Review ~ A Witch in Winter ~ Ruth Warburton



4 stars


Title: A Witch in Winter
Author: Ruth Warburton
Published: January 2012
By: Hodder

From the back of the book:~

When love is tangled up in magic, how do you know what's real?

When Anna meets Seth, it's magic. But her hidden powers unleash a spell that sparks a war among witches and enslaves Seth's heart.

Opening line: The first thing that hit me was the smell - damp and bitter.

Closing line: It was a thing of beauty, a little piece of magic made out of nowhere. From just oil and water.

I want to start off by thanking Cait over at The Cait Files for holding a giveaway which led to me winning a signed copy of A Witch in Winter, and also thank you to author Ruth Warburton.

I loved this book!! And one of the main things I love is that this is a British book, set in Britain by a talented new British author and one I will be keeping boths eyes on!!

Anna Winterson has no idea that a move to the small town of Winter with her farther will lead to her discovering that she is a witch and has powers that only others could dream of. After meeting Seth, Anna enchants him to fall in love with her, and it works only a little too well. She loves Seth and wants him to love her the same way, without magic, but as she uses her powers to try and fix her original enchantment she causes destruction and unleashes evil. Anna also attracts the attention of other witches, some good and wanting to help her, and others not so good that I think would use her power for all the wrong reasons.

Anna is a brilliant character, her world may be changing and in spite of it all, and her self doubt at times, she is a strong-willed and strong minded character. I love the relationship with her dad and I can't wait for the questions and answers about who her mother really was.

I liked Seth, he's a guy with a mildly bad past after falling of the rails and I love his relationship with Anna. I really like how his own story pans out in the book and I love the whole idea of not knowing if he truely loves Anna or if it's just the spell at work. Warburton did this rather well and her writing is just brilliant!

I can't memtion Anna and Seth with out mentioning Emmaline! Yes there are some fantastic secondary characters in this book but I just love Emmaline! I love her whole attutide, she isn't affraid to speak her mind and stand up for her family and friends. She's the kind of girl who speaks her mind and I love that!!

4/5 stars. Why? Because A Witch in Winter is a brilliant start to a promising new series from a fantastic new author and I can't wait to read more. For me, Ruth Warburton has already made her name in the YA genre and one I'm recommending to all my customers!

In My Mailbox #47



In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted over at The Story Siren. This meme allows us bloggers to show what books we recieve each week.

Quite a mixed bag for the Midnight Reads team this week and the e-book certainly seems to be taking hold!


Bungle's Mailbox












Bungle was pretty good with the spends this week buying only the one book but what a corker! She bought Torn by Amanda Hocking #2 of the rather brilliant Switched trilogy. Bungle's plan is to save both Switched and Torn until #3 is out and then she's going to have a Switched reading marathon! If only I could be that patient!











So whilst Bungle kept a fairly tight reign on the purse this week she did get some fab ibooks free of charge! Excellent work I think! she got Marked, #1 of the Soul Guardians series, Shimmerspell, #1 of the Shimmer series by Kimberley Spencer and Raven by Suzy Turner, #1 of the Raven series.











She also got Thirst #1 of the Ava Delaney series by Claire Farrell, Evernight by Claudia Gray and Coexist by Julia Gray. More than one of these has tickled my fancy so am looking forward to hearing about them!

Helen's Mailbox













Helen has maintained her exemplary behaviour and has managed to keep her purse in her bag again! She did however receive a copy of A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness which I have to say intrigues me more than a little!

Sally's Mailbox














My big surprise this week was having Forgiven (Demon Trappers #3) turn up on my doorstep a week early. This was one of my anticipated for 2012 so of course I dropped everything and devoured and loved it - would absolutely recommend! I also received Kiss of Midnight (#2 of the Midnight Breeds series) by Lara Adrian. This one is an adult read and I'm looking forward to this one!












I also got two books from netgalley this week for review. I received The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda and Angel Eyes by Shannon Dittemore.

But that's enough of our wittering - what did you get this week?

Review ~ Under the Never Sky ~ Veronica Rossi

Title: Under the Never Sky

Author: Veronica Rossi

Published: 7th February 2012

By: Atom Books

First line: They called the world beyond the walls of the pod “the death shop”

Last line: Sorry, would be a spoiler!

Under the Never Sky brings me back to the dystopian genre, something I don’t seem to be able to get enough of at the moment. In this instance we are transported to the future where the planet has, due to climate change, become a dangerous, inhospitable place to live. As a result a large proportion of the population, also known as dwellers live in an underground environment known as the realms where through the use of a smarteye you can imagine any environment you would want to. The dwellers are I guess ‘the haves’. The ‘have-nots’ are the outsiders, 'savages' that live outside the walls of the realm where resources are scarce and survival is a constant struggle.

At the beginning of the story we meet Aria, a dweller, who is trying to make contact with her mother, a scientist who works in a different area of the realm. As her plan to find out about her mother’s welfare goes wrong Aria finds herself cast out into ‘the death shop’ to die. Things take a turn however when she ends up meeting Perry, a boy she has met fleetingly before and who considers to be a savage. Perry has his own issues. Cast out by his clan after his nephew is kidnapped he is now searching for the child, his only goal to bring him home. The two outcasts team up with Perry helping Aria to find her mother before he begins his own search.

I love the way that Rossi writes. She gives the information you need and that’s pretty much it – no guilding the lily, no over-egging...you get my drift. But there is enough information there for the reader to be able to visualise everything and to get to know the characters and their flaws and weaknesses as well as their strengths. I also like the use of the dual POV here. She switches flawlessly between the two perspectives as she moves through the plot and the switch is made just at the right time when one character or the others view or opinion becomes more salient.

I love the slow build up in Aria and Perry’s relationship considering the hostile circumstances in which they meet but what I really like is that both are such strong characters, never losing sight of their goals in the pursuit of each other. I also liked Roar and Cinder and I look forward to reading more about them in the sequels. And the ending...well it just left me craving the next book.

The only thing that annoys me about this book is that I have to wait so darned long for the sequel ‘Through the Ever Night’ which isn’t due out ‘til 2013. Now that is just wrong. It’s so so wrong...

4/5 Do I have to wait a whole year for book two? Seriously?!