Waking the Witch

I won three copies of Waking the Witch from Random House Canada last month (thank you thank you thank you, Random House Canada!) and I was so pleased that they finally arrived. (As was my cousin and one other person, who will be receiving their free copies the next time we meet up.) I say “finally” but it was less than two weeks – I was just impatient to get started since Kelley Armstrong is one of my favourite authors.

Waking the Witch is Savannah Levine’s story. Savannah’s been a supporting character in several other Otherworld books but this is her first time up as narrator, and the first time we see her as an adult. This time around, Savannah’s 21 and looking to show Paige and Lucas, her guardians and magical private show more investigators, that she can handle an investigation on her own. She’s got a lot to deal with – she’s an orphan whose mother was a notorious dark witch (turned angel) and whose father was a Cabal sorceror – but she’s been working for her adoptive parents for a few years and is eager to prover herself. She gets her chance when another supernatural investigator comes to the agency looking for help with a case he’s working in Columbus, Washington. Tgree women are dead and it looks like there’s a supernatural explanation. Although Savannah is confident she can handle the investigation, things keep heading in unexpected directions, placing her in jeopardy.

Generally, when it comes to the Otherworld, I prefer the werewolf stories. Elena is by far my favourite narrator and the other members of the Pack, particularly Clay, Jeremy, and the kids, are just fantastic characters. In contrast, I find Paige and Lucas to be rather dull. I enjoy the stories that Paige has narrated but I never enjoy them as much as the werewolf stories. The highlight of the Paige and Lucas stories has always been, for me, Savannah. She’s a much more dynamic character–more outgoing and less cautious than Paige–and I think fans of the Otherworld have been waiting for Savannah to get a starring role. I know I have. And now that I’ve finished reading Waking the Witch, I can safely say that Kelley Armstrong has written a fantastic book. (And it’s a return to the single narrator, which I really appreciate.)

Seeing Savannah as a grownup was so much fun. She’s retained a lot of the personality traits that we’ve seen in other stories in the series but is now a bit more seasoned and mature. Waking the Witch also features Adam, one of my favourite supporting characters, as well as some other new and old faces, so it made for a fun and fast-paced read. I think Kelley Armstrong’s really returned to form with this book: it’s got a great plot, interesting character development, fantastic dialogue, and the perfect tease at the end. And by perfect tease, I mean that Waking the Witch ends on a slightly different note than the other books in the Otherworld series. This time around, you get resolution for the main storyline but it immediately segues into a new plot, which will hopefully (and logically) be addressed in next year’s book, Spell Bound, also narrated by Savannah. It can’t come too soon for me. Thankfully, there’s a Paige novella coming out later on this year, which should help me get my Otherworld fix for the next little while.

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I received a free review copy of this book from the publisher.

Waking the Witch is the first in a new series (within a series) narrated by Savannah Levine - a powerful young witch who has been helping her guardians run a supernatural PI service. With Lucas and Paige away on vacation, however, Savannah steps up to take the lead investigating a series of murders in a small Washington town that appear to have a link to paranormal rituals. With the help of two half-demons and a detective from Dallas, Savannah sets to work investigating the killings - but someone wants her dead, and lately her magic has been misfiring at the most inopportune moments...

Although this is the eleventh book in Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series , it works show more relatively well even if you haven't read the others in the series. Although it was clear that there was quite a bit of backstory that I was missing (certain character appearances/cameos were lost on me, and I wish I had seen the build-up of Adam & Savannah's working relationship), things were certainly explained well enough that I had no trouble following the plot or the rules of the urban fantasy world that Armstrong has set up.

So Savannah - Savannah can be a little hard to take. She's headstrong and reckless; she kind of knocks you over the head with her conviction that she's utterly bad-ass and irresistible; and she has a pretty huge chip on her shoulder that often has her rejecting anyone's attempts to help her. In short, she's just the kind of tough girl heroine that rubs me the wrong way, especially when she gets transplanted into a 'hick' town and has a chance to stick her nose in the air at what she perceives as backwardness.

