Sunday 20 April 2014

Book Review - Witch Alone

Title: Witch Alone
Author: Ruth Warburton
Series: The Winter Trilogy (book 3)
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
Release Date: 7 Feb 2013
ISBN-13: 978-1444904710

Synopsis
Where do you go when your heart has been ripped out?
For Anna there is only one answer; into her past, where the truth about her mother, her power, and her real identity lie hidden.
But as Anna delves deeper into her history, she begins to fear that the truth about what set her mother running may be darker than she ever suspected. With the witches of the world on the brink of war, Seth gone, and her friend Abe wanting more from her than she can possibly give, Anna is in crisis.
As the clouds around her gather, Anna is torn between friends, family and rival tribes of witches and – at the last – between love and magic.


My Review
I was desperate to know how this series would end, something had hooked me in and I couldn't leave until I knew how it was all resolved, so I dived straight into this - the final part of the trilogy.
Seth has left Anna and she is heartbroken, trying to get over him she throws herself into learning how to control her magic and also discover more about her past. It's time to find out the truth about her mother, but where to start. As she starts to dig a trail back people start to get hurt and even killed, what does she have to sacrifice to learn the truth and who is behind it all. And most importantly why do they want her?
This book is the longest of the series so far and it felt it, I would be reading and thinking I had done at least 100 pages but had in reality only read about 30. Something about this book just seemed to drag, there is a lot of build up and back story that slows it down again, but it is padded with action and more exciting events.
I liked Anna a bit more, she has matured and is not afraid to fight back now, she's ready to take her stand and show everyone who's boss, but then at the same time she's a bit more selfish, she rushes in and doesn't think about the consequences of others. Her pining for Seth also irritated me a bit - either do something about it or move on. Harsh judgement maybe but it took up so much of the book - her just missing him and moaning.
As for Seth himself, I liked that he stepped up in this book and I liked him more, his past was explained in a bit more detail and that helped me to connect to his character.
We delve into the whole mystery behind Anna's mother's disappearance and I have to admit I was disappointed with the 'reveal'. After all the buildup you then discover what happened to her in one quick paragraph and then they move on to the next fight scene. I wanted more from Anna and actually a better explanation of what had happened and why. 
The whole thing with Marcus didn't surprise me but I loved how that all ended - I'm not giving anything away here :P
Overall I felt a little let down by the ending, there were some things that I felt could have been explained better, but to be honest it wasn't bad, there was enough to satisfy most of my curiosities I just expected more.

My Rating
     


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