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In Sunshine or in Shadow
10.0
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Retired Detective Molly Murphy Sullivan is back with In Sunshine or in Shadow, the next book in this...
Murder at Marble House
8.0
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For fans of HBO’s The Gilded Age, explore the dark side of the alluring world of America’s 19th...
Kara Skinner (332 KP) rated Witches Gone Wicked in Books
Jun 11, 2019
All Clarissa wants to do is become a powerful witch, learn about her mother, and find her high school sweetheart, Derrick.
But it’s not that simple when she’s all but banned from using her volatile magic, her mother was apparently an evil dictator, and her high school sweetheart was swept away in a tornado. Oh, and she caused the tornado.
But, now that she’s a teacher at Womby’s School for Wayward Witches, she might have a chance to actually become part of the Witchkin community and achieve her goals.
Despite everyone despising her because of her mother, she’s making new friends like Josie, a video-gaming witch who loves all life, and Khaba, a Djinn with a kilt fetish. She’s also getting attention from the very sexy Julien Thistledown.
If only that jerk Felix Thatch would stop patronizing her and let her learn about her mother.
Witches Gone Wicked is essentially Harry Potter fanfiction,which had me skeptical at first, but it was really entertaining at the same time.
Womby’s is the Title I version of Hogwarts. It’s for witchkin too poor to afford other schools as well as ones who were kicked out of other schools. Clarissa, being an art teacher, feels the strain of this with an annual budget of $20. The previous art teacher apparently had the students make mud pie art because of lack of supplies. I really liked the idea of a Title I Hogwarts and found the entire school and the staff really interesting.
Josie and Khaba are really funny and entertaining. Khaba is a bit of a stereotype, but I didn’t mind it that much. Josie was fantastic. Gotta love someone who loves all life and has the guts to treat spiders like puppies.
My favorite character is perhaps Felix Thatch. He’s very sexy and funny and I love almost every scene including him. He’s definitely not a people person by any stretch, but he has a lot of integrity as a teacher and a person that Clarissa just refuses to see.
Clarissa is actually one of my least favorite characters. Her dislike and suspicion of Thatch is near identical to Harry Potter’s dislike of Snape. The only problem is she’s a full-grown woman!
Clarissa has a tendency to blindly trust everyone nice to her, not thinking for a second that anyone has ulterior motives. And she despises Thatch for being brutally honest with her despite proving time and time again that he has integrity as a person and a teacher.
Felix Thatch does the following:
Trains Clarissa to use her magic (granted, the principal ordered him to)
Emphasizes the importance of people wanting to take advantage of her
Makes students write apology letters to her
Lets one of his students read in his classroom during lunchtime
Expresses concern over said student’s habit of hugging male teachers because someone might try to take advantage of her friendly nature.
Meanwhile, Clarissa thinks Thatch:
is secretly trying to kill her
might be trying to enslave her using sex magic
condones student and teacher relationships
It’s completely insane! Hey, who’s the most likely to take advantage of you? Maybe not the guy who keeps warning you about people taking advantage of you.
Clarissa is sometimes funny and relatable. I like how much she cares about her students and her patience with the troublemakers in her class. That’s actually really admirable.
But half the time she’s juvenile and irrational and I just want to shake some sense into her.
She’s the daughter of a powerful witch who apparently terrorized the Witchkin community with evil and forbidden magic. Clarissa never knew her birth mother personally, but she’s treated with suspicion and fear because her mother killed and ruined the lives of basically everyone.
Because of her lineage and her volatile magic, Clarissa is under constant threat of being fired from Womby’s, drained of her magic, and turned into a Morty (Muggle).
So you think she would be really careful, right?
Lol no.
Clarissa goes around saying she wants to be the most powerful witch ever, uses magic when she’s not supposed to, and makes plans to break into the library’s restricted section. It’s a freaking miracle that she didn’t get drained and turned into a Morty.
Here’s another thing: why doesn’t she want to be drained? I really don’t get it. Because of her magic and her mother:
everyone hates her
her sister died
her high school sweetheart blew away in a tornado
Womby’s almost burned down
anyone can turn her into a sex slave
As far as I can tell, there are very few benefits to her having magic and a staggering amount of drawbacks. Call me a defeatist, but if I was Clarissa I would be begging to be drained. Her conviction that magic is her true identity isn’t good enough for me.
