Monday, March 5, 2012

White Witch by Trish Milburn

White Witchby Trish Milburn is published by Bell Bridge Books and was released on March 1, 2012 and is 188 pages.


Witchcraft Is Her Family’s Business.No One Quits The Family And Lives To Tell About It. “Jax” Pherson has power, enough power to know her future will end in service to the dark coven her father controls. Unless she can stay hidden in a small community in the mountains of North Carolina. She must find a way to live without magic and deny the darkness she feels welling up inside her—the same dark power that fuels the covens around the world. All she wants is a normal life. A boyfriend. Friends. Some place to belong, but all too soon Jax’s barely begun new life hangs in the balance when she discovers that the boy she’s attracted to is sworn to kill her kind. He’s a hunter with good reason to kill everything that goes bump in the night. Even the most fleeting use of her power is tantamount to signing her death warrant and will bring both hunter and coven down on her. But can she walk away when her friends are threatened by an old evil? Something created by the magic of witches? Jax’s only hope of survival is to convince the boy she loves to forget everything he’s ever been taught and help her find a way to fight the covens. To believe there is some good in her.
THE FAERYS VIEW


White Witch by Trish Milburn was absolutely fantastic! I picked it up thinking that it would be a predictable story that goes something like this: Witch + Witch Hunter = Instant Attraction until Witch Hunter finds out that Witch is a Witch but they work it out and it’s Happily Ever After for everyone. I was so very wrong and so very glad to be wrong! White Witch is full of surprises and literally edge or your seat page turning! Ms. Milburn creates a whole new spin on witch covens that I found utterly fascinating. I was completely engrossed from the first page until the last and felt so disappointed when the book was over and below you’ll find out why.


White Witch is written in first person point of view by the main character, Jax. By reading the synopsis that I provided from Goodreads you’ll get a fairly good idea about the general plot but the most important sentence is this one:


Witchcraft Is Her Family’s Business.No One Quits The Family And Lives To Tell About It.


Sixteen year old Jax has finally escaped her evil almost Mafia like coven(s), family included, in Miami and settled down in a small community that feels like home. Yes, she’s traded in her posh Miami luxuries for a tiny trailer but being free of the tyranny and truly wicked coven is worth it. Jax is free to be a normal teenager as she’s always longed to be. Unfortunately, being ‘normal’ just isn’t in the cards for Jax. Jax is supernaturally gorgeous-something that goes with being born into a family that hates humans and is out for retribution and revenge for the one family killed in the Salem Witch Trials. Although, Jax thinks their greed for power and money has replaced those original reasons long long ago. Theirs is a perverse pleasure in harming humans for personal gain and for fun and when Jax turns seventeen she must prove her loyalty to the coven by taking a human life using mind control. Jax has used mind control before while in the hottest night clubs in Miami-making a happy couple break up by having one say or do something horrendous, etc… Jax hates the way she feels when she does this but its part of her training and to not do it will lead to disloyalty and disloyalty leads to death. Death in this particular coven is not a pretty thing; it is long and drawn out, lasting hours until finally the offender’s last light goes out in their eyes.


Jax has planned her escape meticulously; saving money, leaving false trails for the coven to follow-Jax knows this is something she can’t screw up. As Jax travels in her vintage 1969 cranberry Beetle and small RV trailer, she finds the perfect spot; a small RV park in the high country of North Carolina, for some reason this place feels like home. There’s only one problem: the night before she starts attending the local high school she takes a walk along the highway to calm her nerves and a truck goes by speeding and almost hits her, panicking, Jax uses her inhumanly fast speed to delve into the woods. The male that gets out of the truck walks to the edge of the woods and Jax sees that he’s close to her age but what really disturbs her is that he’s holding a bloodstone, a stone that can tell if anything supernatural is nearby. This means that Jax found the perfect place to call home---only it has a hunter. This perfect SMALL town has a hunter and she's cuddled in nice and cozy already and doesn't want to leave.


The next day Jax starts school and immediately sees her hunter and yes, insta-love does happen but in this case it feels right. The hunter, Keller Dawes can’t keep his eyes off her but neither can any other boy in the school-did I mention how gorgeous Jax is? The difference is Keller’s looking at her with a hint of suspicion in his eyes, there aren’t to many people in this small little town with light blonde hair down to their waist and Jax fears he got a better look at her then she originally thought.
Throughout the day Jax becomes the envy of every girl and she’s like honey to bears with the boys but on the plus side she finds a friend that she immediately clicks with, Toni Dawes. Toni is a spunky blonde with pink streaks in her hair, marches to her own drummer and wears a different Joss Whedon (GO JOSS!) T-shirt every day with some pretty cool Buffy the Vampire quotes:


“I mock you with my monkey pants” (Gotta love Oz when he speaks), “Joss Whedon is my master now”, “Hostile 17 stole my Kittens”


It isn’t long before the two are bestest of friends and doncha know it but swoon-worthy yet moody Keller is Toni’s cousin and they’re extremely close. Toni is all for a match and the more Keller watches Jax the more he becomes convinced she wasn’t the girl on the side of the road. Keller soon stops with the staring and glaring and makes his move:




“He pulls me into his arms, crushing my body next to his, and kisses me like the heroes in movies kiss heroines. Like Angel kisses Buffy. Like Spidey’s upside-down kiss with Mary Jane. Like Will kisses Elizabeth in the middle of the battle in Pirates of the Caribbean. Like I’ve only fantasized about being kissed. Deeply, hungrily, so full of emotion my adrenaline is on fire. An EPIC kiss.


