Origins (2002)

This is a lame attempt to extend the series, painfully, by another book, into the past, so we get some more olden-times and Gaelic. boring.
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The first 2-3 books in this series are addictive, a fresh "modern-teen" POV in the tired genre of witches/kids with supernatural powers finding themselves (and the wonder of Wicca) among families/communities who "don't get it".

After #3, it goes downhill. There is no psychological development of the main characters (and the secondary characters are quite shallowly described and hard to distinguish throughout the series; even the more promising and believable ones, BFFs Bree & Robbie are essentially dropped from the books by #4) a lot of the narrative suspenseful points are all "tell" and no "show", the conclusions are hurried and tied up nicely--except for a minimum of predictable suspense that the publisher made you have to draw people through the series. Also, each book is so short, (it's like a single chapter of a Harry Potter) that the narrative arc is predictable and hasty, and makes one wonder if these were paid by the book, or that the series was extended way beyond what should have been its natural life span by the publisher, or what.

It's no Harry Potter, that's for sure. Apart from the above flaws, here's no humor (unless you count Morgan's drinking Diet Coke all the time, which gets tired really fast) and no writing good enough to be enjoyed by adults as well (a sure sign of a good children's book).

Also there's way too much touchy-feely Wicca rituals and pseudo Gaelic chanting, which is not well enough written to be convincing and also gets tiresome.
( )

This book is basically the story of one of Morgan's ancestors, Rose, who just happens to be the person who created the Dark Wave. It is set in the 1600's during the time of the witch hunts. Rose falls in love with a young witch who is not of her clan. I don't want to give anything away, but of course things go awry and Rose is accused of witchcraft.

This was a very interesting book. I enjoyed the new characters and the historical setting. It also advances the story because now Morgan and Hunter know how the Dark Wave was created. Now they might be able to destroy it. ( )

This book is less about Morgan, and more about her ancestors and the origin of the dark wave itself. This was interesting, though I had to suspend my disbelief a good deal in places. Brings a partial resolution to the dark wave plot of the series. ( )

This was an interesting book on the origins of the dark wave .Although I think Morgan would have been better off not knowing,will be interesting to see how she handles the information in future books. ( )

Book eleven in the Wicca/Sweep series by Cate Tiernan. It's an interesting story that tells the tale of Rose, Morgan's ancestor. Morgan is usually the focus so this (and the previous one about Hunter) makes a nice change and keeps her novels fresh.

A lot of the Witches information is correct, for example some of the words used and the herb, stone, sabbat lore. There was less "supernatural" lore which made it seem more believable than some of the previous ones in the series.

A lot about the male lead was dodgy however. She only got him through a spell it seemed. She was not claiming him as he was hers, but stealing him from the first. I'm glad he turned out the way he did at the end though, it created more sympathy for Rose. ( )