All in all, this book is definitely three out of five stars. I enjoyed the worldbuilding and really like Thatch. Some of the magic concepts are surprisingly sexy, which I definitely enjoyed. I just don’t like Clarissa.
But it’s not that simple when she’s all but banned from using her volatile magic, her mother was apparently an evil dictator, and her high school sweetheart was swept away in a tornado. Oh, and she caused the tornado.
But, now that she’s a teacher at Womby’s School for Wayward Witches, she might have a chance to actually become part of the Witchkin community and achieve her goals.
Despite everyone despising her because of her mother, she’s making new friends like Josie, a video-gaming witch who loves all life, and Khaba, a Djinn with a kilt fetish. She’s also getting attention from the very sexy Julien Thistledown.
If only that jerk Felix Thatch would stop patronizing her and let her learn about her mother.
Witches Gone Wicked is essentially Harry Potter fanfiction,which had me skeptical at first, but it was really entertaining at the same time.
Womby’s is the Title I version of Hogwarts. It’s for witchkin too poor to afford other schools as well as ones who were kicked out of other schools. Clarissa, being an art teacher, feels the strain of this with an annual budget of $20. The previous art teacher apparently had the students make mud pie art because of lack of supplies. I really liked the idea of a Title I Hogwarts and found the entire school and the staff really interesting.
Josie and Khaba are really funny and entertaining. Khaba is a bit of a stereotype, but I didn’t mind it that much. Josie was fantastic. Gotta love someone who loves all life and has the guts to treat spiders like puppies.
My favorite character is perhaps Felix Thatch. He’s very sexy and funny and I love almost every scene including him. He’s definitely not a people person by any stretch, but he has a lot of integrity as a teacher and a person that Clarissa just refuses to see.
Clarissa is actually one of my least favorite characters. Her dislike and suspicion of Thatch is near identical to Harry Potter’s dislike of Snape. The only problem is she’s a full-grown woman!
Clarissa has a tendency to blindly trust everyone nice to her, not thinking for a second that anyone has ulterior motives. And she despises Thatch for being brutally honest with her despite proving time and time again that he has integrity as a person and a teacher.
Felix Thatch does the following:
Trains Clarissa to use her magic (granted, the principal ordered him to)
Emphasizes the importance of people wanting to take advantage of her
Makes students write apology letters to her
Lets one of his students read in his classroom during lunchtime
Expresses concern over said student’s habit of hugging male teachers because someone might try to take advantage of her friendly nature.
Meanwhile, Clarissa thinks Thatch:
is secretly trying to kill her
might be trying to enslave her using sex magic
condones student and teacher relationships
It’s completely insane! Hey, who’s the most likely to take advantage of you? Maybe not the guy who keeps warning you about people taking advantage of you.
Clarissa is sometimes funny and relatable. I like how much she cares about her students and her patience with the troublemakers in her class. That’s actually really admirable.
But half the time she’s juvenile and irrational and I just want to shake some sense into her.
She’s the daughter of a powerful witch who apparently terrorized the Witchkin community with evil and forbidden magic. Clarissa never knew her birth mother personally, but she’s treated with suspicion and fear because her mother killed and ruined the lives of basically everyone.
Because of her lineage and her volatile magic, Clarissa is under constant threat of being fired from Womby’s, drained of her magic, and turned into a Morty (Muggle).
So you think she would be really careful, right?
Lol no.
Clarissa goes around saying she wants to be the most powerful witch ever, uses magic when she’s not supposed to, and makes plans to break into the library’s restricted section. It’s a freaking miracle that she didn’t get drained and turned into a Morty.
Here’s another thing: why doesn’t she want to be drained? I really don’t get it. Because of her magic and her mother:
everyone hates her
her sister died
her high school sweetheart blew away in a tornado
Womby’s almost burned down
anyone can turn her into a sex slave
As far as I can tell, there are very few benefits to her having magic and a staggering amount of drawbacks. Call me a defeatist, but if I was Clarissa I would be begging to be drained. Her conviction that magic is her true identity isn’t good enough for me.
All in all, this book is definitely three out of five stars. I enjoyed the worldbuilding and really like Thatch. Some of the magic concepts are surprisingly sexy, which I definitely enjoyed. I just don’t like Clarissa.
