When I read the first book in The Witches of Galdorheim series, Bad Spelling, it blew me away. The writing was vivid and humorous, the story engrossing. It was the kind of book I couldn’t put down, and one that stuck with me long after.

Perhaps it was holding the second book to such a high standard that led me to being just a little disappointed.

The story started out a bit slower than the last. But by the time Kat left Galdorheim, bent on rescuing her boyfriend Andy, the story picked up. Here was the action, the thrill I got from reading Bad Spelling. Kat’s scenes just flew by with my eyes glued to the screen of my e-reader.

However, unlike the first book, Midnight Oil was not written entirely in Kat’s point of view. I understand the author’s reasoning behind this and craved knowledge of the scenes from Kat’s vampiric half-brother, Rune, when they split up, but Rune’s perspective didn’t glow like Kat’s did. I wasn’t invested in what happened to him, not as much as I should have been considering he is a likeable character. Every time the book switched to his point of view, I groaned a bit under my breath and skimmed in anticipation of Kat’s forthcoming scenes.

So overall, this book wasn’t nearly as good as the last, mostly because of the forays into Rune’s point of view. Nevertheless, I’ll definitely be buying the third book. This little witch has me hooked.

See what all the hype is about by checking out Bad Spelling or Midnight Oil for yourself.

Let me start by saying that since the over-saturation of the young adult market, I’m very queasy when it comes to paranormal romances for teens. Especially those published by traditional publishers. In my experience, these are mostly a weak rehash of Twilight tropes.

Yet somehow, upon visiting my local brick-and-mortar bookstore, I walked away with a copy of Once A Witch by Carolyn MacCullough.

It sat among a nauseating sea of covers so similar to the aforementioned bestselling series that my first urge was to move on. In fact, the cover on this particular copy isn’t that different. It contains the same dark blues, blacks, and purple hues that I’ve come to associate with the genre. But it was the title that drew me in. Once a Witch, stamped in curly lettering across the front.

So I turned it over to read the back and was greeted by an endorsement quote from Megan McCafferty:

Carolyn MacCullough casts a mesmerizing spell with Once a Witch. Family secrets and sibling rivalry, time travel and magical ‘Talents’ all brew together to create a superlative — and supernatural — coming-of-age story. Add an epic battle of good versus evil and an enchanting first kiss and this bewitching novel commands a sequel.

That description in itself didn’t cinch the deal for me — after all, it could describe a refreshing new world or just another book swamping the market. Only a glimpse at the writing would end that debate. So I read the first paragraph, and ended up taking it home with me.

Once I cracked the book open again, I couldn’t put it down. Finding out what happened next superseded any other thought. Tamsin’s sometimes-snide voice enchanted me. Don’t get me wrong, the first-person present-tense took a minute or so to get used to. But once I adjusted to the style, the story swept me away.

MacCullough has her strengths and her weaknesses — it is my personal opinion that describing a kiss takes more than injecting the word “kiss” into a sentence, regardless of target audience. But where that aspect of the romance might have been lacking, the rest of the story most certainly was not. I feverishly turned the pages until I reached the very last one, and then I launched onto the web to find if there was a sequel.

(To answer your unspoken question, there is: Always A Witch, and yes, it is a book I’m now actively seeking to buy, as soon as I can get my hands on it.)

Once A Witch not only held my attention but thoroughly entertained me from cover to cover. This is one book I know I’ll be reading again.