(House of Magic #1)
By Ariel Hunter
There’s only one thing you really need to know about the world I come from: the witch council is as archaic and backwards in their ways as they are powerful.So when they arrange for me to marry the most powerful warlock in the world so I can give them magic babies, I do what any sensible twenty-four-year old would do.I run.Or at least I try to.Turns out, when push comes to shove, they’re willing to bargain on the whole marriage thing.To keep my life the way I like it, I just have to do one little thing: claim my powers.Easier said than done when the unruly power awakened inside of me is a magic that shouldn’t exist.As if that wasn’t bad enough, my Mystic meant to guide me through the change is the very warlock I was supposed to marry.Now I’m faced with another bargain, and this time there’s no getting out of it.Train with Callan and learn how to control my magic, or face the Council’s wrath.One of these things is sure to end in my demise.The other? I give it a fifty-fifty shot.
My Review:
* I was given this free review audiobook copy at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
This was exactly what I was expecting it to be: a fun, quick, and interesting read! Though I felt like I was missing a lot of background to the universe the author created because quite a bit about it didn't make much sense. For example the Witch Council. They seemed to be mean for the sake of being mean. I'd like to know where the basis for all these antiquated rules came from and why they've been kept in place all these years. Also, Marnie's mom for supposedly being an all-powerful witch was really incompetent for 90% of the story and that bothered me.
Marnie was handed a crappy situation on top of a crappy situation all against her better judgment. Her mother is the real villain in this story because she's the one who pushed until she got what she wanted all the while not maintaining her promise from the beginning. I understand Marnie's frustration with the arranged marriage. She's not necessarily against it, she just doesn't want anyone pushing it on her. She's rebelling because she feels trapped and it sucks to see her going through everything and not being able to get out of it.
Callan was not what I was expecting him to be. He was actually nothing but understanding, patient, and sweet to Marnie. He stood up for her when things got rough and helped her out in a few very big ways. The balance the author struck in him was great to see. He wasn't overtly pushy but he wasn't meek by any means. I actually ended up liking him very much!
The ending was sort of anti-climatic considering I didn't know the big-bad that was supposedly coming. This is where the world-building would have benefitted me. Due to that fact I didn't know much about this world for the fear the author wanted to strike in me to hit.
The Audio Book:
The narration was overall great but I would have liked to see more of a range in male voices from the narrator. She made Callan more soft-spoken than I expected (and even though it worked for me it may not work for everyone). When there were 2 or more men having a conversion I did get lost. There were no strange background noises in the recording but there were a few very distinct times where I would hear the mic trying to capture noises in the room (in quiet moments) where this was being recorded. Though it didn't affect the narration in any way it was just a detail that I noticed.
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