Guest Review by Amber: Old Magic

  Old Magic 

Author: Marianne Curley
Publication Date: December 7th 2009 
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Pages : 317

Rough estimate of time it took to read : 18 hours

Source: Gifted by Kirsty

Jarrod Thornton is mesmerizing, but Kate Warren doesn't know why.

The moment the new guy walks into the room, Kate senses something strange and intense about him. Something supernatural. Her instincts are proven correct a few minutes later when, bullied by his classmates, Jarrod unknowingly conjures up a freak thunderstorm "inside" their classroom.

Jarrod doesn't believe in the paranormal. When Kate tries to convince him that he has extraordinary powers that need to be harnessed, he only puts up with her "hocus pocus" notions because he finds her captivating. However, the dangerous, uncontrolled strengthening of his gift finally convinces Jarrod that he must take Kate's theories seriously. Together, they embark on a remarkable journey -- one which will unravel the mystery that has haunted Jarrod's family for generations and pit the teens against immense forces in a battle to undo the past and reshape the future. 

* Just a little note

Before I get to the review, I just wanted to add a little message,  this is my first ever book review and  My wonderful cousin, Kirsty (she didn't tell me to say that *cough*)  has lent me some of her books that she couldn't finish,  

Since this is my first review it will only be a short, as I'm still new to this whole scene of things and need some practice.  Although Kirsty and I share some taste in books (e.g. Harry Potter, some of the Vampire genre and some of the classics), I will be reviewing my own (and my romantic partner's), so we'll have a few different genres within MG, YA and Adult. 

So some reviews you get off me will be slightly different than others as its all down to the books and how well or easy I find them to read. (Which will be difficult for me as I suffer from mild Dyslexia, which makes me read slower, but I love to read so will try my best to make my reviews readable with Kirsty's, help of course.)

Thoughts

I found this book very easy to read although I noticed (even with my own brain rebelling against me and trying to make me think otherwise) that there are some word/sentence glitches, for example on page 45, second row down from the top there's a line that makes me think 'What? Shouldn't it be ____ instead'. The line also made me lose concentration and kept me from connecting back into the story for a while after. 

There are three sections to Old Magic, and I found that during the first (the longest) section felt drawn out and unnecessary, more like filler chapters that helped the story along instead of adding to the story. Once I slugged through the filter and got to the good parts, it got a lot better and I enjoyed it a long more. The last part of the book felt rushed, especially the ending and of course we have a cliffhanger, but a cliffhanger that did make me want to read the next in the series. Until I realized there wasn't another. 

I enjoyed the romantic duo of the main characters and the sequence of how things panned out so they were "forced" into such an interesting scene where there romantic sides could somewhat show. I also enjoyed how both main characters were portrayed and were their own person (although as mentioned near the end things seemed  rushed and so I felt like the characters kind of merged together in a way that confused my mind as to what chapter was who.) I would like to read more as I feel that the story is unfinished but I would recommend this book to a friend if they wanted a short story they could sit and enjoy for a couple hours.