Carolyn MacCullough

Full review on Reader's Dialogue: http://readersdialogue.blogspot.com

*Warning: If you haven't read Once a Witch yet - there are spoilers for that in this summary and review of Always a Witch.*

After discovering that she does indeed have a Talent and that her entire family is in danger, Tamsin Greene is charged with another mission: to follow Alistair Knight, the man who threatens her family, back into the 1880s and either to stop him from getting to the Knight family or to get to her own show more ancestors and warn them of the impending danger to their descendants. Things are never what they seem, and this is a huge battle that Tamsin alone can fight - and there is a choice that she alone must make by the end of it - a terrible choice, as her grandmother told her.

The second book outdoes the first - and that's saying something! By the time Always a Witch starts, Tamsin has grown a lot from the appealingly juvenile girl she was at the beginning of Once a Witch, and she continues to grow and mature throughout the book. Watching her develop was so satisfying - as her decisions become harder, the obstacles more difficult, as the action escalates, she becomes an adult, but she still retains her vibrant personality. She's more serious at the other end of all this, but she's still herself - which is one of the lessons she has to learn.

And that part is done so beautifully - about coming to terms with who she is. It's not belabored, it just slides naturally into the story - and I love how the titles of the books tie that all together. No more on that or I'll give away parts of the ending, but I really love that.

The pacing that I loved in the first book carries through to the second as well. Carolyn MacCullough really knows how to hook you right away and keep your attention and interest throughout the entire book. Never a dull moment, the action building and building as you hold your breath up to the scene where everything falls apart and comes together, and then the perfect ending, as you quietly let out all that breath you've been holding in a contented sigh. The resolution, by the way, is totally surprising. When Tamsin is faced with that "terrible choice," I had no idea what she'd do. It looks like it's going one way, then the other, then... The situation felt like a real decision, where no option seems right and you're looking for another way out. So I was feeling right along with Tamsin as she agonized over what to do.

I like that the choices all the characters have to make are never clear-cut. Well, except for the evil characters, whose choices are easy because they do whatever they want to do, without bothering about what's right. But the good characters' choices seem so difficult - and I love the way Carolyn gets them out of what sounds like a horrible situation to be in. It's so clever, so unexpected, and just so right.

The time traveling features a lot more in this book than the first, but I like it that the book still doesn't turn into an exploration of how time travel works. There are lots of twists to the story that play with the idea, and it introduces just enough of a mystery to intrigue you about time travel but not take your focus away from the story.

It's unfortunate that I never heard of Carolyn MacCullough before, but I'm rushing to pick up her previous books, Drawing the Ocean, Stealing Henry, and Falling Through Darkness. Her writing style is so clear and compelling, her characters so believable, her plots so natural. She's going right onto my favorites list now! show less

I was immediately swept away in the world created by MacCullough in the first book of what promises to be an amazing series. Tamsin feels shadowed by her older, more beautiful, more powerful sister – an emotion that is relatable to by many amongst us. What immediately sets the story apart, for me, is the fact that it is a story of dynasties. A shared history among family members who are all different from the normal, more ordinary people. Tamsin, you see, hails from a family (from show more generations) of witches. She was supposed to be the most powerful of them all, the most brilliant. Only…she wasn’t. In fact, she didn’t seem to have gotten any powers. This leads her to feel distinctly cast-out in a family where everyone is special. Where even the toddlers can do amazing magic. So she escapes. To a private boarding school in New York.

Then enter the mysterious professor, who, in mistaking Tamsin for her sister (remember the gorgeous older, more powerful one?) sets into action events that completely change Tamsin and her perspective on who and what she is. Along the way, the reappearance of a childhood crush adds the spice of romance (he is swoon worthy, you guys) and a revelation on Tamsin’s true nature, takes the narrative from a waltz to a rapid disco. The reader will whirl from scene to scene – flung about in a miasma of emotion – reading as slow as she can to make the experience last longer and then at other times, reading as fast as she can so she find out what happens next. (Okay fine, I’m just talking about myself.)

