i really enjoyed this read. It gave me massive reagency romance vibes but with a magic twist. The romance in this book def suprised me and it was not what i expected. I really liked how magic and witch craft was at the heart of this read but also unique. It was a really fast pace read. I also liked the mystery that was at the heart of the read that had so many twists and turns that was hard to predict!! I am hppeful we will get a second book! ( )

i really enjoyed this read. It gave me massive reagency romance vibes but with a magic twist. The romance in this book def suprised me and it was not what i expected. I really liked how magic and witch craft was at the heart of this read but also unique. It was a really fast pace read. I also liked the mystery that was at the heart of the read that had so many twists and turns that was hard to predict!! I am hppeful we will get a second book! ( )

When Frances accidentally discovers her own magical abilities, two women spirit her to the Haxahaven Academy for Magic. She loves the school, but after growing frustrated with the headmistress’s limits, starts seeking outside lessons and growing power.

Series Info/Source: This is first book in The Witch Haven series. There are two books in this series. I borrowed this ebook through Kindle Unlimited.

Thoughts: This was okay but not great. It reminds me of too many other YA historical fantasy books out there. There really wasn't anything special here that grabbed my attention, I almost stopped reading it a number of times because I found the main protagonist pretty annoying. The side characters aren't strong enough to redeem her.

The story follows 17 year old Frances who is a seamstress in a sweatshop. Her brother mysteriously dies months prior and she is set on solving the mystery of his death. When her boss attacks her, she ends up using a strange power to save herself and suddenly finds herself whisked off to the Haxahaven Sanitarium, a secret witch school. At first she loves it there but then she starts to uncover some secrets that show the school's true colors.

Everything about this book was just so mediocre. The premise has been done many times before and the characters all felt bland to me. Frances in particular bothered me. She constantly pushes a "girl power attitude" in her head but then is constantly seeking approval from the boys and men around her, it was a bit nauseating. She is also one of those heroines that just makes a lot of bad decisions that the reader can see are bad decisions from a mile away...I found her irritating.

Some of the side characters are okay, but they are very much left on the sidelines. None were interesting enough to distract from Frances's lameness.

I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was decent. I felt like the whole story was a bit overly dramatic and couldn't figure out if it was the narration style or the writing that was causing that. There is no humor in here and I found it to be generally overly dramatic and dry feeling.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this was okay, I just didn't find myself really enjoying this...it seemed too similar to so much other YA fantasy I've read. Everything in here was just kind of..well..blah. Technically the writing is fine and if you want a typical YA fantasy to read and don't mind "girl power" heroines that cater to the men in their lives, you might enjoy this. I won't be reading the second book in the series. ( )

This book was fine. The characters were fine. The story was fine. The writing was fine. There were a few things that were silly, but they were so small that they were easy to overlook. One thing that I found difficult to overlook was that (view spoiler)

This book also felt like The Diviners fan fiction. There are way too many similarities. It's like that meme - Sure, you can copy my homework. Just switch it up a bit.

Overall, I think this book has some interesting ideas, but those ideas could have been executed better. In fact, if you want to see all these ideas and more executed perfectly you should read The Diviners by Libba Bray. ( )