Swoooooooonnnn, Melt, For Fan-faery-tastic smoochin', I think I almost had the vapors there for a minute---I needed Keller to catch me before I fell but no, he was to busy mackin' on Jax! Back to the review now, the short interlude is over, sigh!


Jax makes sure to fit in, only loses it a few times when the requisite mean girl who’s crushing on Jax’s now boyfriend, Keller, does some pretty awful things to her but she’s able to rein her power back in before anyone notices. Jax still gets to experience the life of a ‘normal’ teenage girl and she’s never been happier but she can’t help but worry about the what if’s; she doesn’t want to put her friends in danger by association and she really doesn’t want to leave this community but there’s an impending sense of doom looming over her that she can’t ignore.
It isn’t long though before someone from Jaxs past finds her and her ‘maybe’ worries soon increase to ‘when’ worries. Jax is certain that if her coven doesn’t get her then some serious and deadly hunters will.


Ms. Milburn wrote a novel that kept me reading long into the night; she kept the tension high without ever losing the point of the story. I thoroughly enjoyed this unique outlook on witches/covens and it was part of what endeared Jax to me, her desire to fight the inner evil that she’s been told all her life was bred into her blood. Ms. Milburn’s detailed depiction of North Carolina’s forests and mountains made the setting so realistic it was as if I was there myself. As for the characters! Wow, amazing how quickly I became invested in them! To say that she accurately described them would be a bit of an understatement! The battle scenes were written so beautifully and so clearly that I knew exactly what was happening on both sides, that is somewhat rare-usually those types of scenes are extremely lengthy and confusing-not so with White Witch. I both loved and hated the cliffie at the end but I am so looking forward to the next book in this series!


THE FAERY SAYS THIS BOOK SET MY WINGS A-FLUTTER!


Thank you Netgalley and to Bell Bridge Books for allowing me to view this galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

12 comments:

  1. I have to be honest. I wouldn't have though there was so much action because of the cover. The figure is to stoic in the composition. However, I'm glad to know I am wrong. This sounds like a good on the edge of your seat type of book. I will have to wishlist it!

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    1. The cover didn't stir me very much, but I TRY so very hard not to let that color my opinion of the book (My New Years resolution last year was to become and Uncover Love, LOL) sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't...

      There's a lot of action but the biggest thing is how quickly Jax endears herself to the reader (that'd be me)! Her descriptives of what life was like within the coven, living underneath a hunter's nose and ultimately dealing with her coven is page turning action!

      I thought it was fantastic and can't wait for the next book!

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    2. I'm off for some labs and a Dr.s appt but at least this one is in town :o]

      I'll be back to do some visiting soon!

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  2. I like books that combine the best of a mob story (you can never escape the family) with a paranormal element. Sounds good!

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  3. Wow! Sounds like such an awesome read if the tension doesn't drop! I haven't read a good witch book since..Harry Potter...? Hmmm...
    Thanks again for sharing this!

    Vivian @ Vivaciously, Vivian

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  4. Hmmm, sounds like a great read. And one I've not heard of before. :) Thanks!

    I do hope you are doing well dear. :) Take care! Hugs!

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    1. It really was! Not what I was expecting and I was pleasantly surprised!

      It's a quick read with only 188 pages but those 188 pages are full of tension, romance and definite thrills w/ chills!

      I'm doing better, I look like someone punched me in the nose! My eyes are so black underneath from Megoblastic Anemia.
      I had my injections on Monday, Labs yesterday and just got a phone call to repeat my injections. Problem is, I was dehydrated which actually would make them lower. They're non-fasting tests but I have no appetite/thirst I drink what they put in front of me which is usually weak Iced Green Tea w/Honey, Power-Ade, Water, Broth, etc...I can't stand the protein shakes-they make me gag no matter how much hersheys and ice cream they put in them I can still taste/smell the protein powder-tis nasty as all hell! :(
      My Red Blood Cells are extremely low (this is a big part of Megoblastic Anemia along with low B-12 and Folate) and chances are if they don't start to increase this week I'll end up with blood transfusions by Friday.
      Other than that, I feel fine :o] seriously! Just extremely weak and tired.

      So, I have to wait 3 days repeat labs which they'll do ASAP, if my RBC's are still really low and haven't show much elevation, I'll have to go to the ER for Blood Transfusions.

      Wish me luck! I so hate the thought of another persons blood going in me! As many transfusions as I've given and still, the thought of someone elses blood mixing with mine is just.... unfathomable to me! YUCK!

      I'll do what I have to and I am as optimistic as always!

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  5. I've never heard of this book before but it sounds so good I'll definately be checking it out,great review, new follower

    www.headstuckinabook.blogspot.com

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  6. This one sounds really great! I haven't heard of it but I love witch books! I'll have to keep this one in mind.
    Great job with the review. Do you need to have Bear lick you to bring you back down to earth?

    Heather

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  7. I never heard of this book before, but your review was great!

    I'm a new follower now ^^

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  8. Ooh, a witch book! Thanks for the review, sounds like a fun read. :-)

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  9. Nice! Sounds really good! I like when books take me by surprise. Great review.

    Magical Urban Fantasy Reads
    bookluvrmindy

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