The characters are created with an exquisite ease that sets them apart as individuals rather than replicates of stereotypes often used in genre-books. The matriarch of the family has different sides to her as does the nutty relative. Everything and everyone is delightfully interwoven to present to the world a story that leaves the reader waiting (I was going to say tortured) for the next installment. show less

*****This review may contain spoilers if you didn't do what I told you to previously and read Once a Witch. Continue at your own risk.****

Now, whereas I did not like Tamsin in Once a Witch, I'm loving her in this one. Not only is she looking out for herself, her family and their fate, but she's looking out for the servants in the Knight household and the poor urchins they experiment on. While Once a Witch went back and forth between light and dark, Always a Witch reads like a horror story. show more The Knight family, is bent on practicing the darker magics. And they don't care about spilling human blood to do it. Humans are considered beneath them and therefore if they kill one or two dozen for the cause, so be it. What do they want? Immortality.

Tamsin travels back in time without Gabriel, time affects those without her powers and he could die if he gets trapped back in time. She has to beat Alistair Knight back in time before he can warn the Knights of what the Greene family did to their powers. Now here, she did go off a little half assed if you ask me because once again, she didn't know where the Greene family lived before she went back in time. That would have been my first place to visit. And I would have known the names of my ancestors so they would believe me. Had some piece of information or heirloom so they could identify me. But there's a big reason she can't ask where they lived or find out names and again in a round about way it has to do with Alistair Knight. So she basically hits the late 1800's blind. Dressed in a working girl's uniform and that's about it. She was smart enough to look in the attic at home for a uniform or dress so she'd look the part and found some money as well.

Tamsin of course, snoops and gets caught, but now with her awesome powers, she thinks she's invincible. Not! Once again, Gabriel comes to her rescue. And her great, great grandfather.
There are lots of mysteries and betrayals in this book and just when you think you've got it figured out, the loophole closes and there's no way out. Gabriel is just as admirable in this book as in the last one and still, my favorite character, but as I said, Tamsin is a lot less whiney and more take charge in this one.

At the end, as things turn around, Tamsin suffers a terrible loss and becomes the ultimate heroine to me! She totally makes up for her mistakes in Once a Witch, and who knows, maybe it was fated for this to all happen this way anyway.

I really enjoyed this novel. I love time travel novels and most of this one takes place in the past. There is a lot of sleuthing and sneaking around, second guessing, a lot of surprising defeats and some very realistic hopelessness. As to whether there is a happy ending, you'll need to read it, but I happily and highly recommend this book and the series. show less

The best adjective I can come up with to describe Once a Witch would have to be adventurous. Tamsin travels through time more than once, she commutes to and from boarding school, and between all that traveling, she has to put up with her crazy family and solve a mystery. Phew! Once a Witch is very busy, but Carolyn MacCullough manages to write in a way that makes the multitude of characters and various plotlines manageable.

My favorite aspect of the book would have to be Tamsin. She’s a show more smart aleck, she’s got a cynical outlook on life, and she does whatever the heck she wants. Her personality made reading her story quite entertaining, and definitely made her feel more realistic. Because Tamsin was raised as an outsider, her moodiness and constant sarcasm really make a lot of sense.

Another part of Once a Witch that I liked was its fantasy feel. Because of Tamsin’s big family and the time traveling, the book just felt magical! It didn’t have that feeling of still being grounded in the real world, which I enjoyed! Carolyn MacCullough’s writing contributed to the fairy-tale quality of Once a Witch; her writing wasn’t super hip (no excessive cursing, not too much slang), so it felt distant from today’s world. This sounds like an insult, but it isn’t! I enjoyed MacCullough’s style of writing; it was a nice change of pace.

Once a Witch was an amazing ride, and I enjoyed every bit of it. It reminded me a little bit of Nikki Christina Hoffman’s A Fistful of Sky (the talented family and a talent-less protagonist), which was great, since I had really enjoyed that book as well. I’d recommend Once a Witch to fantasy lovers, and people who like to read about crazy families and their secrets.
(Originally posted to 365 Days of Reading) show less