This was not the typical witch story I thought I was going to be getting when I picked this up. Wanting a story of magic and maybe even some scares, this was nothing like that but still it did not disappoint. This is a fantastic story of mothers and daughters…with a little magic tossed in here and there. If you like Alice Hoffman, you’ll love Louisa Morgan!
The story spans five generations, starting in the 1800’s when the Ochiere witches escaped persecution in their homeland and fled to Britain. The witch line continues through the women of the family, almost always by performing some love magic that leaves the women of Ochiere to their destruction. Mothers teach daughters to use the stone and grimoire’s magic, though each woman in the family uses it for different purposes. The story ends in WWII, though it leaves it open for the line of witches to continue.
I have to admit it was a little hard for me to get into this story, only because I went in expecting more magic and mystery. Once I accepted this wasn’t that kind of story, and read it more as a historical fiction novel with a bit of magic, then I got really into these women and their stories, each one so vastly different from the next. Morwen was my favorite of the five witches, with her love of horses and simple farm life. I related to her the most. After finishing this book, I found the author has written many similar witch stories and I think I’m going to pick them up and give them a read. The only reason I gave this four instead of five stars is because it was a little slow for me and took me a while to get into the story.
If you enjoy a family drama, a story of mothers and daughters, of European witch history, or the works of Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic series, then “A Secret History of Witches” is right up your alley.
This is the sixth and final book in my epic YA Urban Fantasy series, Chronicles of a Supernatural Huntsman. Kamlyn’s journey comes to an end as she battles the fallen angels for the fate of humanity and her world. Available for pre-order on Kindle tomorrow! Coming this November 22nd! Catch up on the series now for free through Kindle Unlimited, or start with Broken Angel for only $0.99. They make for a great Halloween season read with fallen angels, demons, witches, werewolves, vampires, ghosts, mermaids, fairies, and more!
Kamlyn Paige started her story in Broken Angel as a very young and grieving mother after the mysterious and dark murder of her five-year-old son. Ready to give up, she collapses on the sidewalk in tears when a stranger sees her and lifts her up…and reveals a hidden world beneath her own full of monsters and evil beings. He takes her to the Chamber of Darkness, an underground society that protects humanity from the things that go bump in the night, to train as Huntsman. But training doesn’t go as smoothly as she hoped. Every single recruit is a descendant of another Huntsman, per their traditions, except Kamlyn and her new friend Holly Everest. The descendants do everything they can to make sure Kamlyn doesn’t make it through their training to taint their traditions, but Kamlyn won’t give up so easily. As if that wasn’t enough for her to deal with, there is a traitor hidden within the Chamber, and they plan to release all the demons of hell on earth to destroy it.
In Earth Angel Kamlyn is hunting out on her own. She comes across many different cases involving ghosts and ghouls. She’s employed her childhood friend, Cara, to do her research back home to make her hunts more efficient, but that only makes the creatures of Darkness aware of Cara and how vulnerable she is on her own. Kamlyn tries to protect her friend from ever experiencing the horrors of the Darkness as she has. As Kamlyn wrestles with a demon from hell a fallen angel comes to her rescue and reveals a truth about her she never thought possible. The fallen angel helps her come to terms with who she is, and what she’s capable, but can he be trusted?
In Hunted Angel, Kamlyn has defied the laws of the Chamber of Darkness and has gone rogue. She’s gone from Huntsman to Hunted overnight. She teams up with old friends and new to try to take on the corruption that has slithered its way into her beloved Chamber, but it may be too late. As she confronts the culprits, she discovers one of her friends is not who she thought they were, and neither is her father. With the emergence of a newfound brother, Jake, she hopes that her side of Light is growing, and not the army of the fallen angels. Could the family she never knew about be expanding in a new and demented way?
In Wayfare Angel, Kamlyn and her group travel to Arianthe, the realm of witches, fairies, and more, to seek help in reviving one of her friends fallen victim to the new Head of the Chamber of Darkness, to seek alliances, and to awaken more powers hidden deep within her. As she grows in her capabilities, her brother Jake remains the same and they can’t figure out why. They share the same father, they should share his same powers. Kamlyn consults the witches and fairies, but will the creatures and beings she used to hunt really help her?
In Rebel Angel, Kamlyn continues her travels through the realms in search of help for the upcoming war against the fallen angels. She starts with the underwater realm of Atlantis to find her mermaid siblings and ask them to join her, but what she didn’t bargain for was a confrontation with the ancient god, Poseidon, himself. As her newfound brother, Jake, drifts further from her the more he covets her powers. The truth about his feelings are revealed after their horrific visit to the vampire world and Kamlyn has to make a hard decision. Continue her travels to build her army of Light, or go after her brother as he retreats into the Darkness?
In Warrior Angel, Kamlyn and her friends are on the last leg of their quest in gathering supernatural creatures and beings to fight against the fallen angels and their army. She hopes its enough, but she has her doubts about whether they can win. She’s been to hell and back, literally, to save the humans but something tells her she hasn’t seen the worst of it yet. As more mythological beings come out of the woodwork, Greek gods and the Amazons and more, Kamlyn finally finds the secret entrance to her Chamber’s counterpart, the Chamber of Light. This could be the key in defeating the angels, but can she convince the Head to fight when the Chamber of Light is sworn to protect the supernatural and not the humans of this world? This is the end. The epic battle the series has been leading up to. Kamlyn and her army against the fallen angels and their creatures of Darkness. Father against daughter. Sister against brother. Not everyone is going to make it out of this one alive. Could this be the end of Kamlyn and her friends?