But even though Savannah frustrated me, she still had moments of genuine vulnerability that kept me on her side. She's smart, capable and driven to get the job done, but she also grows to realize that she can't, shouldn't and doesn't have to always tough it out. That there's something to be gained by allowing yourself to feel and even to fall apart a little some of the time. And that was a lovely thing to read.

I enjoyed her relationship with her colleague/long-time crush Adam and how she dealt with young Kayla, who is determined to be a detective. Those were the real reasons I kept on reading, though, to be fair, I also really liked watching her puzzle out the mystery. There were a lot of twists to the mystery plotline that kept me whirling about like a ballet dancer doing fouettes without having learned how to spot - and I mean that in a Good Way. The Great Reveal loses a lot of impact if you haven't read the rest of the series simply because you don't really have the necessary background to understand the implications, but it did encourage me to give more of Armstrong's work a try. Especially since Waking the Witch wraps up its primary plot but ends on a cliffhanger for the next book in the series! show less

Savannah Levine has been waiting for her chance to prove herself a capable private investigator, so when a job presents itself while her guardians are on vacation, she leaps at the opportunity. Three murders, months apart, all young women in a small town seems an easy job at first, but as Savannah uncovers links to the supernatural, she realizes she may be in over her head.

Savannah showed up in the Women of the Otherworld series early on, as a young, trapped and vulnerable witch, and despite growing up strong and capable, she still bears the emotional scars from those days. She's a complex character, and the stresses she undergoes during the course of the investigation pushes her to her limit, and it's an exciting and intriguing show more journey. Savannah is a temperamental, foul-mouthed bad-ass (despite the obviousness of her motorcycle riding and probable tattoo collection), yet still manages to be sympathetic. I look forward to more of her!

Highly recommended. show less

It's very cool to see Savannah Levine all grown up. She's smart, funny, and confident, but flawed and relatable (insomuch as one can relate to a spell-casting, motorcycle riding witch). I enjoyed reading about her coming into her own, as an adult and as a budding P.I., and the end of the story was definitely a twist I didn't see coming. However, the moment of crushing doubt she has at the end of the book (the one that sets up the next book in the series) is totally out of left field. I could buy that it was how she felt, given her history, but there was only one moment (that I recall) in the story that alludes to her self-doubt. Even if it was something she was denying to herself, the reader needs clues and those clues were practically show more nonexistent. It didn't take away from my enjoyment of the story so much as it made me go "whuh?" and I'll still be reading [b:Spell Bound|7797032|Spell Bound (Women of the Otherworld, #12)|Kelley Armstrong|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1292864599s/7797032.jpg|10767072]. show less

Waking the Witch, the eleventh book in the Women of the Otherworld series, is the first to feature Savannah Levine as the lead character. Throughout the series, Savannah has grown up from the little, yet powerful, witch/sorcerer to an even stronger woman.

While I enjoyed Savannah's first solo case, I appreciated the look inside her psyche more. She's always been one of a kind in regards to her abilities given her parentage, but it's impressive to see how well she walks the line between how Paige raised her and how people expect the daughter of Eve Levine to behave. Not nearly as compassionate as her guardians, I felt Savannah was easy to relate to. Moral lines are more blurred for her than for Paige, allowing her to take more risks and show more feel less guilt. I found her occasional self-doubt surprising, but it made her character much more palatable. Strong-willed and often abrasive, Savannah's worries soften much of her external attitude.

I loved how Savannah longs for Adam to finally realize she's not a little girl anymore. It's not a romance subplot, but more of a crush on a best friend that seems to be unrequited. Or just unnoticed. That will more likely be dealt with in future books. For now, it was wonderful to read about a super hot, hugely powerful woman who's afraid to admit her feelings for a long-time friend.

The mystery in Waking the Witch was astounding. There was a lot going on, to the point where you don't know if you have one big mystery or several separate ones. Everything works out clearly in the end, but for much of the book it's the best type of confusing. The fact that Savannah is trying so hard to prove herself while not being nearly as careful as Paige and Lucas would have been in the same situation makes the story go in directions you won't see coming.

