March 10, 2016 – What's She Reading?

Blackheath
by Gabriella Lepore
Release Date: December 21st 2015
Genres: Paranormal, Young Adult

SYNOPSIS: Seventeen-year-old Maggie Ellmes is dogged by a case of chronic bad luck. She figures that’s just her lot in life—that is, until the psychic at Blackheath’s annual carnival reveals that Maggie’s problems are caused by more than just ordinary misfortune; she’s actually been cursed.

Desperate to shake the hex, Maggie has no choice but to seek out the help of Joel Tomlins, a rebellious classmate who’s descended from Blackheath’s most powerful line of witches. After breaking all of his coven’s conventions to help her, Joel discovers that the curse isn’t as bad as Maggie fears. In fact, it’s much, much worse.

REVIEW: The synopsis of this book is a little bit misleading…I thought we’d see more of this “bad luck” that Maggie’s supposed to be suffering from. It really doesn’t play much into it though and doesn’t really have much to do with what’s going on. Let me just start by saying that this book was pretty good. I felt that the premise was solid and the main characters made realistic choices for the most part. The book did a good job of grabbing me right away and making me want to keep reading. The plot became predictable at parts, but not necessarily in a boring way.

That being said, I had some confusion as to where this book was supposed to be set. The author is from the UK and so it made sense that she used British terms like “Maths” and “Jumper”, but then one of the characters is trying out for the soccer team. Literally, the book uses the word soccer. I was under the impression that everyone in the UK used the term football? Seriously, correct me if I’m wrong. So that kind of bothered me.

The secondary characters in this book were really flat and didn’t feel as developed as they could have and should have been. Some of them seemed purposeless. Why is Blonde Lauren called Blonde Lauren? We have no idea. Also, what does it even mean that Evan is the “Chosen One”. It’s never really explained–they just keep calling him that and it never really plays a role in the book. It seems possible that there would be more books after this where it might play a bigger role, but in this book…nothing.

Overall, this book was okay. I thought it started out pretty strong, but then the ending was a little anti-climactic. That being said, I like the way that magic is portrayed and some of the characters are interesting.

Overall Rating: 3
Language: Moderate
Violence: Mild
Smoking/Drinking: Mild. One scene of underage drinking.
Sexual Content: None

Click on the picture above to be taken to the giveaway!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Gabriella Lepore lives on the coast of Wales in the United Kingdom. She began writing at an early age and grew up with a passion for all things supernatural—especially witches! She currently has six Young Adult books in print: Evanescent, The Blackheath Witches, How I Found You, Secrets In Phoenix, and The Witches of the Glass Castle books 1 & 2.