characters and uncountable errors.

Here are my explanations for my negative review:

1. If there was any plot, I could not discern it. It looked like this: blah blah, ROMANCE, blah blah, BATTLE, blah blah, FLASHBACK, if you get the picture. There were places where I actually wondered why I was reading. I, in boredom, skipped some places. I will admit this, however: the flashbacks were actually pretty interesting. If you skip the rest of the book. They added intrigue. Unfortunately for them, there was already intrigue: the question "Why on earth am I reading this?" I've read 5th graders' works that had a better grasp of transitioning, plot, and how to plan out a story.

2. What characterization is there, you ask? None. The characters are flatter than an open can of soda left in the fridge for two weeks. Flavorless soda at that. I could describe Holly, the main character, in three words. Two-dimensional, unrelatable, and idiotic. I could describe Amanda in three words too: plain, flat, and stupid. (Again, I'm sorry for my negative views, but these books are really frustrating to read.) It was nearly impossible for me to even get an idea of who Michael, the "villain", was. My entire thought process here consisted of "Aargh!". These people made the worst decisions! Nicole trusted an evil guy for like 500 pages, to give an example. Then she flew to Europe, not talking to anyone for a year. What is her brain???

3. There are no repercussions for terrible actions. These people are practicing dark magic on a regular basis, the magic itself needing blood and other tidbits of people to operate. And what do these "witches" get for their actions? Not a single thing that is negatively affecting their lives and friendships. The battles were because of an ancient feud, not that they were evil. And no one called them out on this! I mean, come on! Give me a theme here! And you expect me to think these are the GOOD guys?! Not happening!

And then there's also the fact that Holly DROWNED a cat, which loved and trusted her, for no other reason than she was power-hungry. That's a major jerk move, and it is seriously bad. Her thought process wasn't even there. She was a robot in human skin, imbibed with magical powers. And what does she get for this terrible actions? MORE power and a very large place in their universe. *raises hands* I'm done.

4. Romance? What "romance"? There is no romance. Unless you consider almost having intercourse with someone you've never even SPOKEN to, let alone had a date with. The excuse the authors give? They're "destined" for each other. Ah, yes, a modern-day, magical Romeo and Juliet...NO. Holly had literally just seen what Jer looked like, and then, BOOM! Kissing! Clothing coming off! That's not romance, that's what the young folks call a one-night-stand. Romance means getting to know your partner, taking it as slow as you wish, talking, dates, CRUSHES at least. Sure, people have gotten their life partners through a one-night-stand and they see each other after and fall in love, but don't mistake a one-time near-intercourse moment for romance. Honestly, this is like reading a bad fanfiction- paper-thin plot and unbelievable romance. Coupled with (ha, pun intended) mindless violence. Even the "slow-burns" and other types aren't like this. "Ah, yes, Holly, you just met the guy and in your past lives you were lovers," Nicole said, pushing back her hair, "you were definitely meant to fall in love." NO. (That wasn't an actual quote, just me being sarcastic.)

5. *sings "The gore, the gore! Too much of it is here!"* Anyway, what the authors don't realize is that you cannot take a paper-thin plot and add gore. The gore tears away any plot there could have been, and it just ruins the book. They also seem to mistake gore for the plot. Sorry, guys and gals, but you can't take mindless violence and stick it randomly in a book. It doesn't work. Also, this book is technically YA. It should really be MA, or at least 17+, to use the graphic novels' system. Torn off limbs? Slashed throats described explicitly? There are 12-year-olds reading this. Calm yourselves. This isn't AMC or "The Walking Dead".

If the authors want an example of YA literature that has violence, then check out "The Mortal Instruments". Cassandra Clare, the author, had violence throughout, but she transitioned between battles clearly and well. The violence wasn't overstated either. Sure, it talked about "fountains of blood", but it didn't go into graphic detail. I know the books aren't everyone's favorites, and there are plenty of people who disliked them, but I think they're an example of good ideas put with excellent authors.

6. Unrealistic magic! Wow, shocker. Gotta add more stuff to the list, no don't we? I'm no expert on magic or Wicca, but seriously. This is DARK stuff. Yes, I have done my research and sat down with all my mythological books. Guess what? Sacrifice and needing parts of people and animals is dark magic. Again, this should be 17+. But continuing. I know this is a fictional novel and people can do whatever they want with their stories, but there has to be some realism in there. There is none in here. Compounding two of my complaints here, I want some realistic people, situations, some explanations for how this world works. "Oh, it's Wicca" is not an answer! Sure, accidents on a river are common, but 3/4 of a group dying? And you portray it like THAT? No, it doesn't seem realistic.

Also, you want me to think Holly is one of the GOOD guys? No, she killed a cat. That's bad, that's horrible, that's god-awful. She doesn't deserve more power or a place in the area that controls how the universe works. I don't care if she's gotten corrupted a little. Elementary common sense and morals, Watson! You don't kill an animal just because.

I wanted to THROTTLE this book.

7. SO MANY ERRORS. I wanted to spell-check the entire book. Do the authors need to go back to elementary to learn spelling and grammar? Because really. I'm not speaking of one small "you're eyes" or something like that, I'm talking misplaced commas and everything.