I've always enjoyed the books that focus on Paige and Eve the best, partly because I'm a big fan of books that feature witches, but also in part because of what Savannah always brought into the story. The character is truly fantastic and is obviously going to play a big role in the last two books of this series. As the end gets closer, the Women of the Otherworld series is really heating up. show less

The Otherworld series shifts protagonists every book – so we get to see this amazing world from several different angles, it’s one of the things I love most about this series. In this case we follow Savannah, the ward of Paige and Lucas, daughter of the witch/half-demon/ghost Eve Lavine and the incredibly influential Sorcerer Kristof Nast. After following her as a child, we see her now aged 21, working for Paige and Lucas’ investigation firm.

And while they’re out of town she has a case, her first solo case, eager to prove herself and put into action all the training she’s received, she looks to solve the murders of three young women. But, more, as a witch/sorcerer, she also must keep a look out for an occult connection to the show more case – always aware of the concern of keeping humanity ignorant of the preternatural.

And the case is far from simple –or clear whether the supernatural is involved or not. With so many suspects and so many possibilities – and so many clues leading so many places, it’s hard to keep track – it’s a complicated and knotty tangle to unravel.

And Savannah is torn between proving herself and acknowledging she needs back up and support – not just for the case but also to deal with the emotional fallout as bodies start to fall.

I really like Savannah as a protagonist –I’ve been looking forward to her taking the reins (especially since the last few books featured Elena and Hope who are far from my favourites). We’ve seen Savannah since she was 12 years old and her ups and downs, problems and now, at 21, she’s a very real, fully fleshed out character – and you can see all those events we’ve followed reflected in the person she is. She isn’t a completely different person, but she isn’t the same either, she has grown and developed along reasonable, understandable lines.

And she’s a strong, powerful and extremely confident character. She’s not perfect, she takes risks and is reckless – but I don’t think her recklessness crosses the line into Spunky Agency. She is caustic and sarcastic at times – but never to a degree that is utterly unreasonable and caricature-like. It’s a great balance – and I think it’s a character a lot of authors aim to portray but hardly ever get right.

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Reviewed by: Rabid Reads

Waking the Witch would make for a badass stand-alone novel but I’d expected more from the 11th Otherworld installment. The paranormal aspects are mere parlour tricks, the pioneers of this series are MIA and the plot is more murder mystery in nature than it is Urban Fantasy. I can’t fault Kelley Armstrong’s writing, the intriguing story or the pacing but as a long time fan of these books, it didn’t satisfy me.

This is Savannah Levine’s first crack as an Otherworld narrator and as the supposed prodigy of this series her grand debut was a little lackluster. The previous books have built her character up to be extremely powerful, rebellious and fierce but unfortunately, the real thing failed to live up to show more all of the hype. Savannah has always struck me as a go getter but her inability to voice her feelings for Adam or wreak havoc on her enemies was disappointing. She comes across as more of an average Joe than as THE Savannah Levine, daughter of Eve Levine (black witch / aspicio half-demon) and Kristof Nast (sorcerer / cabal heir).

The story reads like a murder mystery with some nice police procedural elements but calling it an Urban Fantasy is a stretch. The paranormal side is limited to mediocre light ball and cover spells; considering that Savannah is capable of collapsing a house I felt cheated where her witchy powers are concerned. The resolution does have Otherworld roots but I was so completely blindsided by the villain that it felt like Armstrong was grasping at straws in an attempt to connect this book to the overall series arc. Also, other than the occasional name drop, the strong cast of beloved characters that I’ve grown to know and love is all but absent.

As a stand-alone, mystery this novel has what you’d expect: action out the wazoo and an impossible-to-guess “who done it” intrigue. The pacing is brisk, the writing is flawless and I love the fact that this series unfolds in real time. But as the 11th installment in Kelley Armstrong’s world-famous Urban Fantasy series it fizzled. Waking the Witch delivers a good story and has a high entertainment value but it’s an expendable addition to the Women of the Otherworld universe. show less