I read Ms. Argyle's Witch Song novel more than a year ago and I really liked it. Her world of witches and Guardians was very exciting and I loved the thought of witches having power through their songs. There were some pacing issues that I didn't care for and a whole secondary plot that would have been more suited in a sequel since in my opinion it made the first book overly long. However, I still really liked the novel and was pleased to see that there was another novel about the world of witches and Guardians.

In book two of her "Witch Song" series we still follow Brusenna otherwise known as Senna who due to her saving all of the witches in the last novel is now an Apprentice. Finally getting to work with other witches Senna has never felt more alone. Someone is targeting Senna and trying to delay her attempts to lift a curse that the witches leveled at Tarten in the last novel. Readers also get to catch up with Senna's Guardian and also betrothed Joshen.

All in all I found this novel was much improved when it came to flow and through the main character Senna. The novel had very short chapters and all the while you can feel the tension building in the novel until the very end. I also loved that Ms. Argyle introduced more back story into the history of the witches and that we had some more songs that were not introduced in the last novel.

However, there were some issues that I had with some of the writing that ended up distracting me. For example, in one passage we have Senna "traveling" and to do that a soul leaves a body. Well then all of the writing afterwards talks about how the air felt against Senna's body, how the wind ruffled her hair, etc. To me that was strange since I had just read she left her body so I really don't follow how she was able to feel anything. There were several other parts of the novel that had writing such as this which made no sense as you read.

Also Senna's relationship with Joshen I thought were clumsily done. Joshen and Senna's fighting throughout the novel made very little sense since Senna acted as if Joshen was betraying her by wanting to keep her safe. Considering the fact that both of them are portrayed as older teens in this novel I can excuse common sense from them but other than that I felt like it was a poor move to try to introduce a not needed love triangle into the mix.

Finally, though I liked the main plot and Senna finding out more about the witches I really didn't understand how such secrets were kept from all of the witches at Haven. Especially since we have Senna talking about them with a main character who recalls what happened in the past. As I said things like that made no sense in the overall story.

I still really did enjoy this novel though I had the issues I mentioned above. ( )

Last night, when I’d finished reading Witch Born, a lot of sentences were swirling in my head. They all described exactly how I felt about the book and they were perfect to share my feelings with you in a review.
And then I fell asleep.
Off course, after waking up this morning I couldn’t remember a thing. This had me frustrated ALL DAY LONG. God, this was such a perfect review in my head. I’ll try to recreate it as accurately as I can.

I don’t give five dragons that easily, certainly not to YA books. I’ve outgrown most of them, but I still like to read a few to search for the pearls among them. This is one of those pearls. A big and shiny one.
What made me decide to give this five dragons?
First of all the credibility of this story. There are a lot of fighting scenes and Senna never leaves a confrontation unscathed. Along her journey she gathers a lot of scars, on her body as well as her soul. She’s the kind of girl that wants to do good, she wants to solve problems even if that means risking everything she has and is. “If you fail, stand up, dust yourself off and try again” seems to be the perfect motto for our heroine.

I can believe this story, I found myself wrapped in it for hours on end, completely immersed in the world Amber created. To give an example:
I’m a Uni student, so as some of you might know, I go out now and then. Another thing you should know about me: I can’t go to sleep without reading a few pages. On Monday I got home at 1 in the night and decided to read just a few pages before I’d go to sleep. When I looked up again and glanced at the clock, it was 3 in the night/morning. Not that good for my hours of sleep that night, but it says a lot about the book. I hadn’t noticed at all that 2 hours had passed, that’s how absorbed I was.

The book starts off with an explosion of action that pulls you into the story right away.
Actually, the whole story is a rollercoaster of new discoveries and twists that I’d never seen coming and fast-paced action that got me glued to the pages. The author kept me guessing about a lot of characters, I just couldn’t figure out who to trust. I think I suspected every single one of the characters during the story.

Senna is going through a lot of changes that leave her confused and kind of alone. She doesn’t know what’s happening to her and no one seems to want to tell her. In Witch Born I had a better connection with Senna than in Witch Song. She has grown so much since the beginning. She’s not a frightened little girl defenseless when harassed by a market vendor anymore. I like this confident, more mature Senna.

I could keep going on about this book, but I’ll end the review here and let you discover the rest of the wonderful things in this tale for yourself. ( )