Book Review: Book of Shadows

Title: Book of Shadows (Sweep #1)
Author: Cate Tiernan
Publisher (of this edition): Speak (division of Penguin Group), 2007
Page total: 176 pages
Date read: April 29th, 2010
Genre(s): Young Adult; Urban Fantasy

Reviewed by Ginny

Years from now I’ll look back and remember today as the day I met him. I’ll look back and remember the exact moment my life began to include him. I will remember it forever.

First off, I fell in love with the cover. Then I turned the book and fell in love with the blurb. Here you go:

Something is happening to me that I don’t understand.

I see things, feel things in a new way.
I can do things normal people can’t do.
Powerful things. Magickal things.
It scares me.

I never chose to learn witchcraft.
But I’m starting to wonder if witchcraft is choosing me.

Then I turned the first page, and fell in love with the lettering and the book itself!

Morgan Rowlands, a sixteen year old junior at Widow’s Vale, doesn’t believe in Wicca. Or rather, she hasn’t given it much of thought before she met Cal Blaire, a new student at her school, and was introduced to Wicca. When they cast circle, Morgan feels a strong reaction to it and afterwards, she can see auras of other people, knows who is calling without picking up the phone and can do things normal people can’t do. (I’m not talking about flying on a broomstick.) She also feels a strong pull toward Cal - too bad her gorgeous best friend Bree is madly in love with him and will do anything to get him.
I immediately liked Morgan. It’s written from her perspective, and I just like her character. I think she’ll make a strong heroine. Tiernan’s style of writing is nothing special or unique, but it’s mesmerizing and held my attention from the very beginning till the end. The book is thin, that’s true, but it didn’t feel like reading a 176-page-book. Cate Tiernan didn’t waste time on describing school buildings or how the neighbors look like. It’s hard to describe how reading the book feels like; I’d just recommend it to everyone who is ready to embrace a new world of witchcraft.

5 Kisses!

Quotes:

“Men are natural warriors, but a woman in battle is truly bloodthirsty.”

“Suddenly Cal pushed himself off the bench he’d been leaning against and came to stand in front of me. “What do I have behind my back?” he asked.
My brow creased for a second, then I said, “An apple. Green and red.” It was as if I had seen it in his hand.
He smiled, and brought his hand from around his back and handed me a hard, greenish red apple, with a leaf still attached to its stem.
“Good guess,” Raven said, sounding irritated.
“It wasn’t a guess,” Cal said softly, his eyes on me.”

“Mary K. looked suspiciously out the window. “Is this a jail?” she whispered. “Are we here to be scared straight or something?””