Received an arc copy from my blogging partner who received it at Ala Orlando 2016! Thanks!!

I’ve been putting this off for so long. It sat there with its beautiful cover taunting me. I couldn’t pick it up. A good friend read another book she wrote and told me how disappointing is was. After hearing that, I packed it away. Until a coworker read it and loved every second of it. So, out it came and I tried it for myself. 

The word of the day: Disappointing! The story was there and I felt that this could have been one of my favorite books of this year. Then you read how the author portrayed the story to paper and it was ruined. So blown out and repetitive. Thought it was super heavy for a MG book. I can’t see kids falling in love with this, let alone wanting to pick up something so huge. 

I wanted thick magical lore and got a never ending winding staircase. 

Every year the small town leaves an offering of the youngest born child in the woods. It’s known among the land that if there is no offering, the witch will raise hell for all to fear. 

Xan is this so-called Witch and she travels far and wide to rescue the babies that are left in the woods. She delivers them to free areas to parents in dire need of a baby. 

A child is ripped from her mother’s arms and left in the woods for the Witch to take. Some of those Elders believe it dies before the Witch can take care of it. Antain believes the worst and wants nothing to do with this offering. Which takes away from him being one of the Elders. 

This year the baby seems to be special. Her hair and eyes are as dark as the night sky and she has a crescent-shaped birthmark on her head for the world to see. Xan (witch) finds her in the woods and lets her drink from the moon. Drinking from the moon gives the girls magic that she needs to be taught how to use. Xan puts a spell on her to make her mind go blank when she tries to remember her magic or read any of it. 

Reversing all of Luna’s magic has made the health of Xan deteriorate and it seems to be getting worse day by day. 

Antain finally marries and has a child with a woman he has been in love with for his entire life. There is a tiny problem to his newborn bliss. His son is the youngest child born and must be sacrificed to the witch in the woods. He comes up with a plan and must kill the witch.

The Grand Elder hearing this news. He goes to someone he can always trust and begs her to kill Antain. Now the hunt is on!!

Of course, a lot more happened than what I wrote, but this is as far as I can go without losing my mind again. There were a lot of times where I had wanted to give up, but I didn’t. Kept telling myself that if I gave up I would miss something so mesmerizing and spectacular, that I would kick myself later. Now all I want to do is kick myself for actually finishing this. 

I feel an arc giveaway happening very soon! I’m confused at all the awards it’s won…..
2/5