Tuesday, April 7, 2015

The Witches of Echo Park by Amber Benson (thoughts)

Summary from Goodreads:

"Unbeknownst to most of humankind, a powerful network of witches thrives within the shadows of society, using their magic to keep the world in balance. But they are being eliminated—and we will all pay if their power falls…

When Lyse MacAllister’s great-aunt Eleanora, the woman who raised her, becomes deathly ill, Lyse puts her comfortable life in Georgia on hold to rush back to Los Angeles. And once she returns to Echo Park, Lyse discovers her great-aunt has been keeping secrets—extraordinary secrets—from her.

Not only is Lyse heir to Eleanora’s Victorian estate; she is also expected to take her great-aunt’s place in the Echo Park coven of witches. But to accept her destiny means to place herself in deadly peril—for the world of magic is under siege, and the battle the witches now fight may be their last…"


My Thoughts:

I'm a sucker for a book featuring witches so I knew as soon as I heard about this one that I wanted to read it.  I'm glad that I took the time to read this one as I found this book to be a refreshing change of pace from all of the mysteries and thrillers that I have been reading as of late.  It was an easy book to find myself immersed in and really a pretty good read.  I had a few qualms with it but overall I liked it a lot!  One of my favorite things about this book were all of the different characters.  The book focused on the various characters at different times individually which allowed for me as the reader to get to know them all a bit better than I usually would and especially with the secondary characters.  I liked this as the focus was of the story was more on the friendship between these women rather than on the mystery of what was coming.  Really as I sit here and think about it more, there is so much more that I want to learn about all of these women and their pasts.  That is a good sign in my opinion! 

While for the most part I really enjoyed this book there were a few things that detracted from my reading experience.  For one, the ending felt incomplete to me and I think that is because this book is really setting up for the rest of the series and what is to come.  I think that the author has lots more to tell with this storyline in future books which has me excited but I was left wanting with this one.  It is hard not to get into spoilers and specifics but what it came down to is that for me this book only tied down one small loose end when I thought there would be more.  This is could just be me as the reader and my personal preferences.  It wasn't a cliff hanger ending which I was grateful for but I just ended the book wishing for more.  That's the best way to put it.  Not the worst of complaints but really for me it took away from the book a bit.  I'm actually kinda curious to see how others felt about it and if I am in the minority (which is entirely possible). 

All in all I enjoyed this one for the most part and will definitely be continuing on with this series.  I was left with lots of questions and anticipation so I'm hoping that we get some of those answers in the next book. Plus, I would love to continue to get to know all of these characters some more!  If you are looking for an urban fantasy series focused on a unique group of women then this is a book not to be missed.  Recommended.

Bottom Line:  A solid read although I really wanted more at the end.

Disclosure:  Checked out from my local library.  Thoughts are my own!

1 comment:

  1. That's too bad about the ending but it does sound like a fun read overall. Cute cover.

    ReplyDelete

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