The Northern Witch's Book Blog

The Fall of the Misanthrope: I bitch, therefore I am By Louise Wise 5 out of 5 Synopsis Valerie Anthrope is a cut-throat business woman and happy being alone. She answers to no-one. She's The Boss. But enter Ellen in the guise of her fairy godmother wanting to make the world rosy and smelling of marshmallow. How can Valerie cope with this burst of sunshine? It gets worse, Ellen has a nephew who's equally chirpy, but he thinks it's Valerie taking advantage of Ellen and sets out to take her down a peg or two! Review Valerie Anthrope is content with her life. It's logical, and ordered, and has no soft edges. She doesn't need her time wasted with friendships, she'd much rather spend it improving her business. Long time do-gooder Ellen Semple has decided to be Val's self-appointed fairy godmother and make her life better; with a little help from Lex, Ellen's nephew, who just so happens to be the most eligible bachelor around. Ok, so the prologue ...

Water (Akasha #1) By Terra Harmony 1 out of 5 Synopsis *Mature Content* Elemental powers in the palm of her hand...and it won't be enough to save her. When Kaitlyn Alder is involuntarily introduced to a life of magic, she becomes part of an organization hell-bent on saving the Earth. Just as her new-found life holds promises of purpose, romance, and friendship, the organization divides and a rogue member holds Kaitlyn hostage. Now one of the most terrifying men the human race has to offer stands between her and Earth's survival. Review *Spoilers* Kaitlyn is just your average, troubled young woman. After losing her parents, she's never stayed put in one place, never felt the need to connect with people. Then after an avalanche, she regains consciousness on an island where she is to learn the truth about all those little coincidences that niggle away at her. Like the fact that wherever she goes, natural disasters follow - could it really be here causing them? I...

Spell Struck By Nicole J. Fawcett 4 out of 5 Synopsis Rhiannon Grey is a detective in a hectic police headquarters. She’s also a witch, in a society that’s learned not to think too highly of the supernatural, and her boss is a two thousand-year-old vampire. Rian has discovered the hard way that trouble is always just around the corner. This time, trouble is called Griffin King, a fifteen year old runaway whose strangled corpse is found floating in the river. He’s not the first street-kid to vanish recently, or to turn up later, very dead. When Rian starts to suspect he was a witch, too, and that his magic led to his death, her investigation turns into a personal crusade.  No one seems terribly concerned about the fate of a few disappeared urchins, though. And when a series of brutal murders starts panicked speculation about a nest of vampires, Rian’s boss has other things on his mind. But Rian won’t be distracted. Not by bureaucracy, not by murder, and certainly not by he...

The Princes Man (The Five Kingdoms #1) By Deborah Jay 5 out of 5 Synopsis Think James Bond meets Lord of the Rings. Award-winning fantasy, THE PRINCE'S MAN, is a sweeping tale of spies and deadly politics, inter-species mistrust and magic phobia, with a touch of romance.  Rustam Chalice, hedonist, dance tutor and spy, loves his life, never better than when he's bedding a gorgeous woman. So when the kingdom he serves is threatened from within, he leaps into action.  Only trouble is, the spy master, Prince Halnashead, teams him up with an untouchable aristocratic assassin who despises him.  And to make matters worse, she's the most beautiful woman in the Five Kingdoms.  Plunged into a desperate journey through the mountains, the mismatched pair struggle to survive deadly wildlife, the machinations of a spiteful god - and each other.  They must also keep alive a sickly elf they need as a political pawn. But when the elf reveals that Rustam has magic of his...

Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicle #2) By Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl 2 out of 5 Synopsis Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen. She struggles to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. Ethan Wate finally meets the girl who haunts his dreams. On her birthday, she must choose good or evil. In a town with no surprises, this secret could change everything. Review A part of me wishes I hadn't read any reviews before reading this book. There are a few constant themes in the reviews - that it's very long-winded; Ethan acts like a bitchy high school girl; and he spends so much time slating the clearly less intelligent people around them. And it's all true. But I kinda think that if I hadn't known these faults before opening the book, they wouldn't have annoyed me as much as they did. It is a very long book (nearly 600 pages), and I found it hard to keep going, and did pu...

Stitch (Stitch Trilogy #1) By Samantha Durante 4 out of 5 Synopsis Her heart races, her muscles coil, and every impulse in Alessa's body screams at her to run... but yet she's powerless to move. Still struggling to find her footing after the sudden death of her parents, the last thing college freshman Alessa has the strength to deal with is the inexplicable visceral pull drawing her to a handsome ghostly presence. In between grappling with exams and sorority soirees - and disturbing recurring dreams of being captive in a futuristic prison hell - Alessa is determined to unravel the mystery of the apparition who leaves her breathless. But the terrifying secret she uncovers will find her groping desperately through her nightmares for answers. Because what Alessa hasn't figured out yet is that she's not really a student, the object of her obsession is no ghost, and her sneaking suspicions that something sinister is lurking behind the walls of her university...

The Humans by Matt Haig 4 out of 5 Synopsis The critically acclaimed author of  The Radleys  shares a clever, heartwarming, and darkly insightful novel about an alien who comes to Earth to save humans from themselves. “I was not Professor Andrew Martin. That is the first thing I should say. He was just a role. A disguise. Someone I needed to be in order to complete a task.” The narrator of this tale is no ordinary human—in fact, he’s not human at all. Before he was sent away from the distant planet he calls home, precision and perfection governed his life. He lived in a utopian society where mathematics transformed a people, creating limitless knowledge and immortality. But all of this is suddenly threatened when an earthly being opens the doorway to the same technology that the alien planet possesses. Cambridge University professor Andrew Martin cracks the Reimann Hypothesis and unknowingly puts himself and his family in grave danger when the narrator is sent ...