Review: Wicked: Witch & Curse by Nancy Holder & Debbie Viguié - Part 2: Curse

Wicked: Witch & Curse by Nancy Holder & Debbie Viguié (review copy) - Holly Cathers's world shatters when her parents are killed in a terrible accident. Wrenched from her home in San Francisco, she is sent to Seattle to live with her relatives, Aunt Marie-Claire and her twin cousins, Amanda and Nicole.

In her new home, Holly's sorrow and grief soon give way to bewilderment at the strange incidents going on around her. Such as how any wish she whispers to her cat seems to come true. Or the way a friend is injured after a freak attack from a vicious falcon. And there's the undeniable, magnetic attraction to a boy Holly barely knows.

Holly, Amanda, and Nicole are about to be launced into a dark legacy of witches, secrets, and alliances, where ancient magics yield dangerous results. The girls will assume their roles in an intergenerational feud beyond their wildest imaginations...and in doing so, will attempt to fulfill their shared destiny. From Amazon US.

Continuing my review of this book, with the second story, Curse. Warning! I cannot review the second story in the book without spoiling the first, Witch. If you plan on reading this book, and don't want to be spoiled, don't read any further.

Curse - If Witch was great, then Curse is amazing! I absolutely loved it! Curse picks up a few months after Witch finished, and not a huge amount has happened other than the Cahors Coven has grown in strength and knowledge.

Curse is a darker novel compared to Witch, and more action packed. It’s a lot more graphic, but not sexually, rather in terms of what one does when practising black magic. You find out in the first story, but you actually see it in this book. It’s a little disturbing, which shows how great the authors’ talent is as they’re doing their job and effecting the reader. With the darker elements, you find yourself sucked into the book that little bit more.

There are so many points of view in this story, you get to see through almost everyone’s eyes at one point or another. Where in Witch the blood feud between Isabeau and Jean is explained, in Curse, we get more history, but from after the events we already know about from the 13th century to the 17th century. The history is just fantastic, the detail that has gone into it so that present day story is more understandable.

A lot of the story is the history. There is quite a bit of action set in present day, but most of the story is relating the history to now. A whole slew of great new characters in introduced in this story, involved in a connected subplot, a new coven. I can’t go into detail about them without spoiling the story, but I’m sure they will play an integral part in the future book when paths cross.

I wouldn’t say there was a resolution to this story, it’s more of a progression; both sides make moves, consequences happen, and more questions arise. This is not to say that nothing major happens, a few major things happen, but there is no definitive end to the story. All I can say is that the next book, Wicked 2: Legacy & Spellbound, is going to be absolutely rivoting! I implore you to pick up this book, it’s fantastic!

Thanks to Simon and Schuster UK for sending me a copy for review.

Published: September 2009 in UK, 2008 in US
Publisher: Simon and Schuster UK
Buy on Amazon UK
Buy on Amazon US
Nancy Holder's Website & Debbie Viguié's Website

My review of Witch

Other Reviews:
On the Nightstand