The Hawkweed Prophecy

I'm often drawn to stories that revolve around magic and I was really curious about the potential friendship involved in this story. The magic was everything I expected and wanted. I appreciated how there were different types of magic that showed differently in each character. I also was able to connect with quite a few of the characters for a variety of different reasons. My heart broke for both Poppy and Ember as they each seemed to be forever stuck in circumstances that were out of their control. They each belonged to a culture that they didn't fit in due to Raven's actions at their birth.

Raven is an interesting character who is on the surface an obvious villain but underneath all of that, it was wonderful to get to know her as a character and see her motivations. I don't think I ever really grew to like her but I did find myself very sympathetic toward her on occasion even if she was the one making her own mess.

What I loved most about this story was how every single character was flawed in some very profound way. Raven was the most obvious with her overt attacks on everyone around her as well as her scheming and manipulative behavior. Sorrel, Ravens daughter, was much the same, having been trained to be just as vindictive and as her mother. The only character I'm kind of on the fence about is Leo. I liked him as a character but didn't appreciate the addition of romance to the story. I would have preferred more magic or just a friendship story. I see how it fit in but it didn't really work for me, especially how that part of the story wrapped up. That said, I did love the way the book itself ended and highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys magic and witches in a slightly fairy tale sort of writing.