There's my extremely negative review.I would like to erase the memory of these books from my mind and burn all copies, but we can't always get what we want, can we? *laughs*

If you have any particular thoughts on what I said, that's fine, just comment below or message me if you so wish. Hope you, the reader, have a wonderful literary week! :)

[Your Common House Bat · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly this book was so bad, I quit after book 1 of 2. I just can't picture myself sitting trough 300+ pages more of this. Tbh it was almost laughably bad. The worst part is I loved the premise and it had a satisfying amount of gore and disturbing imagery but the writing fell flat and the overall execution failed horribly. The dialogue is what killed me the most, I hated it beyond hated it. Tommy's in particular made me cringe every single time. To name some examples;

- "Hey hi Mani-chan." Like we had a full on weeb moment here. And here I thought that, "muhahaha." was going to be the worst of it."
- "Some guys play football we raise the dead." They're gonna cut me with all of that edge.
- "Nicole might like to play the bad girl, dress sexy, and hang out with his scary brother, but Amanda wanted to save Jer from himself. He didn't know which was sadder: that she imagined she could or that he knew that she couldn't." And here we have our brooding, woe is me, bad boy.
- "In sciene class we are all homeys." Followed by, "Tommy whipsered to Holly, giving her a hey-hey-baby look." Like is this supposed to be a really bad No Doubt reference??? Honestly I wince every time I read 'Tommy' because I know that I'm in for a round of secondhand embarrassment.
- That whole round of dialogue on page 263. Forget Isabelle or whoever the fuck, Holly was possessed by the spirit of a soccer mom.
- Apparently the devil himself said, "you are mine...for ever!" I had no idea the devil talked like a cartoon caricature.
- And then right after Jer wailed, "No." This was straight out of a bad movie with actors who over-act.

And there is so much more dialogue that I just loathed but if I typed all of it, I'd fill the character limit for reviews so I'll just move onto the next thing that really peeved me with this book. That would be the time jumps. Like, after a certain point, I didn't even know what was going on. The time skips came out of nowhere and just hit you like a train that fell from the sky or something. Page 268 was the worst of it. One minute we were in the present and the next we're back in the opening scene? Actually I lied 334-339 was constant past-present; some times the time jumped paragraph to paragraph. It was really jarring and disorienting. I get what the authors were trying to do, but it just didn't work. To be really honest for half of the book I thought that the Jean/Jer bits were taking place during the same time as opposed to a modern vs flashback thing. Because of this I got so many characters confused. I still don't entirely understand it.

The formatting was all off too at parts. I'll just show you exactly what I mean.

"Meanwhile Kari finally confessed and told him about Cirle Lady on the Web, and the cybrpagan's interst in 'warlock,' and he dared to hope:

Jer: Yo, Circle Lady, Warlock here
Circle Lady: Hello. I've heard so much about you.
Jer: I think you know me very well."

I shit you not, this is exactly how it was formatted. First of all, 'you circle lady' lmfao, now that was just, wow. Secondly, one minute I'm reading a novel the next I'm reading something that looks like it could be a theater script. And this happens again a paragraph down. See it in its full glory on page 324.

So what else went wrong in this book; Holly's weird sex. Prior to it she said maybe two sentences to Jer...Jean...whoever the hell and then they were having sex. Like I've seen YA romance mishaps and flops, I've seen rushed romances, but this? This was a new level. I think that it makes Twilight look good; at least Bella and Edward said more than two sentences before their sex scene.

And finally I hated the characters. Every last one of them. I usually find at least one character that holds my interest enough to give a book a redeeming quality. But now in Wicked. To me all of the characters were cardboard cutouts of the next. To the point where I had trouble (actual, literal trouble) differentiating them. Eli and Michael were such typical villains, they had no substance or complexity whatsoever. They were just cackling satanist stereotypes. They tried way too hard to be edgy. They were just so run or the mill; literal "muhahaha so evil" villains. And that's not good. This is coming from someone who adores villains.

Holly was just so pouty and whiney. I get that she lost her family but she sulked throughout the whole novel and it got really annoying after a while. I felt like her sudden knowledge of the Cahors vs Deveraux history was out of nowhere. I get that Isabeau is her past life but that was such a deus ex machina at an oddly convenient time.

Nicole and Amanda were basically the same person to me. They were dull characters that just didn't stand out to me at all in anyway, to the point where I can't even criticize them beyond that because I kind of just skimmed through the yawn-fest that was their speaking parts. The Aunt was annoying too; she acted and talked like one of the teens. She was having an affair or something, idk. She really could have passed as a teenage girl.

Tommy was God awful. Every word out of his mouth was just awful. I get that he was supposed to be the nerd, but even nerds aren't that intolerable. I'm a fukkin' nerd and I don't even say stuff that is that cringe worthy. I just could not handle him, he had to be my least favorite character next to Jer.

Oh Jer. Jean, whoever you are. I always hated the brooding bad boy trope and he filled that part to a tee. Talking about how all the girls found him oh so hot and sexy because of his dark mystery--see page 152. He constantly talked about killing himself and how he would probably mess that up too. He was always on and on about how he wishes he wasn't a Deveraux (granted I would too if I was from a mustache twirling type evil family) but he was just so moody. Worse than Holly which is saying something because 50% her text was her complaining.

Over all I was so disappointed with how this one was executed. I couldn't finish it. I can't believe that I sat through the first 300 & something pages. Maybe I'll revisit this if I ever want to waste my time and hate read something.

[Jessica Fay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Have you ever read a book that enchanted you. That you enjoyed every last page of magic. Only to go back and read it years later, and it just not hit the same? Well, this is that book for me. I absolutely loved this book when I read it years ago. Today, however, as I aged, the book didn't give off the same vibe. Don't get me wrong, it was a great read, but it felt like I was reading the same witch coven fighting witch coven story that I have read many times before.

