Wicked 2: Legacy & Spellbound

I got this book for my wife, after reading the first couple pages she insisted I buy the 1st book in the series. She absolutley loved the books. My wife is a big fan of the Southern Vampire Mysteries (Sookie Stackhouse - TrueBlood) and the other vampire romance series. This book fit her tastes perfectly.

I normally try to avoid books that revolve around witchcraft as I generally find the characters shallow or poorly put-together. Not so with Wicked 2: Legacy & Spellbound (a compilation of 2 previously published novels). I really enjoyed getting into this series, as the characters were deep and well thought out. Reading through the book left me very little time to eat, sleep, and work; as the book was just too good to put down. I found myself starting one chapter, and not realizing hours had passed by when I put the book down, because it sucked me into the story _that_ much. I am putting the other books in this series by Nancy Holder on my "to read" short-list, because of how much I enjoyed being drawn into this deeply entertaining story.

This book has a little of everything, betrayal, love lost, love reunited, lots of magic, tragedy, pregnancy, death, possession.... There is a lot going on and the authors manage to keep the large cast of characters and plots twists from being too confusing. This being said, DO NOT read this book as your first introduction to the series! I really do not think it can be read alone. Since I thought the book looked interesting, (love the paranormal and romance) I was eager to read it. But I discovered to my dismay that it was very difficult to figure out what was going on and who was who until around the forth of the book and there are a few characters I am still not sure how they relate. This book is fast paced and includes intrigue, backstabbing, noble hero/heroine, self- sacrifice and some pretty shocking twists that I didn't expect in a YA novel. After reading this book you will want to read the next. This would be a great novel to convert into a movie if it could handle all the special effects from explosions, fires and general magic casting! Holly is a cursed witch and the most powerful of her kind. She and her coven are trying to stay alive from attacks from covens seeking to destroy them or steal their power by making them a thrall. And if Holly didn't have enough troubles she is being taken over by a long dead descendant, Isabeau. Isabeau fell in love with Jean, a warlock who she swore to her mother she would kill but she made the tragic mistake of falling in love with him. Instead of killing Jean, Isabeau kills herself and destroys his family as a result. Jean vows revenge on Holly and follows her as a kind of spirit or ghost. Isabeau longs Jean even as she feels the compulsion to finally get rid of him. She drives Holly mad trying to take her over in her attempts to murder Jer the warlock the Jean's spirit has tried to inhabit. The problem is Holly and Jer also fall in love. You can see how much suffering and torment is going on! In addition, Jer's father is determined to kill Holly's family in revenge and one of Holly's cousins is kidnapped and harmed. The shocking thing is this book actually has a little torture etc. Much of which is suggested but still NOT light reading! This book is like a magical good versus evil soap opera with many couples and heroic and dastardly deeds. As mentioned earier, it is fast paced and constantly full of surprises. If you read it you WILL want to read the next to find out how the characters will fare. Just read them in order! The only thing I might say is that because so much is going on and there are tons of characters some are not very developed and therefore, the relationships between the characters don't seem as deep/meaningful and satisfying to read. But it is hard to quibble when there is so much here.

I have been reading various other world Genres for the past 15 years and I have to admit if it wasn't for work interfering, I would have stayed up all night reading! I thoroughly enjoyed both of these books and would place them right up there with the Harry Potter series but with a more female themed storyline as it is Witches against Warlocks. The captivating plot twists as well as the magics used were extraordinary. The time travel sequencing did a wonderful job of fleshing out both the plot and the major character's motives as well. The cliff hanger ending at the final chapter of the last book was an unexpected turn but I am glad that the next book goes to Debbie Holder's publisher October 1, 2008, so the wait won't be too terribly long!

The first two novels of this series, Witch and Curse, were very slow to get to the heart of the story. But here, in Legacy and Spellbound, we finally see why. The action is picking up, for one. Everyone's on the move, running for their lives, or scrambling to save themselves, or hurrying to kill someone else before they themselves are killed. For another, you finally love the characters. You love Holly for sacrificing so much of herself, even as it turns her Covenmates against her--you love her because she does it for the greater good OF both those Covenmates and her love, Jer. You love (and are frustrated with!) Jer for his suffering and his constant turning away Holly. You even start to find good attributes about Kari. The flashback scenes make much, much more sense now. Every single one ties into the story, but you don't fully realize it until these two stories. What threw me off was that, from the advertisement, I thought this would be the end of the series... but the end of Spellbound throws such a curve ball that it would be shameful of both the writers and publishers to NOT continue this series. As a reader, I need my closure, and I can only sit on edge and hope it comes someday.