Martina Boone

Honestly, I didn't like most of the characters names. They were just kind of weird, but that is an easy thing to get over when the rest of the story is so incredibly interesting and especially when that was my only problem with this book.

This story is set in the south on Watson Island. I love the south, I'm from it, and I love hearing stories about it, so that gave this story a bonus for me. There are three plantations, two still standing and one destroyed. The setting and the way it is described is beautiful and so easy to imagine. The main character, Barrie, is staying at Watson Landing, a huge house that is falling apart. "The house emerged slowly from behind the violet-shadowed trees. Where at first there was only an impression of whitewashed bricks, fluted columns, and gabled roofs..." "A shutter hung drunkenly on a nearby window like it was going to crash down at any moment. Paint peeled from one of the tall columns, and mortar had crumbled from between the bricks." The descriptions are rich with detail throughout the book, a must for me to stay interested.

The characters were alive and vibrant, so different and interesting. Barrie makes a few stupid decisions just to prove that she can do what she wants, and to make Eight mad, I wanted to scream at her more than once. But she is smart and interesting. She and Eight together is just amazing. Eight... The dream guy, Charles Beaufort the eighth. I loved him. I love both southern boys and baseball players, lucky me that he is both. He is a great match for Barrie. They challenge each other throughout the book and are a cute YA couple.
Cassie and Wyatt... I can't even imagine having to deal with one of them.

There were twists throughout the story, and so many at the end. The supernatural elements were like none I have ever read, with Native American influences and a unique type of magic. The mystery kept me guessing and surprised more than once. I can't wait to read the next book. If it is anywhere close to the quality of this one, I am sure to love it too.… (mehr)

This was no where near as good as the first book. It was good, but the plot didn't keep me engaged and wanting to learn more. I found myself getting bored. I really wanted to like this, but it just didn't do it for me the way the first book did.
I kept reading just because I like Eight a lot.
Barrie just irritated me during this one. I feel like I was wanting to yell at her everything she did or said something stupid.
The new characters like Berg and Obidiah didn't make a lasting impression on me. They could have been both more interesting.
Obidiah was creepy, but he could have been more fun to read about. I found myself annoyed, not in the way I usually am with the villians, but so annoyed that I wanted to skip parts he was in. I never even figured out what happened to him in the end. And I didn't care enough to try to find out.
The first book was amazing.
This one, not so much.… (mehr)

I wanted to like it more than I ultimately did. It has all these excellent Southern Gothic hallmarks and teasers. It has paranormal elements. It seems really promising, but I found it very contrived in many ways. There's a mystery you aren't expecting. There's a romance, which at least isn't a triangle. There's an overly complicated plot and several things left unresolved. I think the thing I had the hardest time with is the very flat character relationships.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by Edeulweiss.… (mehr)

Not the ending I was hoping for. Not that it was a bad ending, but it's always disappointing when the technicalities of the "magic" overshadow the wonder. I loved the almost-magic-realism feel of the first book, but this one had more in common with a metaphysical science text.

Add in some philosophical ponderings about the horrors of slavery and the shortcomings of historical records, and the relationships and mystery shaping the rest of the series read more like window dressing for an (albeit interesting) educational lecture series than the heart of the book.… (mehr)