I love a good fantasy book but this one left me lacking sadly. It was very slow moving. I was finding it difficult to follow the story line. It just wasn't enjoyable for me.

This isn't a really strong story. It definitely has potential, but lacks in the storytelling department. The writing is very choppy. I'm trying to figure out how to best describe it, but it's very much "I did this." "I saw that." "I felt this way." and very little world or character or plot building. There was some mega instalove that made me cringe extremely hard and I felt that there was a very infamous awful YA quote that was slightly changed here: "The only thing that I couldn't second guess was that I was entirely and irreversibly in love with William" - Mind you this is in the same chapter the MC meets him, which is chapter two. I didn't like the first four chapters. They felt like chapters from entirely different stories and that was a confusing way to start a story. Unfortunately, I am DNF-ing at 15%.

Elizabeth felt so very alone. Her best friend was Gwyneth/gwy was excused from exams as her mom had passed away. Mrs. Hall had been Elizabeth’s mother figure and she had loved her and was grieving also. Up until two weeks ago grade eleven had been great. Elizabeth had been at the top of her class, her soccer team had just won their championship, and socially elizabeth was fine. Elizabeth and Gyn did everything together other than sports. The lived next door to each other and their moms were best friends. Their families were secure around each other. Elizabeth loved to read especially books with vampires in them. Elizabeth and Gyn had hee to go on a short road trip together when and Gyn said they needed to go shopping Elizabeth didn’t want to go but in the end did she was reading while Gyn was in the changeing romm but then Gyn got a call to come right home and Elizabeth was to go to Gyns house also. Relatives from Greece were coming in. When they got at Gyn’s house there was four men all very old. The atmosphere was strained. After the girls were told they could go upstairs Elizabeth said she was going home. Gyn hugged her and walked her out. Then Gyn called Elizabeth and she said that her mother was in the hospital and had cancer. Elizabeth wanted to get away after Mrs. Hall passed away and she went to France and then decided to finish her last year of HS in France. Elizabeth lived with an older couple while in France and so did Sophie. Sophie introduced Elizabeth to her friends and then she met William who Elizabeth was immediately drawn to. Thyen Sophie told Elizabeth a lot about William, that they had grown up and gone to school together. Sophie said William was smart, captain of the rugby team and from a great family. When William came back to Sophie. Felt very awkward and uncomfortable as she wasn’t used to such strange feelings for a guy especially a stranger. After that night they met William and Elizabeth barely left each other's side. When it came time for Christmas break William asked Elizabeth to go home with him to his family as it was too far away for Elizabeth to go home to t her parents for the two weeks.. Elizabeth fell in love with William and he with ehr. Elizabeth then learns she is a witch and from the powerful Harlow family. She also learned there are Elders are trying to kill her. She has to meet the Elders and convince them she means no harm to anyone.
I enjoyed reading this book. I loved William and Elizabeth together and how they interacted with each other. I really liked the plot but this did drag for me. At times. I really liked how the author related legends and family histories in this book. I choked up at times and chuckled at times also. While reading this I hated the ending as it was basically a cliffhanger and I hate them!!! This book had: witches, evil elders, murder, danger, first love, going to an international school, a prophecy, power, and romance and so much more. I loved the characters and the ins and outs of this book. It would have been a 5 if there was no cliffhangers and I do recommend this book as long as you know about the cliffhanger and don’t get disappointed as well as annoyed by it.

Title received from netgalley for an honest review.

I don't know if it's the fact that YA has seen a huge boom, particularly in the Fantasy/Adventure sector, but it has. I've read a lot in this genre as I love Fantasy/Adventure to begin with. Like many people I liked the synopsis of the story, but I couldn't get behind the writing style. Something about young readers and teen stories, I get they're supposed to sound like the age of the character, but that on top of the story being told in first person I really think created a disconnect in how I experienced Elizabeth as a character. Some of her actions a reactions were so overly dramatic - i.e. the bit with Mrs. Hill.

I loved the bits and pieces about magic, but once she met William I started to not like Elizabeth and her story any more. A lot of female heroins always have a love interest, but William was really obsessive and an overbearing character in relation to Elizabeth. I like my female characters to have a lot more spine and independence. I can appreciate the romantic feelings, but romantic feelings in teens are so complicated because they don't really know love and they feel things to extremes and get wrapped up in that love. It was almost too much for the kind of journey Elizabeth goes through in revelation of her familial history. And again, all this was only enhanced by how much "tell" is in the writing. Elizabeth tells a lot of her feelings in the story instead of showing and feeling.

Overall, really good concept, but weak character development and writing, even for the intended audience with a lot of unrealistic elements in the humanity and realness of the characters.

Wicka (The Chronicles of Elizabeth Blake #1) by Christy Deveaux I picked this book up one evening while on vacation at my daughters. Probably wasn't a good idea. I read well into the night and didn't want to stop when I finally did. This was a very interesting read. I really enjoyed it. I personally think this book is good for YA and adults both.

The book is about 17 year old Elizabeth Blake from Michigan. She has recently lost her mom and decides to finish her last year of high school in the South of France. She finds her 1st love, finds out she is a witch, and also finds out she is danger.

At time the story began to drag a bit with the back story and description taking over in parts, especially at the first of the book. I did like that this book did have actual witch lore sprinkled throughout though. I will be looking for the next book in this series though, to see where Christy Deveaux takes it.

*This book was received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

I was really intrigued by the premise of this book and couldn't wait to read it. I was quite disappointed however when most of the book was centered around Elizabeth and Will's romance and their undying love for each other. While I think the constant professions of undying love for each other, Will's over-protectiveness and the way he organised basically Elizabeth's whole life and future were supposed to be romantic, I found it quite creepy. This for me made the read quite unenjoyable. The parts of the book that focused on Elizabeth's discovery of her powers and heritage were quite interesting but compared to the focus on the romance they felt few and far between. Also, the book seemed to drag a bit but this could be alleviated by cutting some love scenes such as Elizabeth's and Will's trip to Nice which didn't really seem to advance the plot but just reinforce how in love with each other they are.

Overall, this was a disappointing read that held promise but was bogged down but an abundance of backstories, history and 'romance' (really it was creepiness).