[Miss_Cultura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es mi primer libro que leo en ingles integramente y me ha costado
un poco leerlo, pero porque no estoy habituada, poco a poco
harè mejor las reseñas de libros en inglès.
E de comentaros, que es el primer libro que leo de Nancy
y me dejo¡¡¡asombrada¡¡se nota que tiene tablas y que
ha escrito muchos libros, su estilo, su forma de narrar las cosas
y lo que pasa me encantaron.
La historia es sencilla pero te atrapa desde el primer momento
la hermana del padre de Holly ,Marie Claire no se hablaba con este pero
de manera extraña Holly va a vivir con ella y sus primas
gemelas pero està se
involucra con un brujo llamado Michael Deveraux.
La familia de Holly son brujos pero muy antiguos y con
una magia potente , aunque esto hace que ella
un poco de envidias .
Tenemos accion,amor,amistad...de todo¡¡¡
Aunque El tiempo pasa demasiado rápido por completo con no suficiente detalle en los acontecimientos que pasan. Hay todo un año que pasa, mientras que Holly aprende magia, pero nunca consigue realmente ser testigo de esta educación. La historia salta en torno a las "batallas" que tendrá lugar, dejándote con la sensación extraña de que no ha pasado el tiempo , cuando en realidad por lo general hay un par de semanas a un mes entre los ataques.
Con ganas de leer el segundo libro y de que salga
en Español.
Una curiosidad¡¡¡se nota que parte es de Nancy y cual es de Debbie¡¡¡
pero para bien,se compenetran genial¡¡¡

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a lover of all things magic and fantasy fiction, I absolutely loved these books. The Wicked Series takes its readers into the world of witches and warlocks, ancient battles with modern rivalries, and soulmates. It was a thriller, tragedy, romance, history, and even at times a comedy. It integrated magic into the everyday real world of a normal girl. I really enjoyed reading these. I finished all four books in just two days (obviously I have no life).

As I am a bit more conservative, I don't think I would necessarily teach these books in my class. I don't think there is really anything teachable in them other than how to incorporate different plots, times, and types/forms of writing/stories into one book. However, I will definitely have these books on my shelves. For students, especially girls, I will recommend these for pleasure reading. With all the Vampire Hype, I think my students will find books about witches and warlocks to be refreshing (I prefer witches to vampires). I think is would be excellent pleausre reading for my students, and since it is a series, it will be easy to get them hooked and continue reading.

[Kat · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was so not what I thought it'd be. I can appreciate the depth in the subject of witchcraft given to the book, not to mention the highlight of familiars. I love when the research is incredibly involved and apparent and also integrated.
Yet, this book was still hard as hell to get through. Bouncing all over the place, I struggled here and there to keep up with what was going on. And the incredibly toxic relationship between the main characters was drawn out and exhausting. Unbelievable as well. There was so much in this volume but I just couldn't get attached to it. I was pretty hopeful too.

Full Review:
https://thescarletreaderreviews.wordp...

[Jillian Perry · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF @ 83%

I'm just not having a good time and won't be continuing the series so I'm moving on from this.

[~Cyanide Latte~ · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is absolute garbage and here's a long rant about why.


I tried reading this once back in high school and wound up DNFing it back then. Why? The main character, Holly, murders a cat by drowning it. This cat is her cousin Nicole's pet and familiar, and Holly murders the cat as a sacrifice to dark powers in order to become more powerful herself.That was why I originally DNF'd this book.

Fast-forward to present-day. I wanted to give this book a second chance because I want to eventually run a BookTube channel focused on giving books more than one chance.

This one didn't deserve it.

Murder of animals out of cold desire to gain power notwithstanding...
Here's the rundown of the story. Ancient witch coven vs ancient warlock coven blood feud with a Romeo-and-Juliet "love story" that spans across time with their spirits being reincarnated-but-not-really in their descendants.

This book is shit. Ignoring the absolutely terrible writing (re: I've met 15-year-olds with a better grasp of world-building, character display and development, realistic human interactions, magical structure, pacing, not jumping character perspectives every scene, etc. than these two writers combined) I take severe issue with the way in which the writers went about creating this story.

There is a disclaimer at the beginning of the book that the writers "did a lot of research" into various real-world religions that involve use of powers most people consider magic.
I personally wonder how much of that research is legitimate. They've grossly misrepresented the concepts of voodoo and made a mockery of shamanism, and my biggest issue lies especially with how they portray "Wicca".

Here's a quick lesson for you all. "Pagan" or "Paganism" is the more true, broad umbrella terminology for various religious views or faiths that fall under the concept of "witches" and the like. Even calling it that feels a little ham-handed in my opinion, but I digress. The authors chose instead to determine that "Wicca" was the all-encompassing umbrella term.
It is not. And if they genuinely believe that it is and that "Wicca is a broad concept of many beliefs and practices" they are incredibly ignorant. They misrepresent Wicca to the point I'm utterly infuriated on behalf of those in my family and friends who are Wiccan. Wicca is actually a very specific faith and it focuses primarily on positive energy and healing.
What the authors call "Wicca" in this book is a horrific and insulting perversion of everything that it actually is, and I believe to some degree anyone of a Pagan path would also find their slapdash concepts offensive.
If I recall correctly, even the terming of "white" magic, "gray" magic, and "black" magic is grossly inaccurate; and most Pagans would also tell you that sacrificing a familiar or even a regular animal, even one not your own, is almost never done, isn't done lightly if it is, and never for such frivolous reasons as a "special power boost from dark forces".
A word to the intelligent: please actually research Wiccan faith and other variants of Pagan beliefs before you read this book, while you read this book, or even after you read this book, IF you decide you need to read it. Personally, I don't think you should waste your time on this trash.

Furthermore, our main character of Holly, despite how she just starts off as somewhat an okay-if-bland character, is a spoiled brat and a selfish bitch. Her Insta-Love "romance" driven by teen lust for a guy she doesn't even know often overrides her common sense and she tends to place that above everything and everyone else. She's a disrespectful, self-important shitty excuse for a human being and she needs to have her face rapidly introduced to a brick wall, repeatedly.
If making us absolutely HATE the main character was your aim, Holder and Viguié, then congratulations on succeeding in your aim: I want to see Holly die in absolute pain and humiliation a million times over. Her cousins Nicole and Amanda are far more human, and way more compelling and relatable as protagonists.

