A Witch in Winter review

A Witch in Winter
Ruth Warburton
January 5th 2012
Hodder Children's

Anna Winterson doesn't know she's a witch and would probably mock you for believing in magic, but after moving to the small town of Winter with her father, she learns more than she ever wanted to about power. When Anna meets Seth, she is smitten, but when she enchants him to love her, she unwittingly amplifies a deadly conflict between two witch clans and splits her own heart in two. She wants to love Seth, to let him love her – but if it is her magic that's controlling his passion, then she is as monstrous as the witch clan who are trying to use her amazing powers for their own gain.

Although a perfect fit for the paranormal romance genre, A WITCH IN WINTER avoids fangs, excessive body hair and submissive female leads, and tells the heart-wrenching story of a couple meant to be together, but being forced apart. Seth is utterly irresistible and Anna is an empowered, proactive young woman with unimaginable magic inside her. This is fast-paced, sensuous writing with believable incantations inspired by Warburton's research into witchcraft legend and old English.

A Witch in Winter was a really great book. It took me a bit to get into, because I felt that there were points in the beginning that felt like it was perhaps going to turn into a bit of a boring paranormal, but it really brought itself back and I found myself really enjoying it. Despite the good reviews I'd read of it, I hadn't been entirely sure if it was my kind of thing, but I just bought it and read it anyway because why the hell not?! 

My main concern with this book was that the plot sounded a bit thin, and I wasn't sure how it was going to work if it was just about Anna accidentally making Seth fall in love with her. I think it's a great idea, but I didn't think it would work as being, like, the main plot, but it ended up being about a lot more, and I think that the whole Seth-Anna thing was resolved pretty quickly. Though imagine how much it would suck for her if he was still enchanted, eh? I don't know why I say these things. But I'm really interested to see what happens to them in the next book because there's no way they're staying together. If a couple ends up happily in book 1 then there are ALWAYS problems in book 2. Trouble in paradise, and all that.

I really, really liked all the witch stuff, though (which, considering its title, is probably a good thing), and I really want to find out more about them. Especially the Ealdwittan, which by the end we didn't really learn anything about! Or why they even wanted Anna in the first place (which was probably the only thing that really annoyed me about this book). I think it will be touched on more in the next two books, though, because I figure that it has a lot to do with Anna's mother, and if we go through a whole trilogy without finding anything out about her? Well that would just stink.

Anna was really cool too, actually. Not that I wasn't expecting her to be! But it's just that like I said at the start, I wasn't too sure if I was going to like her because there were some points at the beginning in which she was, I don't know... Not annoying, but a but dull, maybe? They were few and far apart, though, so don't be put off by the way I'm putting it! She was really cool, and I really want to know why she's so powerful as well as really see her harness that power. As well as that, I really admired her strength and courage to do things that she really didn't want to do for the sake of the greater good.

I thought that Emmaline and Maya were brilliant, too. What is it with side characters? Why are they always the best? I feel like I could probably relate to Emmaline most, for obvious reasons (and no, I'm not a witch, much to my great disappointment.) I'm also pretty curious about Abe, and I really hope that there isn't going to be a love triangle there because as nice as Abe seems now, I don't trust him *gives him the stink eye*. There's just something not quite right about that man, is all. I was kind of annoyed that Anna's first friends from her new school just faded out of the picture, though, without much reason. I guess she has Emmaline and Seth now, but still.

A Witch in Winter is a really good first book in what I'm hoping is going to be a really great trilogy, and I'm really excited about reading the next one (as soon as I get around to buying it, that is.)