Audrey's Guide to Witchcraft: A Book Review

When the author approached me for a review of this book, I was little apprehensive. It sounded like a good idea, but so many books do. I'm extremely happy to say, I enjoyed this book. I would like to thank Jody Gehrman for the opportunity to review, and love, this book! I eagerly wait the sequel!

Audrey's Guide to Witchcraft by Jody Gehrman
Format: E-book
Published: 30 June, 2012
Publisher: Magic Genie Books
BUY IT

This was the very first book I read on my new Nook Color, and I loved that, but this is a book review. This book is quirky, suspenseful, humorous, and exciting! I easily read a few chapters a day for the first couple of days, but once I hit chapter thirteen, I was hooked. I did not put down my Nook for anything more than a moment. I became enthralled background story of a relationship Audrey develops, not to mention the main story line: chasing the bad guy to save Audrey's mother.

In this book, Audrey Oliver is a 17 year-old girl living an ordinary life. She loves baking, like her pastry chef mother, and chemistry, like her late father. She has a best friend and a talented sister. One day, Audrey just feels that something is terribly wrong. When Sadie, a young estranged cousin, shows up, her suspicions are confirmed. With the story of her mother having to attend to "family business," the girls continue in their life. But weird things are happening to Audrey. She sees weird visions and seems to make things happen. Finally, she learns that she, and her mother, are witches. After that life shattering news she learns her mother is fighting an evil man and that Audrey may be in danger too. How is Audrey supposed to balance family loyalty, self-preservation, and her new magical abilities, not to mention falling in love? What's a witch to do?

As far as the story itself, I liked the idea of it. What can I say? Throw some witches onto paper, have them fight evil and fall in love, I'm sold. I also really loved the characters and their development. Sadie was, by far, my favorite character. I love her quirky personality and how lost she is at first in the Oliver home. I also love her menagerie/entourage.  Meg was also an interesting character, being entirely without knowledge of the truth. Then there's Julian. I love that man. I'm so glad that Ms. Gehrman didn't make him evil or sketchy like so many authors feel the need to do.

My only real complaints are stylistic. I questioned the use of some metaphors and found, I think, two typos (only one I marked as distracting). My first complaint, though was the vocabulary. I'm an avid reader and English major with, what I consider, an advanced vocabulary, but within the first 10 pages, I had to look up 2 words and noted one as and unnatural words for a high school junior. If she was said to be an extremely intelligent or advanced student, I'd probably over look  these words, but for a Young Adult novel I found them to seem pretentious and unnatural. After page 10, though, the unusual wording stopped or died down enough I forgot to notice.

Overall, I give this book a 4 duck rating. I really really enjoyed it, despite me minor, English major-esque, complaints. I really think that anyone who enjoys exciting fantasy novels, novels about witches and magic, or just really good, fast paced reads would really like this book. I, personally, am patiently (or perhaps impatiently) awaiting the sequel! Look below the rating for where you can purchase your own copy to love.

Check out the e-book, available for $0.99 HERE!
Or get a copy from Amazon for only $9.99