Review: Do NOT start series here.  This book is best for witch series addicted fans. .
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 23, 2013
First off before all her fans turn on me; I love the witch central series.  I have read them all.  But I found this to be one of the slowest in the series.  The redeeming points are the price is very reasonable and the last 10 % recaptures the joy of the series.  But the first 90% of the book of the book was very slow, almost boring.  If you have been reading the series you probably have to read this book just just to keep up on happenings.  If not, this is a very bad place to start, as you will not know the characters and the initial slow beginning may  turn you off on the entire series.What went wrong:We are supposed to heavily sympathize with a mother being unable to get pregnant.  But she already has one child, which negates a lot of empathy from couples who cannot conceive.  She is focused on creating a specific male child instead of love and acceptance of any healthy child.  She already has a very fulfilling life with a loving family, commercial success and a husband and healthy child now.  Thus sympathy emotionally was just too difficult evoke.  The author tries to offset the lack of potential empathy by making the child magically fated; but this seems to trivialize the pain of totally childless couples.The side plots were simplistic and flat.  What should everyone get for Christmas, although timely with the books publishing, was a trivial side line especially once magic became involved in the gift giving.  None of the gifts really resonated with reader as truly life changing, except perhaps Trinity's hidden talent.  Trinity's story was not developed as much as it deserved; almost feeling like an after though thrown in to stretch the book.As a side note, was I the only person that found it hard to reconcile any parents giving up their healthy toddler for adoption  after 15 months just because they were getting a divorce?  Neither parent or any relatives wanted to keep the child?What went rightAs always the author is very inexpensive in setting her price.The growth of the magic orb's personality has potential.The last 10 percent of the book made me laugh with joy and cry with happiness.I thought about giving the book four stars because of the things I listed that went right.  But, I was concerned that I would be doing a  disservice to potential readers by not providing a balanced review.  I was also slightly concerned that all the initial reviews were rave five star reviews by what appeared to be rabid series fans.  When you read their review they could have applied to any book in the series, almost as if they sitting on shelf waiting for the book to be published before the book was read.  The potential reader needed a warning that this was not the best book in the series and also to avoid ruining the series for readers who started the series by reading this book.