This book deserves no stars. It deserves a ride in a blender, and may the poor blender then be purified of this garbage's taint afterward.

[Annika · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mean, the first book is essentially like
My parents are always fighting, that sucks. Now let's swing wildly over to these people that we won't find are related until later in the book Dealing with my parents fighting is tough, but at least I have my best fr-MORE INFORMATION ABOUT UNKNOWN CHARACTERS IS BEING FLUNG AT YOU-iend, which is nice, and Oh No! Water turbulence! Now everyone but me is going to HEY GUESS WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW THESE PEOPLE BUT YOU KNOW MORE ABOUT THEM THAN THE MAIN CHARACTER die and suddenly I have an aunt and two cousins I never knew about. :( I'm sad because my best friend and my parents are dead, but I'll live with my best friend's mom, and Oh No! Something weird happened to her and now I can't :( Also weird creepy guy with my new aunt is creepyyyy agh.
But wait! Who is that guy? That guy is no one, according to HA HA YOU THOUGHT THE WEIRD FLASHBACKS WERE GONE, WELL BOY WERE YOU WRONG my cousin. She's cool. The other is a bit of a drama queen, but th-MOAR FLSAHBCAKS-at's okay.
(I though it was basically like that)
One thing that I thought was weird, was that Halloween party. I mean, Amanda's just like 'Heyy, you should come with!' and Holly's all like, 'Hmm, I dunno...' but then she comes with anyway (in a weird costume, no less), and then it's like Amanda walks off to get refreshments, leaving Holly by herself, and then gasp! she sees Jer, and then he's all up in her face (and she's fine with it), then they're going upstairs (and they're fine with it), then they're macking out (and they're fine with it), and then just as they're gonna tumble in the sheets, Amanda comes in and ??? Flings Holly across the room?? Because magic?

At least it wasn't like 'This mysterious family randomly showed up around the same time that Holly did and oh my ovaries that guy is mysterious and Holly is very attracted to that and now she'll do the stupidest ish to get his attention, and everyone says he's bad, an' he thinks he's all that and an extra bag of fries, but then! it turns out he's good! an' they're soulmates! (unrelated, but I totally hate the idea of soulmates)" and all that. Because that's annoying. It's an overdone trope. Also, it's weird.

Oh yeah and Jer gets his face burned off and (monotone) oh no, jer's horrifically disfigured, an michael's try'na make that black fire but he can't until he can. ohhhh noooooooo.

Second book is basically like
Holly: I'm gonna try and find Jer!
Amanda: No! Don't do that!
Nicole: I'm guilty because I ran away from my sister and my cousin :(
Tommy: I got the hots for Amanda, but ~le* sigh~ I'm getting friend zoned.
Eddie: I'm just kinda here, until I get killed. Ow.
Marie-Claire: Whoops I hope I don't get killed! *urk*
Holly: I'm gonna try and find Jer!
Jer: No! Please stop, for your own safety!!!
Holly: I'm gonna try and find Jer!
Amanda: Stahp it.
Holly: I'm gonna kill a cat!
(rip Hecate)
Everyone: What no why
Holly: I'm gonna try and find Jer!
Michael: Ooh, Holly's a lot more dangerous than I thought...Mwah ha ha ha, I'll use that to my advantage....
Holly: I'M GONNA TRY AND FIND JER NO MATTER WHAT ANYONE SAYS
Everyone: STOP IT HOLLY PLEASE

I mean there's other stuff but that's basically it.

*Also, brush up on your high school French and (for the second book) Spanish before you read this, cause it's just peppered in randomly. Or have Google Translate open.

[Estefania Pereira · Rating 2 out of 5]

it is very good!!!! the girl that changes after the tragedy, having to move with a family she didn´t know she have. But other people want her dead, people that have a magical evil power, and she finds that her family has also a magical power. making her, her caousins and her aunt witches. This book tells how she falls in love with someone of the other family because of her descendant and his descendant or something like that. And they both have to stop the recreation of their horrible history.

Now I think the description of characters could have been better becasue it is still confusing how each one of them thinks and all and they could have worked better around this theme but in all it was a very fun book to read. I liked it a lot and recommend it as a book to read in vacations of some sort and to the people that like all of the real life magic theme.

[Eve · Rating 2 out of 5]

im just gonna review the whole series here. bland characters that you dont care about, middle book syndrome, lame magic, merlin fucks a teenager i guess? im over it but it kept me intrigued enough to finish it and it was darker than i expected so it gets a meh I GUESS

[Paige Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh boy... this is a big one. Over six hundred pages to read and review. But since this is technically two books in one, the pages add up fast. And so do the amount of characters (past and present). It's also for these reasons that the rating (and review) come in a bit late.

I've been wanting to read this book for a very long time, and unexpectedly found it at one of my local libraries. Interestingly enough, the acknowledgements for each book are at the front of each respective story instead of being in front of them. This isn't necessarily a bad thing in and of itself but it is rather unusual. Still, I'd say it's better than having no acknowledgement section at all.

Since there's two books, I'm going to review each book separately and then tally up the ratings before dividing it to get a final score.

Without further delay, let's begin...

Witch:

One thing I'll admit right off the bat, the cover art for this book duo (as well as the Legacy & Spellbound duo and the fifth book Resurrection) looks beautiful compared to the cover art for each of the first four books individually.

The chants (mini-epigraphs?) each chapter has before beginning are very interesting.

