Sarah Jane AvoryRezensionen

This is the Authors debut novel, and the first in the Briley Witch Chronicles. If you are highly religious, or completely against the idea of magic, witches and unusual things happening to ordinary people, you may want to give this one a miss.

I’m going to start in this review by heading straight to the part of this book I didn’t like, and that was the main protagonist. The fact that I didn’t like her one bit made it a chore rather than a pleasure to keep reading this book to the end. So much so, it almost received the dubious pleasure of being the first book I have ever left unfinished. The main character finds themselves whisked from her ordinary everyday life into another world and, while this can be disconcerting and hard to get used to, she complains and moans her whole way through the book. She is such a negative person, and full of so much low self-esteem, that I felt she needed therapy rather than the chance to discover new and interesting things about herself. There is one redeeming character in this book, and it is her cat; obviously a magical beast as it provides an excellent balance and provides reality checks for our ‘Minnie the Moaner’. As this is the first book in this series, I am hoping that Author is going to allow the main protagonist to grow out of and deal with all her insecurities, to develop into a person some readers may like; it is possible that after reading this book some readers may already like her, but she was not for me.

Outside of the dislike I had for the main character, this Author has done an outstanding job in writing this book, it is well written and put together in such a manner that it flows along nicely. Despite its slow beginning which covers some routes that have been covered before, the Author manages to make the new world she is building seem almost real. As well as magic, the Author covers certain mysteries in the novels pages that are uncovered and solves as the book progresses; this helps the book become a stronger piece of work and also picks up the pace of the storyline.

I would recommend this book to YA readers and anyone who enjoys a fantasy read that contains a small helping of fairytales.
Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2013/09/19/review-the-spirit-of-a-witch-sarah-jane-av...




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

This is the Authors debut novel, and the first in the Briley Witch Chronicles. If you are highly religious, or completely against the idea of magic, witches and unusual things happening to ordinary people, you may want to give this one a miss.

I’m going to start in this review by heading straight to the part of this book I didn’t like, and that was the main protagonist. The fact that I didn’t like her one bit made it a chore rather than a pleasure to keep reading this book to the end. So much so, it almost received the dubious pleasure of being the first book I have ever left unfinished. The main character finds themselves whisked from her ordinary everyday life into another world and, while this can be disconcerting and hard to get used to, she complains and moans her whole way through the book. She is such a negative person, and full of so much low self-esteem, that I felt she needed therapy rather than the chance to discover new and interesting things about herself. There is one redeeming character in this book, and it is her cat; obviously a magical beast as it provides an excellent balance and provides reality checks for our ‘Minnie the Moaner’. As this is the first book in this series, I am hoping that Author is going to allow the main protagonist to grow out of and deal with all her insecurities, to develop into a person some readers may like; it is possible that after reading this book some readers may already like her, but she was not for me.

Outside of the dislike I had for the main character, this Author has done an outstanding job in writing this book, it is well written and put together in such a manner that it flows along nicely. Despite its slow beginning which covers some routes that have been covered before, the Author manages to make the new world she is building seem almost real. As well as magic, the Author covers certain mysteries in the novels pages that are uncovered and solves as the book progresses; this helps the book become a stronger piece of work and also picks up the pace of the storyline.

I would recommend this book to YA readers and anyone who enjoys a fantasy read that contains a small helping of fairytales.
Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2013/09/19/review-the-spirit-of-a-witch-sarah-jane-av...




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

I found this book lots of fun. The protagonist reminded me a bit of detective Monk. Briley is a different kind of hero, refreshing and fun due to being most of the time humanly uncertain, almost until the last minute, when her ingenuity saves the day. I also loved Smokey because he really sounded like a cat. I recommend this book to anyone who likes fantasy stories with witches. And to anyone who understands how great is to befriend a cat.

I would surely place this book as a light and funny YA read.

Overall, a well crafted story and a different take on the 'girl finds out she's a witch' tale.

My only gripe, and this is purely personal, is that I found the main character a bit hard to like. Sure, being flung into another world is a bit of a downer, but she is so self-loathing at times that I really wanted to give her a good slap.

However, don't see this as a reason not to read this story. Briley's character may resonate more sympathetically with you than with me and for a first novel, Sarah Jane Avory has done well.

If you're a fan of fantasy or witches you should give it a read.

Since devoting more of my reading time I've found myself reading books in genres I wouldn't normally have considered, it's easier to take a gamble when you're only risking a couple of quid! The Spirit of a Witch is another one of those occasions and I'm glad I did because it is a fun read from a new author.

The story is about a young woman being ground down in the crunch of games development (something I can sympathise with :-) ) who finds herself transported to another world. For the first chapter I was a bit unsure, but the story got going quite quickly after that.

The biggest downer for me was the main charcter, she is a bit of a moaner. In fairness she has a fair bit to moan about. Thankfully her cat comes to the rescue and this was the biggest surprise. I'm not a cat person, but Smokey is an excellent balance to Briley's insecurities.

The writing itself is well crafted and very well polished for a new author. My only slight complaint was the moments of peril didn't quite ring as strongly as they should. That is a minor complaint as the story itself is well paced and leaves a nice opening for the next in the series.

If you like witches, or even just fantasy tales then you should give this a read.