Waking the Witch

I'd gotten away from this series for awhile, but when I heard there was going to be a Savannah-centric book I knew I would be jumping back in, as the witches were always my favourite part of the Otherworld series.

Balance is the key to this book - Armstrong tries to balance between writing urban fantasy and writing a mystery, and Savannah tries to balance the influence of her mother, Eve, and Paige, the woman who raised her for half her life. Savannah phrases that balancing in a series of negatives - several times she mentions being “not like Paige” or “not like my mom” which leads me to believe that for all her bravado she's not really quite sure who she herself is. And it's clear from what we know about those other women that she is like them, in many ways.

Despite the supernatural trappings and characters, the story really does read like a mystery - enough that I was a little upset at first when that mystery ended up having a supernatural explanation. It makes sense when you think about it, but at first it seems kind of deus ex machina.

Speaking of the ending - I don't want to spoil it (even with the “spoiler” tag on), but well played, Armstrong, well played.

I think I would have rated this book higher if I had read the others in the series. This is #11 or something and while it does a fantastic job of standing on its own, it still would have been nice to have a little background.

I'll write a full review sometime in the upcoming week!