One thing I didn't catch onto at first is that the chants aren't just one chant, but each of the two paragraphs belong to a different coven/family saying them. A notable example is chapter ten, so aptly titled Hare Moon;

"We seize our wives those we choose
Within their wombs our seed we lose
And after they have sons us borne
From limb to limb we'll have them torn

Welcome Goddess fill our lives
With your blinding, healing light
Our wombs are ripe as grapes from vines
Bring forth in us daughters divine"

Another example from chapter eleven (Dyad Moon);

"Passion burns and fire grows
We triumph now over all our woes
We cast our foes upon the pyre
Burn them now with Hell's own fire

And now we plant in maiden's heart
Indecent thought for it to start
Tempt the lords of castles great
That from your passion may grow hate"

However, this book can be kinda hard to get through. The chapters are long, sometimes unbearably so. Some of the chapters are forty pages long, give or take a few. (The shorter ones are around twenty pages.) The long chapter length is kinda intimidating and drags down the book. It also doesn't help that the first book is paced rather slow to get to full-speed action.

On top of that, there's also a lot to take in- the plots of the Deveraux family, the Cathers/Anderson family dynamics (descendants of the once powerful Cahors family), and the many conflicts of those families from the past that spill over into the present.

(However, the second book is at least kind enough to tell us the location, person or group of focus, and in the event of past events, the year it took place in.)

During the beginning of the first book, Amanda and Nicole were... kinda boring. I was much more interested in Holly, struggling with her parents' deaths (we hardly knew ye, Elise and Daniel Cathers), her best friend Tina dying, Tina's mom Barbara Davis-Chin being injured (and later revealed to be cursed to never heal), her upheaval from San Francisco to Seattle, and her strange magic manifesting but struggling to fully realize it. Same goes for Michael, trying to possess the secrets of Black Fire. And to a smaller extent, Jeraud "Jer" Deveraux, who falls in love with Holly and wants to protect her.

On the note of Michael and his goals; What is this black fire, and why does the Devereux family want it so badly?

Eventually, all is revealed; Michael wants it to rule the Supreme Coven and by extension the entire world, while destroying every obstacle in his path. (All while making sure their rivals never know how to use it.)

The third act of the book is probably the best one.

However, I felt that there should have been more sorrow and emphasis placed on Marie-Claire's death. Maybe even a brief funeral service for her, because I was expecting more of a punch to the gut and it didn't feel like the tragedy it truly was.

On the bright side, Nicole and Amanda finally get some character development (after that poor coffee house scene), the former just wants to do theater, while the latter is actually more interested in making magic, one actually taking action and the other perhaps trying to run from her problems.

The finale was also pretty good, and goes to show the destruction that the Deveraux family can do if they are not fully stopped, as they conjure Black Fire for the first (and so far only) time in the whole series.

The following dialogue that occurs during the climax is also really good;

Michael; "Well, well, what do we have here? Three Cahors bitches. Nice to see you again, ladies."
[Holly, Amanda and Nicole turn to face Michael Deveraux.]
Nicole: "Thanks, but we prefer to be called witches."

That is a major burn.

Alas... there is one thing that kinda frustrates me.

After the Black Fire is unleashed, Holly and Jer were protecting each other with their love, which I don't have much problem with...

But her cousins, not understanding that Jer and Holly are soulmates (and likely the reincarnations of their ancestors Jean Deveraux and Isabeau Cahors), take Holly away from Jer before the Black Fire goes out, leaving him for dead and not understanding that he was trying to help save them.

As I suspected, Jer is alive, and his defiance seems to cost him. He's barely alive (and in the next novel, we find out he's imprisoned somewhere far away from Seattle- an abandoned island of the coast of England.)

Overall, I've seen better, but I've seen worse.

Rating; 3.4/5 stars

Curse;

The long chapters are still present, but the pace seems to be picking up at least. The stakes are high. This book felt a lot easier to read and get sucked into. (Some of that may just be because I was a passenger in a car during a very long road trip, but I'd say my point still stands.) However, more often than not, it felt like events were shifting too fast, and were hard to keep track of.

If the first book suffered from being too slow, this book has the opposite problem; being too fast that the train crashes.

Luckily, the mini-epigraph chants are still on point.

The first one (Singing Moon);

"We shout our defiance to the skies
To the sun shining in our eyes
The House of Deveraux has powers
And it grows with every passing hour

Attend, anon, each Cahors witch
For words alone can make us rich
The Crone bids us listen each hour
For words bring us knowledge and knowledge power"

And another from chapter eight (Planting Moon):

"Fear us now our power grows
Strength to vanquish all our foes
Will to crush and might to maim
We'll not rest till they are slain

Growing, swelling, fill the night
Shine upon us with thy light
Blessed moon above us give
Guidance now on how to live"

And while the Deveraux family seems to be the main antagonistic and villainous force throughout the series, it seems they and even the Cahors family both have the ability to be cruel.

Catherine is cruel to all save for Marie, her last daughter and the one to continue the Cahors bloodline. Giselle Cahors hunted down Luc Deveraux for having her grandmother, Barbara Cahors, burned at the stake, Giselle eventually has to run for her life (assuming the name of Gwen Cathers) and the bloodline of once powerful witches... falls to pieces.

And in between the downfall of Cahors magic, there's a curse on the Cahors family that they and/or their loved ones often die by water. It's not very likely, but I wonder if there might be a way to break it. (There probably isn't...)

But the House of Deveraux... Damn they really want to take over their allying Supreme Coven and then the entire world. This seems to create a slight gray versus black morality, and it's an interesting path for the story to take, even if Holly (and her coven) want to be better.

Anne-Louise of the Mother Coven is also interfering with The Cathers-Anderson Coven, despite being close allies and having a semi-united effort. Perhaps such intervention was necessary after Holly ends up sacrificing Nicole's cat Hecate in order to gain more power to try and save Kialish and Silvana (the latter two being kidnapped by Michael earlier.) And yes, Holly does feel really awful about it.

The Mother Coven does seem a bit hypocritical though, having not come to the aid of the Cahors descendants and their allies sooner. Which kinda makes me wonder, why include them in the first place? (Unless they have a role to play later...)