This is one of the best books I have read in a very long time (and I’m not just saying that because I am Greek, although it didn’t hurt that I had ties to the story). If you love mythology mixed with YA Urban Fantasy then this is a great read for you! With a strong female heroine, a sexy love interest, and a fight to survive, “Lore” definitely kept the pages turning late into the night!
Right away I loved the main character, Melora aka Lore. She gave me some really heavy new Tomb Raider (Alicia Vikander) vibes when she was boxing and being an all around badass. At first I had no idea how old she was. I was picturing her in her early twenties, but the timeline ended up putting her at 17. That was a little unbelievable for me, but didn’t take away from the story at all. Lore was raised as bred to be a hunter for the next “Purge”-like hunt where the old gods of ancient Greece become mortal and try to not die. If you kill a god during the hunt, you become the new them with their powers and all. It was a really unique and interesting concept that the author did a great job of executing to perfection! There are different houses named after different ancient Greek monsters and heroes. Lore is from the house with Medusa as their emblem. The house used to have the shield made for and carried by the god Athena but they lost it when their house went through a genocide. Not only do you have to worry about finding a god and killing him to gain his powers, you also have to watch out for other hunters who will kill you to do the same. Lore’s entire family and house was wiped away in a viscous murder, leaving her the last. The hunt only happens every seven years and her family was taken from her when she was ten. Another house took her in, she made a friend there, she left there and survived on her own the rest of the time, aside from a few quirky friends. That’s why I didn’t believe she was a seventeen year old girl living in a Brownstone flat with her other seventeen year old roommate, left to her by the old man she used to take care of, but everything about this story is so wonderfully unbelievable.
The length of the book was perfect for the story, even though the print was somewhat small. It was intimidating at first but I flew right threw it because it was too good to put down. As far as I know, and because of the way the story ended, I know this is a standalone novel, but it was so good I could keep reading more like this! If you would like to read “Lore” by Alexandra Bracken use the button below to find it on Amazon! You won’t be sorry.
This Twisted Tale was set up a little differently than the others. It starts with a young girl who has cancer and her brother. While she gets treatments he reads her Rapunzel, her favorite story. He’s tired of it so he decided to make up a Rapunzel story that’s different. That’s how we get the Twisted Tale. I liked this set up a lot. Throughout the story we have short two page chapters that go back to these two characters and their thoughts on the story.
The twist is that Rapunzel’s mom didn’t drink a tea made of the Sundrop flower to gain healing. She drank of the moon drop flower. It gives Rapunzel silver hair. And they believe instead of healing her hair has the power to kill. This is why she’s locked away. But she gets out to see the lights and meets Flynn and another rascal named Gina. They try to take her to the lights but a new adventure unfolds. Rapunzel learns the true powers of her hair that changes with the phases of the moon. Another twist is Mother Gothel is trying to sell her off to the highest bidder. This is where we see the terrifying historical figure, Bathory, who likes to bathe in the blood of virgins. I won’t give it all away, but it was a very interesting and creative twist I really got into.
This story was one of the best in the series. It kept me interested and the characters were familiar and fun. The author did a good job bringing them to life in a new way.
Hercules was one of my favorite 90s Disney movies. It wasn’t your typical princess story, but if you equate being a Greek god to being a princess then it kind of was. I am Greek and I love mythology, so I was very excited to dive into this Twisted Tale as I make my way through the series. And let me tell you, the author delivered and more!
Calonita did a great job of capturing Meg’s voice. In my opinion, it was a hard one but she did a great job of it. In the movie, I’m not the biggest fan of Meg’s. I kind of thought she was annoying. But in the book so much of her background and why she is the way she is finally gets revealed that you can’t help but love her and feel for her. I related so much to Meg’s story! It talks about her history with her mother when she was younger. Her mom was left to raise Megara on her own and because of that they had little and her mother worked a lot and Meg basically had to care for them both and raise herself. It’s every single mom’s worst fear, and I know because I was one. And I get why her mother told her that she can’t trust or rely on anyone else when she was younger, because when you’ve been abandoned by someone you thought loved you, a deep fear implants itself into you and it’s hard to get rid of. Being a single mom, even if it’s only for a short while, imbues you with this great sense of independence that’s hard to turn once it’s there. It’s not always a bad thing either. Even married now, I’m pretty self-sufficient and I think that’s why my husband and I work so well. It takes a lot of pressure off him that I still want to help provide, and that’s because for a while there I didn’t have a choice. I had to. But in doing so I felt a great sense of pride in taking care of my loved ones, and I still do. I also felt for Megara with her guy troubles. So much of the backstory on the man she sold her soul to Hades for is revealed. I don’t want to spoil any of it, because it’s too good, but it touched a place in my heart that has felt some very similar things as Meg. The Twist of the Tale isn’t really a twist at all to the original movie, but more of an extension. It picks up where the movie leaves off with Hercules becoming a god again. In this story, Hera gives Meg the option to become a god too so she can be with Hercules forever on Mount Olympus. Meg has to complete a seemingly impossible challenge that gets the ball rolling in revealing so many layers of Meg we never got to see in the movie.
This was an easy and fun read. It was hard for me to put it down because I loved all the mythology and the characters so much. And not just because their Disney characters. If this was a book separate from Disney, I would have really loved it too. Greek mythology is so fun and there are endless things writers can do with it to create wonderful stories, and this one is a great addition to that genre. I highly recommend the entire Disney Twisted Tales series, but “Go the Distance” especially.
