Main Characters:
Vivienne Davenport – young lady who’s just discovered she is adopted, a witch, and a vampire (or sorts) is hunting her.
Savannah – Viv’s best friend
Claire
Locations: Louisana, in and near New Orleans
Main Premise: Viv’s mother died a year ago and she now lives with her grandmother. She abruptly discovers she was adopted and heads to New Orleans to find her real mother. When she gets there, her real mother tells Viv that she is a witch and now that she is in New Orleans her powers are awake and she needs to go home where it is safe because a vampire is out to get her as a female first born. Her real mother is kidnapped and she stays to help figure out what is going on.
How it Ended: To be updated after publication…
Other Important Things to remember for later: To be updated after publication…
Review: The Curse of the Bruel Coven by Sabrina Ramoth was a little atypical for a YA/paranormal. There were lots of things that were typical, but the biggest anomaly here was the lack of a real love interest for the main character. But, I will get back to that. Because there were so many of the typical elements, it was like the author was simply following a recipe. A teaspoon of absentee parents, a tablespoon of being someone different than what you were raised to believe, a cup of an adult figure not telling you everything, 6 cups of taking off and doing all sorts of stuff without bothering to tell your parental figure where you are, a few mysterious dread, a bit of paranormal surprise and a cliffhanger ending. Bake at 350 for a few hours and viola, you have your self the typical paranormal YA. But, most of these that I have read lately all have a romantic element, and here, the closest we get are some weird feelings towards someone Viv (our main protagonist, adopted, witch) sees in her dreams. Although at least she herself is skeptical of these feelings.
Towards the beginning I was feeling a little, “aheh” about the book. I had a bunch of things that were gnawing at me (like the fact that Viv finds a picture, assumes she’s adopted, and accepts it, all in about the span of 30 seconds and has less denial over it than I have guilt that I ate a few extra french fries with lunch). But, after a little while, as the story progressed, I became pretty enamored with the story. The pace picked up and the writing improved over the course of the few hundred pages. My opinion grew enough that I was fairly annoyed to reach the end and have so many loose ends, those both directly placed in front of me and those subtly hinted at (Savannah, where are you?).
I don’t know if the story will turn to some sort of reincarnation story or some other witchy explanation; I don’t know how the traitors will be dealt with; I don’t know what happened to Savannah; but I do know, I am eager to read the next book and find out. Overall, despite a few small points that I would have corrected (like calling the immortal a vampire, because the traditional ideas of vampire aren’t really what is going on here), and having a little more denial/resistance when Viv finds out she’s adopted and a witch (really, even for this genre, she is a little too open and accepting to these elements of her life), I think this was a pretty solid start to a new series. If I were rating this particular recipe, it would get 4 stars. And, I would be looking forward to seeing what the chef had to offer for the dessert course!
Book Series Tracker 