Damn, Richard Anderson is not having a good time. Drinking his sorrows away. And ends up possessed for a while. Hopefully he gets some therapy after the events of these two books.

Then again, I'm sure many people in this story need therapy; Aunt Cecile and her daughter Silvana almost die during the spirit army/ship raid battle, Kari leaves her coven, Tommy almost died, Kialish is not saved despite their best efforts.

And Jer...is also basically just trapped in a box. But he does want to protect Holly, telling her not to come find him, even though she wants to save him.

Early in the story, Holly and Amanda's conflict is very heated, but both of them have good points. Holly running off to save Jer is very risky, leaving the coven even weaker, especially because...

Nicole ran away shortly after the events of the first book.

She is a coward, and I want to berate her for being a scaredy cat with no home, but to an extent, I can understand her fear. Losing her mom, not realizing just how dangerous magic can be, and her fear of having no future (much like Holly). What would you do in her shoes?

Although... part of me wonders if Nicole running away has a much bigger role in the overall series or other possibilities. But I'll revisit that idea in a moment.

Going back to the amount of characters for a moment, it was a bit hard to keep track of the members of the White Magic Coven (which really needs a different name to be honest), from Alice leaving (why even have her there in the first place then?) to the four or five men that accompanied the runaway witch once she made it to Spain. They are Alonzo, Jose Luis, Phillipe, Pablo and someone named Armand? I'm not even sure if the last guy even had any lines in the entire book.

Still, they're a minor coven and much of the group was injured, making it very hard to save their friend...

Nicole, who is captured and put through the wringer. She meets James Moore, son of Sir William Moore, and heir to the throne of the Supreme Coven. And through physical and magical coercion, is kept as a prisoner and forced into submission.

And I'm afraid it only gets worse from there...

In the finale, Nicole is forced to marry James of the House of Moore, a man she barely knows and wants to use her for power and as bait for the other Cahors witches to destroy them. Damn, that sucks. I'm actually scared that she's going to be raped (possibly several times over), and forced to bear his child (or children if it happens multiple times.)

That worries me the most.

And following that terrifying yet tangible prospect, there's the resurrection of Hecate the cat by Michael Deveraux... How terrified will Holly be when she learns of this? Or the rest of the coven? And how angry will Nicole be when she learns what happened to her beloved cat?

For a while earlier, I thought Nicole and Phillipe might have had a thing for each other, but maybe it was never truly meant to be. Eli and Nicole fell apart long ago, and Phillipe got injured it seems, failing to protect his friend. Jose Luis was killed almost immediately after the future vision ritual and in the kraken attack off the coast of Seattle, Eddie dies because Holly chose to save her cousin Amanda (not knowing if she was even alive or not) over him.

(This is a lot to try and remember...)

What else happened?

Laurent Deveraux (somehow?) makes himself tangible enough to walk in his human form.

(Ugh, there's too many characters here...)

Kialish also dies towards the end because he missed Eddie too much and let himself die during the spirit army battle.

Oh, and The Circle Lady (an online friend of Jer/Warlock) is revealed to be Sasha, Jer and Eli's mother and may be trying to help Holly and Jer from afar?

Towards the middle of the second book, it was a bit surprising to see that Eli was working dark sex magic involving the aid of a partner, and it makes me wonder why the unnamed woman agreed to it in the first place. (Could that partner have been Alice, who previously left the White Magic Coven?) Probably not, but it is an interesting fan theory.

For a sequel, this seems a bit better than the first book. It's certainly a lot more action packed and a lot faster than it's predecessor. But there's still a lot to keep track of...

And there's also a part of me that wonders how this story might have gone if Nicole hadn't run away from her family. Would Hecate still have been sacrificed by Holly for power? How strong would the Cathers-Anderson Coven truly be? Would Eli and Nicole have interacted with each other, and if so, what would they have said and/or done to one another?

My best guess is that Nicole would probably try to focus on her acting career to try and stay out of the conflict and/or keep herself sane, which could cause a rift between her and her coven, but in the end, she'd probably put both her acting and her magic skills to use. And that maybe she'd fool Eli into thinking that she had fallen for his tricks but now sees right through his illusion, both metaphorically and literally, before outwitting him.

(sigh) Would could have been.

Overall, this book could have been better, but it could have been worse. There's just an overload of characters and information. (I can't even remember all the familiars save for Hecate and Bast...)

Rating; 3.6/5 stars

Rating both calculations... 3.4+3.6=7 divided by 2...

Final score; 3.5 (Rounding down for slow pacing and an overloaded cast)

I've seen better dark fantasy series, but I've also seen worse. (Man, writing this review was exhausting...) I'd honestly say that these books need a list of characters because it's really hard to keep track of them all. Or at least a family tree for the Cahors and Deveraux families if nothing else. Alas, considering this series is over a decade old (nearly two decades even), I'm not expecting that problem to be resolved in future installments.

The books do live up to their titles though. Chances of continuing the series? A bit less than 50%. But between the many books I have interest in, I'm sure that I'll have no shortage of fantasy books to read.

[Review written September 16th, last edited November 22nd]

[Beth Trinkwon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this entire series at a used bookstore and was excited to read them. But I struggled to finish. The plot was over-complicated and hard to follow. Time passed too quickly and there are too many switches in perspective without giving any additional depth or insights into character motivation. I never really liked any of the characters and the romance aspect is disappointing. I also just became numb to the consent, disturbing dark magic scenes. I don't think I'll be able to finish this series.

[Niko · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't like the writing style and thats a shame. Nevertheless, the story was alright. I do think think the most exciting parts are often cut too short like the battles.
Reading this felt like watching a movie with badly written lines for the actors.

[Teresa Barrera · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't know if I was just in a slump, but I just felt like I couldn't get into this book.
I might try rereading this later.

