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| The Return of the Witch Paula Brackston |
"The Return of the Witch" has too many plot conflicts on its own, which I found downright annoying. Imagine the buildup of anticipation in resolving a conflict, only to suddenly create another, where the first conflict goes unresolved and into a deep fizzle. This made it hard to follow the storyline and reading becomes rather tedious. The kidnapping of Teagan by Gideon and movement through two time periods, seemingly to avoid confrontation with Elizabeth, gets terribly tiring. I found myself distracted and skipping pages. (If I have to skip pages, it means the author has made several repetitive passages). Unfortunately, there were no historial elements to enjoy concerning the location time period. Elizabeth and Erasmus just jump time and go back to searching for Teagan. (Yawns!) The author turned the main character of Elizabeth into a weak witch, with a sudden lack of confidence in her magical abilities...a far cry from the strong and amazing witch she was in "The Witch's Daughter". Gideon was also changed from a forceful evil warlock, who's devilishness and cruelty stood out starkly in the first book. Now he was downgraded to an annoying entity, who fears something (don't worry it's all explained in the last quarter of the book). I actually felt sorry for him. 😞
The story seemed to move slowly and was bogged down with additional new characters. The evil twin sisters were whiny, narcissistic and totally irrelevant. Gideon is supposed to be a powerful warlock who wouldn't need their assistance and ridiculous hair cuffs. Erasmus, a Time Stepper, assisting with the unraveling of the kidnapping mystery, suddenly finds himself in love with Elizabeth (and I do mean suddenly). Unfortunately, this doesn't occur until the last quarter of the book, where the pace picks up speed to a thankful conclusion. On a side note, I also found the love affair very tepid and not romantic at all. Luckily, Elizabeth has more romantic encounters with the white mouse!
This really isn't a bad story and could have been more enjoyable with an editorial overview to kill the redundancy. I felt the author was hurrying the manuscript along, more to appease her fans by providing a quick conclusion to "The Witch's Daughter". I have always enjoyed Paula Brackston's books and will continue to pick them up to read. She is an excellent writer...when she focuses on the storyline. One thing you will enjoy are the POV's by Teagan (an outstanding highlight which is refreshingly new; she should incorporate this idea in writing new novels).
I was just disappointed in this sequel. Sometimes a good story doesn't necessarily have to be continued with a thrown together hodgepodge of nonsensical ideas. It can stand on its own as "The Witch's Daughter" should have. I am giving the book 3 stars, because I do like the story idea, not the way it was written.
On the suggestion of a friend, I started reading "The Passage" by Justin Cronin. Already the first 50 pages are extremely intriguing and I hated to put it down. However, my eyes won the battle and off to sleep I went, still holding the book in my hand. 😊
Cheers! 🍷