Debora Geary - A Hidden Witch

Elorie Shaw, steeped in the traditions of the Nova Scotia witching community, but not a witch. The fetching spell must have goofed this time... or did it? Travel to Fisher's Cove, Nova Scotia, where Moira is matriarch and the old ways are nurtured and passed to the next generation. Where a crotchety old witch makes small children cry and builds walls around the silent pain in his heart. And where Elorie - sea-glass artist, inn owner, and Moira's granddaughter - makes her home. The old magics are strong here. Which is all fine and good until the fetching spell pulls Elorie into Witches' Chat. Because she's not a witch. Or at least not any kind of witch the old ways recognize...

Comment: The first book in this Modern Witch series was one of the only three I've given five stars to last year. I was dazzled by the simplicity of the story and the sense of community. I was quite curious to see if this second installment would be as successful to me and while it wasn't as great, it was good enough to make me want to read more.

In this story, still revolving around the group and family of witches and their friends, whom we met in the previous book, we mainly follow Elorie, granddaughter of Moira, the matriarch of the family, as she goes on with her life as an artist while still debating with the sadness that she hasn't witch powers. This didn't stop her from helping as best as she could, though, and she has her art and a wonderful husband... so when the plan to travel from Maine to California for an art fair and show case her glass work suddenly puts her in the center of attention and others keep telling her she has powers after all, Elorie isn't certain on what to do. The problem is that her supposed new powers don't seem to be much of a deal, how can she cope with this new situation?

It is true this story wasn't as amazing to me as the first. The wonderful coziness of the style seemed to have worked a lot better in the first book and the novelty of the witch community and family somehow felt perfect to me. Here, the same elements are found and the family is as tight as before, although a few characters have more focus than others and a new ones have key roles instead of others.

All this is fine, if one likes this style of story, especially because there isn't much happening in terms of plot, just like before. The story is all about the characters and how amazing they are and how everyone contributes to a goal or a common challenge, such as how most characters are trying to find a way to help others developing or accessing their powers in specific ways.

This can seem a little too sugary because everyone is great, and even the less happy/positive details are somehow used to advance something or someone will learn something from it. I wouldn't mind, to be fair, to have a bit more content on the characters personal lives and the difficulties they face... even when this is hinted at or seems to be what we get from a comment or a line, things are solved in what feels like a too simplistic way, meaning there isn't any obvious character growth. Everyone is great and even the most taciturn ones (like uncle Marcus) somehow help/contribute/have a different side...

If one can put aside the slowness of some things and the obvious lack of plot, the story can be sweet and charming. Still, I wasn't as taken by this installment too for another main reason. Elodie seems to be the key character, the one who kind of propels most of the situations or, to say it better, the person around whom most scenes seem to focus on. Elodie is a non-witch in a family of witches and she has resigned herself to this, helping to teach the children about witches and responsibility and so on. the witch community has many family members in similar situations so there is this huge notion to teach kids everyone matters, and not having powers doesn't mean some people are less than others.

All this is fine and I would also be fine if Elodie weren't to have powers. Still, the author decided to change this and, it turns out that she does. Ok, that's fine as well. My issue is the kind of power Elodie is "given". For the life of me I just could not picture such a power and worse, how Elodie can become able to use it... while all these things keep going on, one or two other characters find they have similar skills to Elodie, and the contrast /mostly age related) feels so... condescending. Elodie is in her late 20s but it still feels the idea if that she is too old to deal with how her powers work. I've found this whole thing to be ridiculous.

I suppose one could say the story alone is that, but I do like this style, I did love spending time with these characters, but in my opinion Elodie should have be shown to have a great life without powers or her powers should be easier to accept. I think the author could have done things better in regards to this and could have portrayed Elodie better too.

I've checked the blurb of the next novel and I hope it will offer a more engaging story or, at least with more captivating situations.

Grade: 7/10