Bitter Night
Bitter Night (Horngate Witches, #1)by Diana Pharaoh Francis
Once, Max dreamed of a career, a home, a loving family. Now all she wants is freedom...and revenge. A witch named Giselle transformed Max into a warrior with extraordinary strength, speed, and endurance. Bound by spellcraft, Max has no choice but to fight as Giselle's personal magic weapon -- a Shadowblade -- and she's lethally good at it. But her skills are about to be put to the test as they never have before....The ancient Guardians of the earth are preparing to unleash widespread destruction on the mortal world, and they want the witches to help them. If the witches refuse, their covens will be destroyed, including Horngate, the place Max has grudgingly come to think of as home. Max thinks she can find a way to help Horngate stand against the Guardians, but doing so will mean forging dangerous alliances -- including one with a rival witch's Shadowblade, who is as drawn to Max as she is to him -- and standing with the witch she despises. Max will have to choose between the old life she still dreams of and the warrior she has become, and take her place on the side of right -- if she survives long enough to figure out which side that is.... (goodreads.com)
Well, this my pathetic number 4 book for this month. I can't believe I only read 4 books! Of course The Distant Hours was 679 pages, so that could be like 3 books if you break it down...right?Anyhoo... I started this book ages ago - November 2009 to be exact. (wow! I thought it was over the summer.) I just could not get into it at all back then and I was a little turned off by the rampaging hormones in the first chapter. Since I'm having yet another autumn reading rut, I thought I would give it one more go.I'm on the fence about the book. I didn't particularly like the characters, although Alexandre did grow on me in the end and I liked the addition of Thor. My problem is I don't like Max. It's hard to read a book when you don't want to be around the main character. I think the story itself has a lot of potential. It's a unique take on witchcraft and paranormal but it might just be a little too unique for my taste. I don't know. I read the book without stopping (with the exception of work, sleep and eating) but I wasn't really enthused about it.I see there's a sequel due out this December and I think I will be picking it up. Now that this first book has paved the way with back story and character intros I am hoping the second book will be more focused on action and suspense.I don't think I have seen many (any?) book blogs post about this series, so if you've read this book and posted about it, please let me know!I actually picked up the book because I loved the author's first series (Path series) and this new one was about witches - my above all favourite paranormal character. So I will give it another book to see how I truly feel about the series. Hopefully Max will be less blah for me the second time around.Horngate Witches
- Bitter Night
- Crimson Wind (December 2010)