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A review by obsidian_blue
The Silver Witch by Paula Brackston
4.0
I really loved Paula Brackston's The Witch's Daughter and The Winter Witch. I was not that happy with The Midnight Witch and thought the story started to drag on forever to the point that I no longer cared how we got to the end, I just wanted to get there. I liked The Silver Witch much more than I did The Midnight Witch, but found that I had problems with this book, that were different than the issues I had with the last one.
Told in the third person, we have a book from two character's points of view. First, Tilda a widowed young woman trying to move on with her life. Second, Seren, a woman that lived centuries earlier.
I ended up giving this book just 3.5 stars due to the following:
First, the pacing of this novel was all over the place. I think that having the book broken up into two points of view (one being Tilda and the second being a young woman named Seren) was a good idea. However, with books like this, there tends to be a stronger voice that the reader likes more. In my case, I was invested more in the character of Seren and the passages that detailed her life. The sections dealing with Tilda were not that interesting until the very end of the book when you find out her connection to what is going on. I also had problems with the fact that the character of Tilda remained pretty much a mystery. I think I was already past the halfway point when I got the idea of what was going on with her and how she was "different." I don't need a huge information dump, however pieces of the puzzle being dropped here and there while the author has another "voice" in the novel the reader is supposed to be following as well made it a bit hard to figure out what the big deal with Tilda was and by the time I found out, I mentally shrugged.
Second, the character of Tilda didn't have enough substance for me and her "magic" made no sense.
For example, we hear about her deceased husband, however, I honestly didn't feel the emotion that she should have felt dealing with his loss. I had a lot of tell and not enough show for me. Maybe it would have helped if we had any dialogue/flashbacks providing some glimpses into their relationship. When we have Tilda trying to figure out the mystery of what is going on with her and her visions since I already knew as a reader who she was seeing, I found myself getting bored with those passages. We had to wait until about 3/4 of the book I recall before Tilda caught up with the rest of us readers. Maybe it would have been better, to not have the book broken up by two different voices.
Regarding Tilda's magic, it makes no sense at all. Especially when you figure out her connections. I am still scratching my head at it and decided to not dwell on it anymore.
Third, the romance that was introduced in the novel didn't work for me, for either characters. With regards to Tilda, I didn't feel any chemistry at all between her and her romantic partner. And Seren's romantic partner may end up angering some people.
Seren gets involved with a married Prince.
It didn't bother me. I had more of a problem with the fact that Seren's romantic partner didn't seem real to me. Throughout the entire book this person was just a blank slate and didn't seem to have much of a personality.
I really adored this cover though. I swear that Paula Brackston's covers are some of the prettiest I have ever seen.
Also, like I said, the chapters describing Seren and her life were the best parts of the book for me.I would have loved it if we actually just had a book told from Seren's point of view. Paula Brackston is able to mix storytelling with the history of the regions she writes about very well which is always what I enjoyed about her previous books.
Please note that I received this book for free via the Amazon Vine Program. This book will be released on April 21, 2015.
Told in the third person, we have a book from two character's points of view. First, Tilda a widowed young woman trying to move on with her life. Second, Seren, a woman that lived centuries earlier.
I ended up giving this book just 3.5 stars due to the following:
First, the pacing of this novel was all over the place. I think that having the book broken up into two points of view (one being Tilda and the second being a young woman named Seren) was a good idea. However, with books like this, there tends to be a stronger voice that the reader likes more. In my case, I was invested more in the character of Seren and the passages that detailed her life. The sections dealing with Tilda were not that interesting until the very end of the book when you find out her connection to what is going on. I also had problems with the fact that the character of Tilda remained pretty much a mystery. I think I was already past the halfway point when I got the idea of what was going on with her and how she was "different." I don't need a huge information dump, however pieces of the puzzle being dropped here and there while the author has another "voice" in the novel the reader is supposed to be following as well made it a bit hard to figure out what the big deal with Tilda was and by the time I found out, I mentally shrugged.
Second, the character of Tilda didn't have enough substance for me and her "magic" made no sense.
For example, we hear about her deceased husband, however, I honestly didn't feel the emotion that she should have felt dealing with his loss. I had a lot of tell and not enough show for me. Maybe it would have helped if we had any dialogue/flashbacks providing some glimpses into their relationship. When we have Tilda trying to figure out the mystery of what is going on with her and her visions since I already knew as a reader who she was seeing, I found myself getting bored with those passages. We had to wait until about 3/4 of the book I recall before Tilda caught up with the rest of us readers. Maybe it would have been better, to not have the book broken up by two different voices.
Regarding Tilda's magic, it makes no sense at all. Especially when you figure out her connections. I am still scratching my head at it and decided to not dwell on it anymore.
Third, the romance that was introduced in the novel didn't work for me, for either characters. With regards to Tilda, I didn't feel any chemistry at all between her and her romantic partner. And Seren's romantic partner may end up angering some people.
Spoiler
Seren gets involved with a married Prince.
It didn't bother me. I had more of a problem with the fact that Seren's romantic partner didn't seem real to me. Throughout the entire book this person was just a blank slate and didn't seem to have much of a personality.
I really adored this cover though. I swear that Paula Brackston's covers are some of the prettiest I have ever seen.
Also, like I said, the chapters describing Seren and her life were the best parts of the book for me.I would have loved it if we actually just had a book told from Seren's point of view. Paula Brackston is able to mix storytelling with the history of the regions she writes about very well which is always what I enjoyed about her previous books.
Please note that I received this book for free via the Amazon Vine Program. This book will be released on April 21, 2015.