"Lucas and Glory are hard at work in WICA (Witchkind Intelligence and Covert Affairs). As part of their training, they learn more about the witch-terrorist organization Endor. It is believed that Endor has infiltrated a boarding school for young witches in Switzerland, so WICA sends their two youngest agents—Lucas and Glory—to the school undercover. There, they learn more about an experimental brain implant that blocks the power of the fae. It’s a dangerous procedure . . . more so than they could ever have imagined."
I didn't expect much from the sequel of Burn Mark. In fact, I wasn't expecting much of anything because of the low standards Burn Mark set.
But Witch Fire totally blew me away. I was amazed by how much the book improved. I loved it so much I reread it, savoring most of the pages. There's a lot of reasons why this book is the new and improved. (I'm going to do this by list, because I'm into listopias at this moment).
1) The romance. I love it. The pairing that we had always been waiting for happened! Finally, we see these two lovebirds come together. It's so cute that they are doubting each other, confused and lost. I can't wait for them to appear in the next book.
2) The plot. Now everything is so much clearer. Everything makes sense. Everything opens to reveal new beginnings, new expectations, and new possibilities for the sequel. And yes, there's a great chance that there will be a sequel. I'm definitely going to read the next book when it's, or if it will ever come out. Oh yeah, btw, the book goes a bit faster than last time.
3) The characters. They act and react to one another so well. I love how Lucas knows Glory very much. (Notice I said knows, not like. Cause some of you guys love to mistakenly misread words). Lucas plays the part of a smart, intelligent, and handsome young man while Glory plays a girl who doesn't care about anything in life. But put those guys together in the bushes and you get a full out war, especially if they are undercover on an assignment.
4) Laura Powell's writing significantly improved. It's very attractive and gives Witch Fire the appearance of a well-written book.
With all these new standards and expectations, the sequel to Witch Fire needs to be even better than Witch Fire and Burn Mark. I really hope Powell doesn't screw up on the next book.
Rating: Four out of Five
"In a modern world where witches are hunted down and burned at the stake, two lives intersect. Glory is from a family of witches, and is desperate to develop her 'Fae' powers and become a witch herself, though witch-activity carries a threat of being burned at the stake. Lucas is the son of the Chief Prosecutor for the Inquisition with a privileged life very different from the witches he is being trained to prosecute. And then one day, both Glory and Lucas develop the Fae. In one fell stroke, their lives are inextricably bound together."
Oh, here we go again. Burn Mark is one of those books that reminds you of Harry Potter (or some other popular books that is like Harry Potter), but it isn't. It's far different, bringing in witches (yes) that don't have wands, robes, and broomsticks. It's set in good old Britain in modern day (similar to HP). (But it isn't HP no matter what in the world you are thinking about this book).
Burn Mark is a boring three to four hundred pages book. Seriously, the author could have cut down Burn Mark by a hundred pages and still have a good load of words and characters, but no she didn't. (Burn Mark is pretty thick-headed). While most books usually tend to be interesting when it is this long (unless it is written by Meyer of Twilight), Burn Mark is just as bad as Twilight, without the romance (I hope not) and the kissing scenes. (And Twilight is a least a bit interesting compare to this book.)
Now on to witchcraft. As I said before, Burn Mark's witches aren't all about broomsticks, wands, and what's that other thing. Whatever. Anyway, Burn Mark still has the element of witches from old legends who uses spit, hair, chants, blah, blah, blah. (I'm not very obsessed with witches or wizards). Unlike the HP world, Burn Mark's Great Britain knows about its frightening (eye-roll) scary bad witches, who will kill you at any chance possible. Yeah, right. But there's the sign of dystopian plot. A broken society who has things in the wrong order. It does help that theory because the Inquisition runs the broken society. (And the head of the Inquisition is Lucas' father. Nice story.) The Inquisition has a bit of touch from the history and scary past of the Spanish Inquisition, around the time of Christopher Columbus. (I hope it is, because it may be wrong and right).
Burn Mark's characters are pretty much paper and 2D. Lucas and Glory have the chance of being the 3D figures while the other characters are being pasted as evil, rotten, scary, power hungry, money hungry, etc. Glory seems to be power hungry and money hungry, which is not a good sign. And then there's Lucas. Wait, Lucas. I've no idea what is his purpose in the entire book other than to move the plot along and be Glory's possible love interest. Glory is to Burn Mark as Regina is to Once Upon a Time in Season 2. (Hope you understand my analogy, because I do like to make references to tv).
Rating: One out of Five