ClareR (5879 KP) rated Goodbye, Vitamin in Books
Nov 15, 2017
A stark, realistic look at Alzheimer's
Written as a journal: a year in the life of the main female character. She returns home for a year to help her mother look after her father who has Alzheimer's. He is quite far advanced, but at the beginning he is lucid. As the book progresses, so does his Alzheimer's. It's not just about a child caring for their parent: the main character has split up with her boyfriend and she feels as though she has made a mess of her life. This is her chance to set her life to rights.
This doesn't sugar coat any of the story, and I enjoyed it.
This doesn't sugar coat any of the story, and I enjoyed it.
Laura (4 KP) rated Cruel Crown: Two Red Queen Short Stories in Books
Jan 5, 2018
I enjoyed being able to see what Cal’s mother was like, and early Elara, and what happened between them. It makes sense of the difficulties between certain silver lines and why people always talked about Coriane and Elara because of their powers. It was also good to find out More about Farley. However I felt there should have been more, maybe a full book prequel to how they came about and some more about Farley & shade, an in-depth look at how Elara took the thrown after Coriane’s death. But overall I’m glad we got a sneak preview at the time before the Red Queen series
Suswatibasu (1703 KP) rated Swing Time in Books
Jul 24, 2017
Soul-moving realism
This is probably my favourite Zadie Smith novel, deeply touching with characters bursting to life out of the pages. Hitting on themes of racial identity and pop culture, it is a brilliant contemporary take on what young adults are currently experiencing. From cultural appropriation to the effects of globalisation all summed up in the relationship of one young woman and her peers.
Her relationship with her mother is one of generational divide while with her friend Tracy is one of class divide. The protagonist's character is the epitome of confusion and attempting to find a place in the world. Well worth the praise.
Her relationship with her mother is one of generational divide while with her friend Tracy is one of class divide. The protagonist's character is the epitome of confusion and attempting to find a place in the world. Well worth the praise.
Suswatibasu (1703 KP) rated Moonlight (2016) in Movies
Aug 3, 2017
A rare coming of age film about poverty, race and homosexuality
A moving film finally showing homosexuality in the black community. Don't expect the sugar coating of Brokeback Mountain which seems like The Sound of Music in comparison. It shows the layers of extreme difficulty living as a black man, in a poverty stricken area, surrounded by peers who think one way, and attempting to break free from a drug fuelled mother and the dealers around her. It's visually beautiful and the quiet dialogue highlights the protagonist's wonderful acting.
Suswatibasu (1703 KP) rated Nowhere Child in Books
Aug 23, 2017
Doesn't work as a stand-alone book
I'm not sure what to make of this book. It's interesting, but it doesn't work as a stand-alone story, and requires having knowledge and plot of previous books.
The best character is Emma, who is an absolute saint of a woman, trying to be an appropriate mother figure to her very distressed and damaged stepdaughter all the while trying to protect her from gangsters. The first half of the book shows the stepdaughter Tasha living in the streets having run away from a perilous situation and attempting to trust people again. It's okay but a little over the top.
The best character is Emma, who is an absolute saint of a woman, trying to be an appropriate mother figure to her very distressed and damaged stepdaughter all the while trying to protect her from gangsters. The first half of the book shows the stepdaughter Tasha living in the streets having run away from a perilous situation and attempting to trust people again. It's okay but a little over the top.
Whatchareadin (174 KP) rated Midwives in Books
May 10, 2018
Sibyl Danforth is not licensed to deliver babies, but it was her calling. Being a lay midwife she gets no greater joy than bringing children in the world for women who want to have them at home. But one home birth goes horribly wrong and despite every effort to save the mother she has to do what she can to save the baby. The next thing she knows she is on trial for involuntary manslaughter. Midwives is told from the point of view of Danforth's 14 year old daughter. Will she escape the charge or be forced to give up the job she loves so much.
MelanieTheresa (997 KP) rated Dark Places in Books
May 16, 2018
I was literally hooked from the very first page. I found myself completely invested in the story, dying to know WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS FAMILY?? Diondra - I would've liked to have punched her in the face throughout the story. I couldn't believe she killed one of the girls! When she went to jail, I felt quite satisfied. And the mother hiring the Angel of Debt? I definitely did not see that coming. One night that went horribly, horribly wrong for everyone involved. It was interesting to me that the author left Crystal "in the wind," so to speak. I suppose that could be considered an opening for a sequel...