Double, Double Toil and Trouble, Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble...
This is the first Jennifer Lee Carrell book I've read, and unfortunately this book doesn't identify itself as a sequel, or even a part of the series. For the first couple of chapters, I kept re-reading back wondering who a couple of these characters were, and why the author was describing them as if the reader should already be familiar with them. Once I had that realized I was fine, since one does not need to read the first book in order to follow the second.
I chose this book for subject matter - historical fiction elements, Shakespeare (specifically Macbeth) and witches. The author clearly did her research and it was interesting learning about the curse of Macbeth. She also was pretty accurate when describing the Wiccan aspects, which is a refreshing break from reading stuff about Wiccans and witches who have super hero-like powers - sorry, maybe it's just me, but I like my witchiness to be realistic.
A couple of things I didn't like - I kept trying to get a sense of timing in the story, but couldn't. At one point it seemed like the main character didn't change her clothes for days! This left me wondering how long it took to solve the mystery. Also, at one point the main character makes an unprepared for trans-Atlantic flight and back in seemingly no time, which again, wasn't realistic enough for me.
Overall, the book felt like a mash up of a British lit lesson, The DaVinci Code and a good sprinkling of the occult and witchcraft for readers like me who'll read anything on the latter.
This is the first Jennifer Lee Carrell book I've read, and unfortunately this book doesn't identify itself as a sequel, or even a part of the series. For the first couple of chapters, I kept re-reading back wondering who a couple of these characters were, and why the author was describing them as if the reader should already be familiar with them. Once I had that realized I was fine, since one does not need to read the first book in order to follow the second.
I chose this book for subject matter - historical fiction elements, Shakespeare (specifically Macbeth) and witches. The author clearly did her research and it was interesting learning about the curse of Macbeth. She also was pretty accurate when describing the Wiccan aspects, which is a refreshing break from reading stuff about Wiccans and witches who have super hero-like powers - sorry, maybe it's just me, but I like my witchiness to be realistic.
A couple of things I didn't like - I kept trying to get a sense of timing in the story, but couldn't. At one point it seemed like the main character didn't change her clothes for days! This left me wondering how long it took to solve the mystery. Also, at one point the main character makes an unprepared for trans-Atlantic flight and back in seemingly no time, which again, wasn't realistic enough for me.
Overall, the book felt like a mash up of a British lit lesson, The DaVinci Code and a good sprinkling of the occult and witchcraft for readers like me who'll read anything on the latter.
Love that cover...but it sounds like it was a bit hard to really get into...
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