Witch Hollow #1 by I.D. Blind
Published on: December 29, 2013

This cover totally sold me on the book when I ran across it. I love the color scheme, the slightly creepy October vibe, the witch flying dead center against the bright, full moon…. Never underestimate the power of a good cover. Thankfully, the story lived up to it.

Description:

A short and cute fairy tale for kids about a small Irish town, filled with magic and Robert Burns’ poetry.

That spell was wrong!

When three young witches, Electra, Cassandra, and Medea, decided to practice witchcraft, they had no idea what consequences the wrong spell could have. Ghosts that scare the townspeople, and an old witch with an eerie wail are their minor problems.

Meanwhile, sixteen-year-old Eric O’Brian is sent to live in a small town called Hollow, which seems to be stuck in the 1800s. Soon he finds out that the beautiful town full of colorful ravines, green highlands, and dense forests, is not an ordinary one: flowers that whisper, a shop that steals the time, and a hanged man coming to life on the Halloween night lead him to believe that Hollow is a mystical place inhabited by witches.

After meeting the mysterious girls and befriending them, Eric becomes a part of the world with time traveling, medieval bards, flying brooms, and paintings with parallel reality.

Then a murder happens in Hollow…

Thoughts:

Oh my goodness, I had such a fun time reading this. I love books I can just melt into. The story starts when the 3 cousins, who are as close as sisters, decide to try a spell. Medea has keen eyesight and a terrific knowledge of magical plants. Cassandra warned of signs and especially not to do spells during thunderstorms. Electra is an optimistic individual, who draws and sketches. But they really just want to do something fun, something different. However, the spell doesn’t go quite as planned and something unexpected happens. Then while the girls are going about their adventure a new boy arrives in town named Eric – a very non-magical boy who is living with his aunt, uncle, and two cousins for a while.

One thing that plays a very significant role in Witch Hollow and the Wrong Spell are the town and townspeople. The town of Hollow is deeply divided between those that live on the east side of the river and those that live on the west. Unlike other books where magic may not be known to everyone in a community or kept secret, this is not the case in Hollow. Although magic and those who practice aren’t secret, they are very, very unwelcome in the east side. The anger and fear of those who do magic is palpable and the townspeople are very prejudiced. But instead of just telling you the town is deeply divided there are numerous events that occur with many different side characters to demonstrate this, which is really one of the things I really liked with this book. There is no shortage of townspeople written into the story who expose the dynamics of the town.

Besides the interesting town and townspeople, what I really loved while reading the book was how the story moved along rather nicely and never really had any dull moments for me. From the 3 cousins, to Eric and his potential love interests, to the dynamics of the townspeople there was always something occurring or helping me further understand the town, while never weighing it down. However, there were a couple of things that I noticed when reading that stopped it from being perfect. There were a few awkward dialogue moments toward the latter half of the book that stuck out, and the reason Eric came to live with his aunt and uncle felt a bit odd, but that part only lasts a page or two and once he’s in town everything feels natural. Overall, it was an easy, pleasant read and I look forward to continuing the series. Plus it has a little romance, which is always nice too.

Rating: 4.5