Book of Spells, Kate Brian

Book of Spells is the prequel to the Private series, explaining everything that happened to make things the way they are for the modern era girls. I read a book in that series after reading Book of Spells, and honestly, I was appalled. After reading Book of Spells, my like for period setting books has increased so much! I mean really, do all modern setting books have that annoying tendency to forget the main plot of the story and just go into a romance world of making out and almost-sex scenes? It's fine to have a romance on the side, but I think it should tie into the story instead of just overpowering everything. Ms. Brian did a fantastic job of that in Book of Spells, with Eliza and Harrison's romance intwined with the story. How did she do this? Well, (spoilers, sorry) Eliza is a witch and she has to keep this secret from Harrison, therefore adding suspenseful moments in the story where you don't know for sure what kind of decision she will make.

A lot of people find love triangles kind of annoying, and I do too mostly, but in the case of this book, I think it was a wonderful part of the story. Theresa is engaged to Harrison, but Harrison loves Eliza. Theresa and Eliza are enemies but because they are in the coven together and have to work to keep the secret from Harrison and others. This makes the love triangle more important yet not overpowering the plot of the story or anything or the world that the story is set in.

Ms. Brian shows great skill as a writer; Book of Spells was well written, with great use of description and all. But the thing is, she, like some other writers, write less casually for modern times than period. No no no no no! That's not a good idea, people, as I think I have said before, writers can make the dialogue as casual as they think the character who is speaking should talk, but everything else......? No.

I am definitely willing to give the rest of the series a try, but if after I finish I don't like them, then I will edge more towards period setting books. Bye!