Witch In Winter by Kaye Umansky

In this winter story about Elsie and her witch friend Magenta, we see how Magenta's home the tower is left alone after she disappears off seemingly overnight randomly.

As Elsie takes over care of the tower after being summoned to, she and her friends Sylphine and Joe soon realise that trouble is about as Jack Frost is looking to take over the tower for himself, can the friends stop him?

I did feel it was bridging the gap until the next book as it wasn't as drama filled as the last books but it was a great winter themed read especially with Jack frost being in it too causing a lot of mayhem. It was nice to read another take about the friends and to see how they stick together through the tough times.

Get Me Out Of Witch School by Em Lynass

Catching up with Twinkle once again, this time she has released her great grandma's cat from years of being isolated to a mere bracelet charm!

Only the cat starts to rot the school and make it fall apart so as Twinkle tries to be good so she can go and tour her 'bottom' once again as she loves to perform Shakespeare and dreams still of being an Oscar winning actress.

The cat, Jacobus also takes over the girls and starts to control them and it's up to Twinkle to save her friends Jess and Shalini as well her the rest of the school.

The story could be better in my opinion it just didn't grip me and when the action did start I just found myself getting confused and not really being invested in the storyline unlike for the first book where I was hooked. The characters were okay but apart from loving to play Bottom Twinkle didn't feel to have much character depth to her.

The Witch's Blood by Katharine and Elizabeth Corr

The finale in the trilogy, we catch up with Merry once again only this time she's setting about saving Leo her brother after Ronan takes him away with him. Merry is left with Finn and Jack to travel and await news of him and his whereabouts.

As Ronan plans to tie his life to Leo's, time is of the essence for Merry to find them and defeat The King Of Heart's and get them back to their normal modern day witch lives.

Merry and Meredith join forces through a surprising revelation over the two forms of Jack while Merry and Finn carry on with their beginning possible romance as travelling to save Leo bonds them more. Unfortunately there's also betrayal of trust, friendship's torn, shock deaths, mysterious black holly growing and just what has been killing people by the lake?

From visions and spell casting to surprising character returns, the finale ties up everything with shocking actions packed throughout.

The finale was good but a bit slow starting for me, I preferred the second half of the book but of course all the actions leading up to the stories conclusion were necessary. I was happy that they travelled back to their present day but not over certain characters finale's despite the initial uncertainty over characters whereabouts. Overall, I enjoyed the final book a lot and am glad to have read it.

Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

The Witch's Kiss & The Witch's Tears by Katharine and Elizabeth Corr

I never usually enjoy fantasy books, yet, these two have won me over!

Merry is a young witch, living with her brother, Leo and her mum. She and her gran have practised magic but her mum and brother don't her mum believes it is dangerous, which it is and can be as we find out.

An ancient love gone wrong between Gwydion who was unrequitedly in love with his childhood friend, Edith. Gwydion made the kingdom same and the reward was to be marriage to Edith, however, the king didn't want to allow the lower class Gwydion into royalty and so Edith marries Aiden and has a baby boy, Jack whom Gwydion places a curse on to be the King Of Hearts.

Merry and the neighbours around them who are magic including Merry's young friends, whom support Merry on what she is facing in that she needs to stop Gwydion and keep them all safe and unharmed.

An ancient parchment reveals to Merry and Leo, they need to go to the lake and retrieve the two puppet hearts which can stop Gwydion and the King Of Hearts from what they are doing which is stabbing people whom believe themselves to be in love.

It is at the Black Lake where Merry and Leo first encounter Jack, though they soon learn he has two sides, the evil killing side which he feels trying to take him over all the time yet he can be normal for bouts of time between it having control of him again. They learn how Gwydion controls Jack to make him obey him and Merry dreams of Jack as well as fancying him!

I'm not spoiling this book further but it was an enticing and gripping read I read in one afternoon and then read the next sequel in the evening!

The Witch's Tears is the sequel and this book focuses on Merry learning and failing still how to manage her magic and finally get it to work right for her.

We also see the arrival of some new male characters, Leo's new love interest, Ronan, whom steps in to stop Simon beating up Leo after he's come out as gay. Then we meet Finn whom ends up trapped in a protective spell cast on Merry and Leo's Grans home after she has disappeared mysteriously and so the main aim of the book is to find their Gran and stop the evil at work quite literally.

We soon learn of enchantment extractors whom steal wizard and witch magic have also killed Flo, Merry's friend so just whom has Merry and Leo's Gran and what are their plans?

The Witch's Tears being set only three months apart, shows how love and loss can be healed and then another form of the same issue can arise. Grief is big in the book and I expect more to come in the next book but I'm not going to spoil anymore of the plot in The Witch's Tears.

Many thanks to the publisher's for sending me The Witch's Tears!