Review: Read both books in this set and you won't be disappointed
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 27, 2013
Run,Witch,Run (Mountain Witch Saga) by  Jonathan GrimmI purchased this eBook off of a recommend and the blurb that Amazon has listed with the book. It seemed potentially to be out of my usual fare but as it turns out the scientific explanations for the magic were handled quite well and could plausibly place this in the Science Fiction realm.I enjoyed the first book though I was left a bit puzzled by the ending and went on to read some reviews for the second book before I realized that to do a proper review it might be necessary to purchase and read the second book. That's just me and how my mind works.I'm not sure why the author decided to make this two books as the total number of pages is less than 400 and the second book is only 158 of those. Still the first book does somehow wrap up enough to be considered complete. From the reviews there might be some confusion for anyone who tries to read only the second book. I didn't have a problem with it but then I had all the background from the first book to get me past any difficulties. I think for anyone to appreciate these books they should purchase both and read them in order. The price of each is not that bad and I would expect to pay as much for the 400 page book.The first book Run, Witch, Run is the story of an orphan,Rachel, who is beginning to realize special powers that would be considered out of the ordinary. She's being tutored by, Katie, a person who has introduced herself as a Mountain Witch.Rachel is hiding her talent and just trying to get through life with her adoptive parents and her situation, which seems to be leaving her isolated from other teens her age.The Mountain Witch, who is a child size person, has warned her about others who will try to abduct her and is trying to teach her how to hone her abilities so that Rachel can evade these others. Katie also warns Rachel of other creatures out there that might try to harm her. All of these seem to come from some other dimensional space through some sort of gateway.In what seems to be a side story there is a possible serial killer or kidnaper who has abducted several girls and the reader is introduced to Candice who is an investigator who later plays an important part in the story.After a confrontation with her adoptive father while at church,(we never seem to know which faith it is except that it's not Mormon) Rachel decides to run away both to get away from the situation and to try to draw away the mysterious others who she can sense are all around her now waiting for a chance to grab her.She feels in a way she is shielding her adoptive parents from whatever harm may come.While in flight she meets  Dan and Eric, father and son. These two also will play important parts later.They consider themselves as devout agnostics. I'm not sure what significance the religion or lack thereof is to this story- probably not that much since it's not really mentioned much afterwards.The tale of Rachel's attempt to survive on her own catapults the story into the second part which takes us into more of what looks like magic than science. It sets the reader up for the coming conflict that puts Rachel at the center.It's an exciting story well written though I'm not sure I'd set it down to a YA without first examining some understanding about some of the minor charterer's prejudicial attitudes about certain types of people. I know of some older people that would agree with these misguided characters; who are clearly display enormous ignorance and prejudice.It has an interesting take on the human soul and what happens when people leave this realm of life.I enjoyed both books and think most people who like fantasy science fiction and stories with magic and witches will.I would very much recommend to anyone interested in reading this book, to read both books in order to gain the full understanding of the story the author is telling.J.L. Dobias