Title: Chasing The Witch (Boston Witches #2)
Author: Jessica Gibson
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Age Group: Adult (18+)
Rating: 4 stars
Review copy provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
After the events of Mark of the Witch, Jilly at last begins to breathe easier though her powers are still growing. But can she harness them in time to confront a new chain of events that threatens to change everything?
Caroline has finally accepted her life as a witch, but when a stranger comes into her life she’s forced to question her family loyalty.
The sisters are thrown together to protect a young girl from the enemy determined to hunt her down. Can they save her — and themselves?
I reviewed Mark of the Witch, the first book in the Boston Witches series last week. While I enjoyed Mark of the Witch, I must admit Chasing The Witch left me feeling much more impressed. The book has a solid storyline, intriguing characters who are well-developed, and an authentic voice. My only two concerns were that I felt transitions between one scene and the other could’ve been more fluent, and that the characters could’ve used a bit more depth. I’m still not that fond of Jilly. I can’t really explain why, but Caroline scores higher in my book. She has more depth and personality than Jilly, if you ask me.
The story takes off about four months after what happened in Mark of the Witch. Jilly is still very much in love with William, and they’re even planning on getting married. We see a lot more of Caroline than we did in the previous book, which in my opinion, is a good thing. Jilly is a goody-two-shoes character, the forever-hero who can’t do anything wrong, and if she does end up doing something wrong, it’s for the greater good or something. While I get these type of characters play an important role, I don’t like them all that much. I prefer characters like Caroline, who are flawed, who don’t always make the right decisions, who make mistakes and actually owe up to them. I think that’s why I like Caroline so much more: for all her flaws, it makes her all the more real to me, less like a character in a book, more like a real person. Caroline’s actions aren’t always examples of best of judgement, and I’m pretty sure some people will end up hating or strongly disliking her, but what can I say? I’m a fan of sympathetic ‘bad’ people, and Caroline is one of those.
The same scenario goes for William and Patrick. Patrick is William’s ‘evil’ brother, who isn’t all that evil afterall. He was painted as the villain in the first book and at the beginning of this one, but thanks to Caroline, we figure out he may have some redeeming qualities after all. Of course this causes another quarrel between the two sisters, and I wanted to punch Jilly for not even giving Caroline a chance to explain everything properly. Anyway, this time around, the villain comes in the form of ancient vampire Sabine and the person she’s working for, who has his eyes set on both sisters.
Mark of the Witch stayed pretty loyal to the general stereotypes about witches, like we see in Charmed, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and other TV series. Chasing The Witch distanced itself from what is known, and added uncommon myths and rules, making this book more and more unique, and of course, a lot more interesting to read. The characters were better developed as well. I liked how Caroline and Jilly’s voice differed so much that even from dialogue alone you could find out who was doing the talking. As the story develops, the characters matured as well, coming to terms with who they’re meant to be (especially Caroline, who struggled with being a witch in the first book). The plot reached a higher level as well, making more subplots, introducing more themes, and straightening the bad for a giant climax in the third book.
It’s not usually the case that a second book beats the first. People often refer to sequels in trilogies as ‘filler books’. I doubt anyone could say that about Chasing The Witch. It’s so strong, the plot so decent, that it would be more suitable to say Mark of the Witch was a prologue leading up to this book. I’m giving it a four-star rating and I recommend anyone who likes paranormal romance gives it a shot. I for one am looking forward to the third book in the series.
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