I picked up Magia Rising when Amazon had it for free. I only recently sat down to catch up on my reading. It’s YA urban fantasy. Here’s the official summary:
New Orleans is teeming with warring witch clans. Their world goes unnoticed by the people of the city,unseen by the masses. Nixon was one of those people, oblivious to the battles brewing around him. That is, until his eighteenth birthday.
Abandoned and on his own after the deaths of his parents…he’d grown used to being alone. Now he’s discovering strange powers, learning secrets about his ancestors, and falling for the wrong girl–or is she the right one? In this new world he can trust no one…even the dead tell lies. Friends are enemies, and enemies hide the truth. Who can he trust? What’s real and what’s illusion?
The book starts off all right. Nixon is hearing voices and it’s driving him crazy, and also he can put thoughts into peoples’ heads. His roommate is some guy he brainwashed into letting him live with him–or is his roommate doing it of his own accord? The story seemed to dither a lot.
The Nixon finds The Hawt Witch Chick who is evil–or is she good? And Nixon talks a lot to his dead great-great grandmother–but is she good or evil?
The stuff about the warring witch clans of New Orleans was interesting enough, as was he flavor of New Orleans itself. The setting lends itself to a good urban fantasy romp.
The novel isn’t nearly as steamy as the cover makes it out to be. Nixon and his girlfriend kiss a lot and almost go to bed at one point, but nothing happens.
The story tries to throw in lots of twists and turns, but they don’t work very well. It seems more like the author changed their mind a lot, rather than organic parts of the story. An ally turning traitor in the last third of the book smacked of a cheap reversal that had absolutely no foreshadowing, and in fact undermined the buildup through the first half of the book.
But the worst thing is the ending. Or the fact that there isn’t an ending. The story cuts off mid-climax, for some reason. Just as the final battle between the witch clans is getting interesting, the book ends. Did the villains win? Is there going to be a sequel? Either way, it made me mad.
So yeah, it’s a decent book. The writing is competent, but wouldn’t win any contests. Don’t read it until there’s a sequel.
K. M. Carroll, Author 