From School Library Journal
Grade 7 Up-When her parents and best friend are killed in a river-rafting accident and her mother's best friend falls to a mysterious illness, Holly goes to live with her aunt, uncle, and cousins in Seattle. There she meets Jeraud Deveraux and is drawn into a centuries-old battle between two families of warlocks and witches. Visions, spirits, sibling rivalry, death, grief, an affair, fatal attractions, magic-this book tries to include them all and barely succeeds. The two plot lines, one of a girl's grief and the other of the ancient feud between two families that unite through marriage while scheming to betray one another, duel for readers' attention. When all of the characters are added, the dueling turns into a battle. Holly is often shoved into the background and Jer's father becomes the central focus. In the end, readers care little about any of the people involved. While some scenes do have a certain tension, they are brief and often lost amid all the other elements.
Molly S. Kinney, Peach Public Libraries, Fort Valley, GACopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Gr. 8-12. The first installment in a new Wicked series focuses on high-school senior Holly Cathor, orphaned by an accident, who goes to live with her aunt and cousins in Seattle. Unknown to her, they are descended from a powerful line of ancient French witches who are locked in an eternal battle with a dynasty of megalomaniac warlocks, now represented by Michael Deveraux and his sons. The narration periodically shifts from modern-day Seattle to seventeenth-century France as Holly and sexy college student Jeraud Deveraux realize their roles in this centuries-old feud that is now reaching a fatal climax. Holder is the author of several titles about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and this will appeal to the same mature readership.
Catherine AndronikCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
