Once a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough (Book #100)
Stars: 3.5
I wrote an entry last night when I was completely exhausted and thought I'd take another crack at it this morning.
Once a Witch is about a young girl named Tasmin Green. Tasmin was born into a family of witches who possess powers called Talents. On the day of her birth, her grandmother, proclaimed she would be the most powerful witch of them all. Come her 8th birthday, the day her powers are supposed to come in effect, Tasmin's powers never blossomed; making her now the outcast in the family.
To escape her family, Tasmin entered a school where it was required to live in the dorms at all time except summer. During the summer, Tasmin, was stuck at home running the family book store for her grandmother. On one rainy night, while working in the bookstore, Tasmin gets a costumer that she gets a weird feeling from. The costumer is Alistair, a professor at NYU. After buying a book he asks Tasmin if she could help him "find something." Tasmin immediately knows what the man means and is about to tell him she can't help him but decides against it. Alistair also assumes she is her talented sister, Rowena; when Tasmin tries to correct him she sees how excited he is and decides against it, thinking she will just reveal to him who she really is once she finds the item for him.
On the same night she met Alistair, Tasmin crashes into Gabriel with her bike. Gabriel is finally back and hotter than ever, which are pretty much her exact thoughts when she sees him. Tasmin learns that Gabriel is also living in the city away from the family but doesn't know how to talk to him after pushing him away years ago.
After summer has passed, Tasmin is back in the city and runs into Alistair again. Alistair gives Tasmin a picture of the item he has lost and something to begin with. Once holding the picture Tasmin feels as if she has seen the item before but can't quite pin it down. Gabriel just suddenly appears at her dorm one day and she decides to take the chance of asking him if he also recognizes it and also if he could help him it. (Gabriel's talent is being able to locate any item that person has lost and is currently looking for.) In the end, Tasmin enlist Gabriel's help with locating the item for Alistair.
Thus they begin their search to find it.
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Once a Witch was an interesting book. I can't recall the last book I read with witches in it. I also loved how the witches weren't like every day witches, yes they do spells, but they don't all possess the same abilities. There was some pretty interesting Talents in the book, like: changing weather, freezing people, commanding people with your voice, time travel, and throwing fireballs.
There wasn't much that I disliked about the book except that her relationship with Gabriel was very slow (I'm a sucker for tons of romance in books). Tasmin is the very typical YA character, "I don't like him but I really do like him." *sigh* I'm hoping in book two their relationship blossoms a little more than it did in Once a Witch.
Also, I found the ending very confusing. Though I must add I was reading this at a late hour and my eyes were already glassing over, so that could be the reason. But in the final scenes, I really didn't understand much that was going on but I'm sure I can piece it together later.
Oh I should also add that I love the cover of the book. I love the colors of her outfit, just how it contrasts with the dark cover and her pale skin. Oh and lets not forget the half face thing going on, I wonder when that suddenly became so popular. Or really what the publishers/author thought "Oh she should totally only have half a face! That would totally make it better looking." I'm not saying it doesn't make it look awesome, just saying that I wonder how that took off like wild fire. Truthfully I'd love to see the whole face of some of the characters from books so I can get a better imagine of what they look like but I guess they leave it up to our imaginations. There is also a second cover for the paper back of the book which sadly doesn't compare to the hardcover. Its not bad but it just doesn't speak to me like the other ones does.
Anyways, check out the book.
