Review: 3 stars!
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 25, 2014
*I received an eARC of this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.Once I heard that this one was about witches, I had to have it. I just love paranormal stories about these crafty characters, so I took a chance on Salt even though I'd heard really mixed reviews about it. And I had to say, although I enjoyed it, I had a few problems with the plot and the main character.Salt is a story about a witch who doesn't have any powers. She can only feed off of her family's power, yet she still wants to become an Enforcer. And even though she has no power, she's determined to chase down demons and find the one who killed her family. And becoming an Enforcer is what she needs to do to exact vengeance and steal her magic back. Now, I love determined characters, ones who never give up on what they want, no matter how hard the task is. But Penelope made some pretty stupid choices. She had that heroine complex where she ran headfirst into dangerous situations without thinking about the consequences. She tended to not think things through, unless it came to keeping her secret from everyone around her. Because if anyone in the witch community found out that she didn't have any magic, she'd be labeled a Static and kicked out. The only people who know about her are her family. And Carter.Penelope meets Carter when she expels a demon on her own. Only, she didn't actually do it on her own. Somehow, in some way, she's able to pull magic from Carter, and it's so much stronger than when she uses her family members' power.Now, that mystery was stretched to the thinnest point possible throughout the story. Honestly, so much of the story could have been cut out because of how easy everything was to figure out. I actually didn't figure out Penelope's ancestry, but looking back, I don't see how I could have missed it. It was staring right in front of my face, and the characters', yet it was never revealed until practically the end of the book. Also, the whole mystery behind who Carter is was extremely easy to figure out.The relationship between Penelope and Carter was sort of sweet, and sort of bland. Penelope was never sure of her feelings for him or if she wanted to kiss him or punch him. She never even questioned him, tried to figure out his past until later on. And Carter appeared in the beginning as more of a badass than he actually is. You really don't get much from him, except he's tracking demons because they took his mother. I mean, I liked them both as characters, but I think the romance dominated the story-line too much.The plot was simple, yet something kept me turning the pages. I think the author tried to balance out the action, the romance, and the mystery, but it wasn't executed well enough for me. I wanted more action! I wanted more badass demon fights than what we actually get. Because in this book, the characters are training to become Enforcers. They're not actually old enough to even do magic and track demons on their own. Also, the fights were a little disappointing. They were more like Penelope running headfirst into dangerous situations when she has no way of defending herself, and then Carter saving her. I wish they would have been more intense for this type of story-line.Overall, I did enjoy Salt. I'm not too sure I'm enthusiastic about the sequel, though. I liked the characters, but the overall plot was not enough for this type of supernatural book. I wanted more action, and the mystery wasn't that hard to figure out if you were actually paying attention. But all in all, I liked it. :)