Summary:
Salem is the bewitching backdrop to this lush, fast-paced tale of one girl discovering the source of her powers.
It is during a routine school project that Abby Silva--sixteen and nearly friendless--makes a startling discovery: She is descended from women who were accused of witchcraft back in 1600s Salem. And when Abby visits nearby Salem, strange, inexplicable events start to unfold. Objects move when she wills them to. Candles burst into sudden flame. And an ancient spellbook somehow winds up in her possession.
Trying to harness her newfound power, Abby concocts a love potion to win over her longtime crush--and exact revenge upon his cruel, bullying girlfriend. But old magic is not to be trifled with. Soon, Abby is thrust headlong into a world of hexes, secrets, and danger. And then there's Rem Anders, the beautiful, mysterious Salem boy who seems to know more about Abby than he first lets on.
A reckoning is coming, and Abby will have to make sense of her history--and her heart--before she can face the powerful truth.
It is during a routine school project that Abby Silva--sixteen and nearly friendless--makes a startling discovery: She is descended from women who were accused of witchcraft back in 1600s Salem. And when Abby visits nearby Salem, strange, inexplicable events start to unfold. Objects move when she wills them to. Candles burst into sudden flame. And an ancient spellbook somehow winds up in her possession.
Trying to harness her newfound power, Abby concocts a love potion to win over her longtime crush--and exact revenge upon his cruel, bullying girlfriend. But old magic is not to be trifled with. Soon, Abby is thrust headlong into a world of hexes, secrets, and danger. And then there's Rem Anders, the beautiful, mysterious Salem boy who seems to know more about Abby than he first lets on.
A reckoning is coming, and Abby will have to make sense of her history--and her heart--before she can face the powerful truth.
My Thoughts:
Okay, so I think it maybe took me a total of 2 hours to read this book so it at least reads rather quickly, and the story pretty much moves at a good pace. I don't know...I'm sort of conflicted about how I feel about this book. Generally I love stories that have to do with witches, and for some reason it is even more interesting when tying in historical events such as the Salem Witch Trials, but I honestly feel that this story wasn't my absolute favorite YA witch-themed novel.
Abby did feel mostly realistic to me. I mean, upon discovering that you are a witch and actually have the ability to cast spells and move objects, I would probably try using it for personal gain myself, which Abby does, which is very realistic teenage girl of her...she uses it to help pass her driver's test, get a parking spot, get her jock crush to pay attention to her, etc. At one point I was actually concerned that her desire for personal gain and her desire to get payback to those who have basically bullied her would actually make her turn to the dark side.
So, let's talk about the other characters. First, there's Travis, the jock Abby has a crush on (and has since elementary school)...he seemed to be sort of lacking in personality to me. He's supposed to be this really nice guy who is gorgeous and does things for charities, etc. but really the only big interactions between him and Abby are after he's under her spell and he basically seems like a puppy searching for her approval. It bugged me.
Then there was Megan, Travis's girlfriend, who is a gorgeous mean girl who walks around with her two "friends" who are not as attractive as she is, probably on purpose, and who picks on Abby and calls her Big Bird and all sorts of other things. Really, could this story add some more cliched characters to the mix? There's even the whole prom scene where Megan and her cronies spray paint Abby's dress and chop off her hair. Really? To me that feels mostly like something you see in books and movies. I certainly never saw anything remotely close to that in school.
I did enjoy Rem, though his on-again, off-again attraction/feelings/whatever towards Abby did start to grate on me. Abby spending all that time thinking about Travis, who was unavailable) when Rem was there just made me groan and shake my head. I mean, Abby seemed like a smart chick...didn't she realize that there was practically no chemistry with her and and jock-boy, especially when there's Mr. Hottie Rem around. I really liked him.
Also, based on how this story ends, I'm going to guess that it's a standalone novel. If there's an attempt to turn this into a series, I don't know if I'm likely to read it. The ending seemed to wrap up a lot of things, including the romance story and the witch story. Now, that being said, if Maya Gold wanted to sort of maybe go with a prequel novel that details the events in Salem from the trials then I would probably be okay with that.
All in all, I think this book was about a 3.5/5 for me.
Spellbinding at Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/spellbinding-maya-gold/1112090670?ean=9780545433808
Spellbinding at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Spellbinding-Maya-Gold/dp/0545433800/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364863797&sr=8-1&keywords=Spellbinding
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