Review: Once a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough

Tamsin Greene comes from a long line of witches, and she was supposed to be one of the most Talented among them. But Tamsin's magic never showed up. Now seventeen, Tamsin attends boarding school in Manhattan, far from her family. But when a handsome young professor mistakes her for her very Talented sister, Tamsin agrees to find a lost family heirloom for him. The search—and the stranger—will prove to be more sinister than they first appeared, ultimately sending Tamsin on a treasure hunt through time that will unlock the secret of her true identity, unearth the sins of her family, and unleash a power so vengeful that it could destroy them all. This is a spellbinding display of storytelling that will exhilarate, enthrall, and thoroughly enchant.                                                                                                     

from goodreads.com 

I'm just going to start by saying that I LOVED this book. Once a Witch is one of those books that you just can't put down. It pulls you in with its unique take on witches and continues to keep you interested with its unexpected plot twists.
I really did find this to be a unique take on witches, and considering all of the different witch stories, that's really saying something. I loved how each witch really only had one thing (called a Talent) that they could do wit their powers (without making a potion or something).
I also really liked Tamsin. She seemed like the kind of person I would want to be friends with. Also, I thought it was really cool that she was the only Talentless person in her family, it made the story a lot more interesting. Also, Gabriel seemed amazing (enough said).
Another thing I really liked about this book is how the plot ends up being completely different than what you would expect from the first few chapters and the plot twists were unpredictable. I hate it when I can tell what's going to happen in a book. I mean, it's fun to guess, but it's not fun to be right all the time. With this book, I couldn't figure out any of the twists ahead of time.
Overall, Once a Witch was an amazing book filled with fun characters, a little bit of romance, and had a great plot. I give it a 9/10.

In My Mailbox #9

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.

Katie:

Bought:

Once a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough

Crusade by Nancy Holder

Seven Sorcerers by Caro King

Ally:

Bought:

Snakehead (Alex Rider #7) by Anthony Horowitz

Already Owned:

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace by Terry Brooks (felt the need to list because I'm listing the rest of the series)

Library:

Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones by R.A. Salvatore
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover
Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope by George Lucas
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back by Donald F. Glut
Star Wars : Episode VI - Return of the Jedi by James Kahn

Goodreads First Reads Giveaway:

Stonewiser: The Heart of the Stone by Dora Machado
Tom e. by William Gallaty
One Last Lie by Rob Kaufman
The Painted Bridge by Wendy Wallace

What did you get this week?

Hello!

Hey everyone, I'm Ally! I've known Katie for a while now and I'm glad to now be her co-blogger. I love to read fantasies and science fiction novels. I am a large fan of Star Wars, Taylor Swift and Falling Skies. Before joining Katie's blog I had thought about starting one of my own, but wasn't entirely sure of what to blog about. I'm excited to be here with all of you to share my reviews and be a part of the revival of this blog!

Big Changes

Hi, everyone! I know I haven’t blogged in forever (it’s been almost a year!), and my reasons for not blogging aren’t really all that great, but I will tell you anyway. First of all, as I already told you in one of my last few blog posts, I moved. Now, I know that moving obviously isn’t a big enough reason, but keep listening. I continued blogging up until August. Once August came around, I had so much to worry about: getting ready to start a new school, a visiting relative, getting ready to start a new school. (Yeah, I was really nervous about starting a new school.) Even once school started though, I started participating in more activities in my search for new friends. At one point in the fall it seemed like I didn’t get home until ten almost every other night. I know I still could have been blogging during this time, but the truth is, I just had lost all motivation to blog. I was having a hard time making friends (I didn’t really have a group of friends until November).

That still really doesn’t explain the rest of the year though, and honestly, I don’t know what happened. I feel that all I can do is apologize and hope that some people still wish to read this blog. I am sorry for my long absence from the book blogging community and it’s something I’ve been regretting lately.

Now, not only does the title of this post refer to the big changes in my life, it also refers to big changes on this blog. First of all, yes, I hope to start regularly posting reviews again. The other big change is that I will no longer be the only person posting reviews to this blog. My friend Ally will now be my co-blogger and we will both be adding our reviews and thoughts to this blog. So please be patient as we make any changes to various things on this blog over the next couple of weeks. I think Ally will be doing a post here really soon to introduce herself so you’ll get to know her better really soon! I hope you are all as excited about this as I am!