2163 ratings (4.04 avg)
1993 reviews

Darlene

http://www.darsword.wordpress.com

https://www.goodreads.com/dar49

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Darlene is Currently Reading

Darlene rated a book really liked it

The Witch Within

by Iva Kenaz (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: book-1, fantasy, historical-fiction, witches, currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in July 2015

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Darlene said: " For some reason, this was on the bottom of my currently reading shelf, and I didn't realize I had read it before. Even now, within 30%, I don't remember the story, so I'll go ahead and finish and put a re-review here.

Stockholm Syndrome. Just looked i For some reason, this was on the bottom of my currently reading shelf, and I didn't realize I had read it before. Even now, within 30%, I don't remember the story, so I'll go ahead and finish and put a re-review here.

Stockholm Syndrome. Just looked it up and didn't want to forget it. I'll get back to it later.

I want to thank A.S. Johnson for her many book recommendations. She rarely leads me wrong. I certainly loved Ms. Iva Kenaz's other book, My Melancholy Diary, also one of Ms. Johnson's recommendations. So it didn't surprise me that I loved this book, too, even though these two books had very little in common.

Both books were strong, quick reads. Both books had strong young women as their main characters. And though I didn't catch it (I actually read it in another review), both books are set in Prague, the Czech Republic, where the author is from. I will have to re-read this book to see where Talitha (MC, The Witch Within) resides.

Now I have to pull away from the review a bit to let you all know what happened as I attempted to read this book. My Text-to-Speech didn't track with the book. It would read ahead a few pages, but the pages didn't turn, so I was stuck reading the one page while TTS read future pages. I couldn't manually flip the page, or the TTS would turn off. That made the read less exciting than I believe it could have been. I'll call Amazon to see if I can resolve that. TTS was the whole reason I bought this Fire. Anyway, I didn't call them while reading the book because I was still engrossed in Talitha's life and didn't want the real world to interrupt the read. Hopefully, this TTS didn't mess up my experience of the book. I do plan to re-read it, so I may raise the rating then. As it was, with the TTS problem, I had to read some pages two or three times each just so I didn't miss anything. It only ruined the mood a little.

I would love my Wiccan friends to read this and let me know how accurate the chants and alphabet bits were. Seemed real enough for fiction. And due to reading another review, I know the Cursed Areas do exist. So much of the story played out nicely. I was caught up in Talitha's plight and then getting kidnapped. And though I hate stories that include the hatred directed at witches, or the 'lesbian?' people in the book, it was during that historic time. Still, I felt the main character could have been more forgiving of the skyclad dancers and their passions.

My biggest problem was how Talitha fell in love with her captor. Yes, he was the nicer of the guys, but all I could think was that this was a historic case of Stockholm Syndrome. And though it didn't leave us on a real cliffhanger, much is left for a future book, I'm sure. Oh, and I was often struck by how adult Talitha was, even though she was merely 14 or 15. But maybe back then, people matured faster. So I didn't let it stop the story. So with so many elements messed up for me in this read, I think I want to rate this a 4.5 rather than a full 5 stars. But I will read it again to make sure. ...more "

progress:

(99%)
— Jul 27, 2015 08:38PM

12 hours, 38 min ago · see review

Darlene is currently reading

The Samurai's Octopus

by Jonelle Patrick (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

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progress:

(99%)
— 12 hours, 50 min ago

May 09, 2026 06:28AM

Darlene is currently reading

The Complete Piano Player: Books 1,2,3,4, and 5

by Kenneth Baker

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Mar 19, 2026 04:43PM

See all 68 books that Darlene is reading…

Darlene’s Notes & Highlights

What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon

5 highlights

The wind you hear is the same wind that has always blown. The rain that falls is the same

See Darlene’s 3 books with notes and highlights…

Darlene’s Quotes

“It was not that he was feckless – more that he had simply not been around the day they handed out feck.”
― Neil Gaiman, Anansi Boys

5 likes

“I loved how Piglet personified the idea that even without all of the five senses, he used what he had - with determination and perseverance - to do virtually everything he needed to do to engage happily and confidently with his people, his dog pack, and his environment.”
― Melissa Shapiro, Piglet: The Unexpected Story of a Deaf, Blind, Pink Puppy and His Family

2 likes

“There are books so alive that you're always afraid that while you weren't reading, the book has gone and changed, has shifted like a river.”
― Marina Tsvetaeva

702 likes

“Creativity requires a state of grace. So many things are required for it to succeed.”
― Magda Szabó , The Door

343 likes

“Just when you think you can't open your heart any more than you already have, something can happen to help you discover that you have more to give. And what you get from being open to the unexpected in animals and in humans is the greatest gift you can ever receive.”
― Melissa Shapiro, Piglet: The Unexpected Story of a Deaf, Blind, Pink Puppy and His Family

3 likes

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