[Angelic Zaizai · Rating 4 out of 5]

udah hampir setahun dibeli, akhirnya dibaca juga, soalnya ntar keburu terbit terjemahannya hahaha

Ini dua buku yang dijadiin satu...jadi tebel gitu deeh.
Tentang permusuhan antara dua keluarga: witches (Cahor) dan warlock (Deveraux).



Buku Pertama Wicked

Menceritakan asal mula dendam membara di antara kedua keluarga.
Jean Deveraux dan Isabeau Cahors dijodohkan dengan harapan mendamaikan masing-masing keluarga, apalagi jika telah memiliki anak.
Tapi ternyata both families punya agenda masing.
Dan berakhir dengan Cahors membakar kastil keluarga Deveraux - Isabeau yang berniat menyelamatkan suaminya pun ikut tewas.
Isabeau sebelumnya sudah bersumpah akan membunuh suaminya, karena gagal, maka jiwanya tak akan tenang sampai janjinya dipenuhi - siklus itu akan terus terulang dan terulang dan terulang...

Masa sekarang..

Holly Cather, bisa dibilang reinkarnasi Isabeau dan
Jer Deveraux, reinkarnasi dari Jean
Bila Jer lumayan terlatih magic-nya, Holly sama sekali tidak tahu apa-apa
tapi keduanya sering mendapat 'penglihatan' tentang kejadian di masa silam.


Michael Deveraux, ayah Jer, berusaha membunuh semua keluarga Cather yang tersisa - artinya Holly dan saudara sepupunya.
Jer berusaha mencegah usaha jahat sang ayah - bersama coven barunya, Rebel (hihihi), agar tidak terjadi lagi cycle itu, pembantaian banyak nyawa dan terbunuhnya Holly.

Hmmm Jer sukses ga ya ?? Holly akhirnya tau nggak sejarah keluarganya.??




Buku Kedua Curse


Tidak seseru buku pertama..
soalnya Holly dan teman2nya tiba-tiba aja udah bisa sihir, ga diceritain proses belajarnya
dan meskipun dibilangin bolak-balik, Holly punya kekuatan besar tapi masih berasa helpless gituh
masa discrying mulu sama michael deveraux, ga dibales .. padahal akhir2 Holly ternyata bisa tuh..
padahal kalo liat kekuatan Michael (dan Laurent) Deveraux - wah Holly mah kaga ada apa-apanya..

Kalo Halliwell sisters di Charmed series kan memang punya kekuatan sihir, tapi tetep ngandelin Book of Shadow buat mantra2 khusus
kan seru kalo Holly ditunjukin juga belajar sihir kaya' gitu, ga dikit-dikit 'oo goddess, tolong.. oooo isabeau, tolong..'
ga keliatan punya power dong ah.. kecuali terakhir setelah Holly crossed the line, dengan mengorbankan salah satu familiar (yang nonton charmed pasti tau ini apa)..untuk dapet extra power


buku kedua ini tetep tentang usaha House of Deveraux - tapi mostly cuma Michael ajah, memusnahkan House of Cahors.
Ada yang baru, muncul Supreme Coven - tempat Deveraux klan bernaung (dulu mereka pernah jadi pemimpin coven ini) dan juga muncul Mother Coven - tempat Cahors klan bergabung.

kenapa judulnya Curse ?
di sini juga diceritakan bahwa keluarga Cahors punya kutukan - air..
jadi Michael Deveraux berusaha memanfaatkan kutukan itu


Oh iya
Jer masih hidup, tapi ga berguna, masih sakit gara2 kena black fire
Nicole kabur ke Eropa, ga mau lagi berurusan dengan magic, tapi malah terperangkap ke dalam Supreme Coven di Inggris
Buku ditutup dengan datangnya Holly dan teman-teman ke inggris untuk mencari Nicole (dan Holly: Jer).


Bersambuung..


bintang empat karena gw suka Charmed series.. *ga nyambung*

[Wren · Rating 4 out of 5]

this review can also be found at http://fortheloveofbooksreviews.blogs...



Holly Cathers is devastated when her parents and best friend die in an accident. Expecting to move in with her dead best friend's mother, her aunt comes forward, and her friend's mother falls ill suddenly. With no where else to go, she moves to Seattle to live with her aunt, uncle, and two cousins.

When it seems that life can't get any more bleak, she discovers that she is a witch from a powerful magical bloodline....and that her bloodline has a magical feud with the Deveraux going back hundreds of years. The family of warlocks are ruthless....except for Jer. Now Holly must navigate a world of magic, forbidden romance, and revenge, and hope to survive to see tomorrow.


I wasn't sure I would really enjoy this series, but I wanted to give it a try. I actually quite liked it, and I will be continuing reading the series!


The characters made up an interesting cast of good and evil and somewhere in between. The Deveraux warlocks were essentially the villains with the Cathers witches the protagonists, and Jer, a wayward Deveraux finding out which side he wants to be on. Jer and Holly were more than just contemporary witches caught in a forbidden romance....they were essentially reincarnated or embodied versions of their ancestors, Jean and Isabeau, who fell victim to a curse. The pieces of themselves that were contemporary Jer and Holly mixed well with the spirits and legacy of the historical Isabeau and Jean, and their love story spanned centuries.


Michael and Eli Deveraux were bloodthirsty warlocks, with Michael especially out to kill Holly. Holly and her cousins were all very believable characters, teenage girls discovering who they are, but never really cliche.

I think my favourite part about this book was the chase between Michael and Holly. It felt very cat-and-mouse at times, just with dangerous magic and lots of collateral damage. The second book in particular featured lots of death! At times this book was very grim.

I also like the diversity of the witches and magic-users in these two books. There were witches that were more pagan like Holly's coven, then there was a few people who practiced voodoo, a Native American shaman, and even Catholic witches. That was really neat! It kept the book from being monotonous and repetitive.

