Tag: witchcraft

Top Ten Tuesday | Witches, Witches, Everywhere

Posted November 11, 2024 by Haze in Top Ten Tuesday, Weekly Book Memes / 32 Comments

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.

Today’s topic is Destination Titles (titles with name of places in them. These places can be real or fiction!) 

Looking up books with destination titles, I came across a lot of titles with witches from somewhere or other, and I decided to focus my list today on them! It’s also because I ended up adding so many of these to my TBR and book addicts love company, so I’m obliged to share these in the hopes you’ll add some to your TBR too!

Top Ten Books with Witches Everywhere

  1. The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare – I don’t remember reading this, but it’s listed as read on my GR and I gave it 2/5 stars! I don’t know if I clicked it by accident or if I really didn’t like it, but I must (re)read it soon to find out for sure!
  2. The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho – I haven’t read a lot of Coelho but I did like The Alchemist. I’ll probably read this one too someday.
  3. The Witches of New York by Ami McKay – This is one where witchcraft and medical science collides. It sounds delightfully creepy and mysterious and I am very interested in reading it.
  4. The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike – I feel like I’ve heard about this one before and also the author, but the ratings aren’t very good. That makes me very curious!
  5. The Witch of Tin Mountain by Paulette Kennedy – This one follows three generations of women and as with many witch stories, has vibes of unfair prosecution of witches. Gothic horror and historical fiction, sounds right up my alley!
  6. The Stone Witch of Florence by Anna Rasche – The MC uses gemstones to heal the sick, but has to play nice with others to get herself recognized as a physician. This one sounds really good too, and I love the cover!
  7. The Witch of Little Italy by Suzanne Palmieri – This one looks so charming and light-hearted compared to the other books listed here. The author has several books about witches in other places as well; The Witch of Belladonna Bay, The Witch of Bourbon Street, but I chose to go with this one because it’s her debut.
  8. The Last Witch of Scotland by Philip Paris – Inspired by the true story of the last person to be executed for witchcraft in Britain. I need to read this!
  9. The Witch of Napoli by Michael Schmicker – Aaahhh, the battle between science and religion! Personally, I believe that science and spirituality are compatible with each other. Religion is a different story, however.
  10. The Witch of Cologne by Tobsha Learner – A sexy, witchy romance! Sign me up! This author’s name is very familiar to me but I can’t remember where I heard about her.

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Would you read any of these books?

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Book Review | Slewfoot by Brom

Posted April 26, 2024 by Haze in Book Reviews / 1 Comment

Slewfoot by Brom

Set in Colonial New England, Slewfoot is a tale of magic and mystery, of triumph and terror as only dark fantasist Brom can tell it.

A spirited young Englishwoman, Abitha, arrives at a Puritan colony betrothed to a stranger – only to become quickly widowed when her husband dies under mysterious circumstances. All alone in this pious and patriarchal society, Abitha fights for what little freedom she can grasp onto, while trying to stay true to herself and her past.

Enter Slewfoot, a powerful spirit of antiquity newly woken … and trying to find his own role in the world. Healer or destroyer? Protector or predator? But as the shadows walk and villagers start dying, a new rumor is whispered: Witch.

Both Abitha and Slewfoot must swiftly decide who they are, and what they must do to survive in a world intent on hanging any who meddle in the dark arts.

Complete with 8 pages of Brom’s mesmerizing full-color artwork and chapter illustrations throughout, his latest book is sure to delight.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #26: Hybrid genre – historical fantasy)
2024 Audiobook Challenge
2024 Library Love Challenge

The Reason

I read a review that highly recommended this book and I was intrigued!

The Quotes

“You are not made out of needs, you are made out of your dreams and desires.”

“Life is nothing but riddles … we spend our whole lives puzzling them out. Sadly, as soon as we find the answer, the riddle changes. Does it not?”

“As at least cruelty was a thing that could be pointed out, confronted. But this belief, this absolute conviction that this evil they were doing was good, was God’s work—how, she wondered, how could such a dark conviction ever be overcome?”

The Narrator(s)

Barrie Kreinik. The narration was good and clear, I have no complaints!

My Thoughts

While waiting for this book to be available, I managed to read another book by the same author, The Child Thief, and I didn’t like it very much. It put me off the author so much that I second-guessed if I even wanted to read this one. Still, it did come highly recommended and I thought I should at least give it a try. So I did, and I liked it better than The Child Thief but not by much. I think that perhaps this author is just not a right fit for my tastes.

I happened to have both the audiobook and the physical copy at the same time from the library, and mostly listened to the audiobook, but there were illustrations in the physical book that I loved! So essentially, what I loved most about the book is the illustrations of the characters.

My Feels

This book did manage to elicit a lot of feelings from me though! I was infuriated with the injustice, the misogyny, the horrible things done in the name of religion. Ugh!

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?

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