Review: Loved Witch Fall and Awakening!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 23, 2014
WITCH FALL - This series is one of my favorite fantasy series of all time. I love the world building, I loved Brusenna in Witch Song and Witch Born, I love the concept of the witches controlling nature with their songs, and everything else about these books. So I was so excited to get my hands on and read Witch Fall!I've always wondered about Lilette, since we only  get brief glimpses of her in the first two books. Witch Rising was a nice little introduction to her, but this book was incredible. Lilette is such an interesting character, and I am so glad we got the chance to learn about her and her sacrifices. She's the strongest witch ever born, but she's still flawed and I really appreciated that about her. I think it makes her feel more real, and more relatable, and I definitely felt for her every time her choices caused her or those around her to be hurt in one way or another.I thought the romance in this book was also really well done. There is no instalove or any love triangles, and that was a nice departure from most YA fantasy. The relationship is complicated at times and definitely hard, but it worked for them. I also felt like the relationship was very real, since normal relationships are not without their issues. I mean, these were extraordinary circumstances and not your typical problems, but still. It was well done. Even the friendships were handled nicely, and even though things didn't always work out, at least there was a reasoning and an explanation for why. Everything is incredibly understandable.The plot moves along quickly, but I never found myself confused or having to flip back several pages to find out what the heck just happened. It flows nicely, and jumps in time are handled appropriately. Everything is very fast-paced, and it definitely is not a book you'll want to put down! I kept picking it up whenever I had even just a couple minutes, just to find out what was next.Even though the world is pretty well established from the first two books, it was really neat to see the world before Brusenna - a world were witches are revered and respected and not hunted. Watching the world shift was definitely really interesting, and surprising that one power-hungry witch was the cause for it.I would totally recommend this series for anyone who enjoys YA fantasy, especially those about witches and nature. I would specifically recommend this book  to anyone who has read the other Witch Song books as well. Definitely one you don't want to miss. You could even start here and then read the other two books - I don't think you'd be terribly confused. Although I would recommend reading Witch Rising before reading this book. 5/5!AWAKENING - I'm not really familiar with Celtic mythology, but that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy reading books that have a basis in it. Luckily, this book had enough of a background and enough explanations that it didn't matter that I knew very little!I especially loved the way that Rourke's past ties in to the history of Ireland and Irish dancing. I'm not sure if some of the explanations were real stories in Celtic mythology or if Tir na nOg is an actual place in their stories or not, but it all felt like it could be, which I really thought was nice. We only learn a little bit of Tir na nOg in this book, so I'm looking forward to the rest of the series because I hope we learn more! Star Valley, WY is interesting enough, but I would have loved to have spent some more time in Tir na nOg.Since this book is in the Girls on Fire boxed set, I knew the heroine was going to be one spunky girl who wouldn't back down even when presented with situations that seemed (and were) out of this world. McKayla is willing to accept things that other people might be hesitant to accept because she knows that it's the best explanation. She does keep secrets when she needs to, but she's also always the first one to jump in when anyone needs help, especially her Aunt Avril. I'm really excited to see how she continues to grow in the next book and use her newly discovered powers to rescue her friends in need!There's also quite a bit of romance in this book, and many types of relationships are explored. Most of them have their fair share of heartbreak and problems, but the characters are all willing to try and work things out, for the most part. The relationships all felt very real, even if there was a bit of magic interwoven with them, and it was really fun to watch them progress. Especially because the book often changes perspectives (it's mostly first person from McKayla's perspective, but we also see a little third person from Rourke and Leah), we get to see how some of the secondary characters feel about everything.There were a few parts that just seemed really convenient and I wasn't entirely convinced that things would ever have worked out so nicely, but it helped the story progress at a decent pace so I was willing to overlook most of it. Overall though, it's still an excellent book with an awesome heroine, and I will definitely be doing whatever I can to get my hands on a copy of Displaced ASAP! This book was very well written, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone even vaguely interested in Celtic mythology or just mythologies in general. I also think fans of YA fantasy novels would really enjoy this one. I would give it a 4/5!