I do have to say that at times the book was pretty cheesy. Some of the incantations and spells seemed a bit strange, almost like the authors were just looking for words that rhymed and went together in any way at all. There were little poems or passages before each chapter from the Deveraux and Cathers covens, and those were cheesy and a bit random at times too.

Overall I did really enjoy this bindup! I loved the characters and the danger, and I loved the diversity of magic traditions in this book. While some bits were kind of cheesy, I will definitely be continuing the series.

I recommend this book to people who love books about magic. If you're interested in young adult novels about feuds and discovering who you are, you may like this one.

[Alyssa · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5/5
Read my review here:
https://fantasticfictions.com/wicked-...

[Martha · Rating 1 out of 5]

El plot era interesante pero las autoras no supieron aprovecharlo.

Los padres de la protagonista mueren y ella piensa que se queda huérfana, cosa que no es cierto ya que tiene una tía que nunca había visto, por diversas razones se tiene que ir a vivir con ella y su familia. En su nueva casa empiezan a suceder cosas extrañas, Holly (la protagonista) tiene alucinaciones, siente que la persiguen y hay un chico por el cual siente una gran atracción.

Resulta que la familia de nuestra protagonista es descendiente de los Cahors, una familia de brujos muy poderosos que existió hace seiscientos años. Holly descubrirá cual es su misión en esta vida y quién es Jer, el chico que llama su atención, también, tendrá que cargar con el odio de los Deveraux. Holly tiene que estar lista para la gran guerra de magia entre brujos que se avecina.

Ok, como ya lo dije las autoras no desarrollaron bien el tema. Cuando comienzas a leer el libro no entiendes nada, no tiene una introducción, te meten al trancazo. Hicieron mucho uso de los flashbacks pero no de la manera adecuada. Estás leyendo que Holly está sentada en la sala y de repente tiene una "alucinación" ok, el problema es que no te da referencias de que cambiaste del presente al pasado y eso hace que te confundas horrores. No te explican los hechizos que los personajes hacen, cuando ves según ya están cantando para invocar no sé qué cosa, no hay una explicación del por qué las familias se odian ¡no hay nada! Casi todo el libro es texto y muy pocos diálogos, y si lo hay son fríos. Los personajes son muy planos, no sientes simpatía por ninguno y casi todos terminan muertos. Sinceramente no hay sentimientos en la historia todo pasa muy rápido, las autoras quisieron hacer mucho y terminaron haciendo nada. Supuestamente los protagonistas ya tienen una historia de amor por lo que pasó hace seiscientos años, pero en el presente apenas y cruzan una mirada y se están besando ¿qué es eso? Ni siquiera interactúan.
Y para terminar la traducción está espantosa, tiene faltas de ortografía, algunas palabras están separadas cuando no deberían, hay pensamientos de los personajes narrados en tercera persona no, no, no. Inclusive tienes que adivinar cuando están hablando y cuando no, porque le hace falta los guiones. No voy a continuar con esta saga, tan sólo eran 281 páginas del primer libro y sentí que tenía el doble.

[Scribblegirl · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first half, Witch, is fairly good. The second half, Curse, is tedious, boring, sophomorically written and riddled with cliches, and reads like nothing so much as a Charmed ripoff written in the BTVS vernacular, albeit one in which the heroine is evil. It's not really a YA novel. It deals with more adult themes, and editors, writers, and publishers all need to learn that just because a book has a teenaged protagonist doesn't make it a young adult novel. Definitely NOT for the preteen (or probably early teen) set. Coming at this review as one who works in a bookstore and is often asked about the teen novels, I would not be inclined to recommend this for a variety of reasons, to whit:
1. Deals with black magic as if that's normal and completely fine, and white magic is for the weak. Even the "good guys" practice black magic and sacrifice things, and frankly, I would NEVER in a million years recommend this to 99% of the customers asking me for books for that reason alone. Most of them are people who are fine with Harry Potter, but worshipping the devil, sacrificing cats and using magic to murder and get ahead rather puts them off, especially when there are no real repercussions or lessons learned from it.
2. The subject matter is very dark and adult and deals with extramarital affairs and a relationship in which a 17 year old girl is sleeping with her college boyfriend - who happens to be evil. Also, murder abounds as the norm. Frankly, Lois Duncan has done all this before and done it better. And in way fewer pages. Jeebus, yawn. I skipped mass portions of Curse, I was just so sick of it. It could have easily been half as long as it was.
3. There's no real girl power in this at all, which is surprising for a book that's supposed to be about a girl and her witchy female cousins who are all descended from a long line of powerful witches.

I'm sure there's more, but I finished it a couple of days ago and am really just so over it now. Basically it boils down to go get yourself some Lois Duncan instead. You'll be much happier and way more creeped out.

[Noelle Skaggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really do love this book. The cover itself caught my attention. Witch is a great gateway to learn a little about Wicca, but also enjoy a nice nonfiction story. The story plot caught my attention and it was quite the adventure the entire time I was reading. I will admit it was a bit boring at first. None the less, it was a beautifully crafted book. It caught my attention and made me cry, scream in frustration, and laugh. Good job Nancy Holder. I cried like a small child who dropped their ice cream. Anyway, the character development is absolutely incredible. I loved experiencing with the characters how they changed. It was so sad to watch them go when I finished the book. I definitely plan on purchasing the rest of the series to read. Also, I loved being able to follow each character since it changed with every chapter. One chapter is focused on Nicole, the next Holly, and the final one on Jer. The transitions of the book are also very astounding. It switches smoothly and that produces a happy critic. Another thing I loved is how the characters changed through the relationships they started forming with other characters. A great example of this is the main character, Holly. This book really is an emotional roller coaster though, especially, with the twists and turns of the book. Buckle up reader….It’s going to be a fun ride filled with crying, laughing, and almost hating the authors through the entire book.