Title: American Witch
Author: Thea Harrison
Series: American Witch #1
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Length: Novel
Available: Now
Power can change a person…
For months Molly Sullivan endures the inexplicable: electrical surges, car breakdowns, visions. She even wonders if she might be the cause… and wonders if she might be crazy. Then she discovers her husband has cheated on her. Again. Now Molly realizes she is a newly awakening witch and a woman pushed over the edge.
Revenge can shape a person…
Josiah Mason is a Powerful witch and the leader of a secret coven with a shared goal: to destroy an ancient enemy who has ruined many lives. Josiah lost years to this man, and his sole focus is revenge. He’s prepared for every contingency—except encountering a beautiful new witch who understands nothing of the immense Power building within her or the attraction she wields over him.
Danger can bring them together…
When divorcing her husband, Molly uncovers a dangerous secret he’s willing to kill to protect. She turns to Josiah for help, and they discover a connection between Molly’s husband and Josiah’s enemy.
As they work together, a spark ignites between them that threatens to become an inferno. But Molly is done compromising herself for any man, and Josiah’s mission is his top priority. And the enemy is cunning, cruel, and drawing ever closer.
As the danger escalates, so does the tension between them. Is a lasting relationship possible? Will either of them live long enough to try?
Warning!
This review contains spoilers.
(And a rant. Oops.)
Source: ARC provided by the author
The Elder Races world has always been full of hits and misses for me. Some books I absolutely love (Dragon Bound, Oracle’s Moon, Lord’s Fall, Kinked, most of the novellas) and some I really don’t (Storm’s Heart, anything with a vampire in it). I quite liked the Moonshadow series too, so I was intrigued to see how this new series would go. The Wyr will always be my absolute favourites, but I was willing to see what the full-blood humans had to offer in this magical world.
Oh dear. Whatever they have, I didn’t find it in this book. It starts well, it ends okay, but the three-fifths or so in-between didn’t do much for me.
I loved Molly in the beginning. I loved how she confronted her husband, I loved how she got the good stuff when she left, I loved how she took care of herself. I was less fond of her occasional brattish demands with Josiah, but I forgave her because she is going through a lot. Also Josiah is an asshole. He really he is. I know he has this grand mission and all, but wow, what a jerk.
I have no idea when they fell in love or even why. I don’t even know when Molly started to like instead of hate him. They have an attraction from the start, fine, but the deeper emotions came out of nowhere. I had little to no interest in their romance, and unusually for me skimmed their sex scenes, until right at the end when I felt like they had a chance to finally get to know each other. Especially Molly who changes so much throughout the book.
Oh, speaking of Molly and changes, here comes the spoiler. I hate accidental pregnancies, especially when the author makes a big deal of everyone using protection. It was already pretty obvious which way the wind was blowing when Molly made a point of bringing up choosing not to have children with her cheating scum of a husband, and then lamented the empty rooms in the house. Then came the split condom and Molly’s whole thought-stream about being on the pill, but not the normal pill because PlotConvenientReasons!, so she has to take the mini pill and, oh noes, she didn’t take it, because she was beat up and broken. The tortured logic! Urgh. Do. Not. Want.
Especially when the whole pregnancy is (a) ridiculously unlikely and (b) totally unnecessary. Molly is around forty, she’s never been pregnant before, she’s been on the pill for at least her entire marriage, but she gets pregnant after one encounter. Maybe her magic made her more fertile? I don’t know, because despite the dissertation about which pill she didn’t take and how to use a pregnancy test, she doesn’t seem to question the sheer coincidence. Also, Josiah is over a century old. Magic must be at work there too, because his swimmers should be dust.
The pregnancy is unnecessary because Molly already had enough reasons to run away and keep Josiah at a distance. I’ve already mentioned he’s an ass, but she needs to get out of Atlanta for her own safety and also has a teacher she’s aiming for. Perfectly acceptable reasons. The baby is not needed as an excuse to keep them apart.
It also isn’t needed to bring them back together. The conversation where Molly is telling Josiah he can’t be in the baby’s life because he’s too dangerous, and then turns around and says she’s going back to Atlanta in a few months because she needs her money and he’s not the boss of her – despite people being out to kill her, and you know, DANGER! Made me lose all respect for her. Especially as it’s a blatant plot manipulation to get her back in the action where her super special, ultra high levels of magic will be needed to fight the bad guys. It’s ridiculous – and it wasn’t even needed because the plot took a different turn anyway!
It would have been fine to have had them split up after New Orleans, be all sad and regretful, while Molly goes off to learn about her magic and Josiah gets back to work. His accident making the national news was all Molly needed to fly back, especially with his messed up communication spell. The baby is utterly redundant. You could take the entire plot strand out and nothing would change. Josiah’s near-death experience would have been enough to get him to change his mind, especially as Molly offers him something different to what he’s ever had before.
I also agree with another reviewer that the use of the word holocaust is extremely jarring. No, it wasn’t coined purely to describe the horrific mass slaughter of Jews in WW2, but of all the words in all the thesauruses, Harrison not only went for that one, she used it twice in separate contexts in the same chapter. It wasn’t the only word usage I had issues with in the book, but it was the most extreme and makes everything else seem petty.
Throw in that a lot of this book is slow moving and perilously close to boring at times, and let’s just say it won’t be on my list of favourites any time soon. Sorry, but I’m not sure this Elder Races series will turn out to be for me. Alas, at present, these witches are closer to the vampires than the Wyr.
American Witch is Out Now.
Visit Thea Harrison for more details.
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