Rivals Till the End

   Finally finished the second half, or second book, of Wicked series: Curse by Nancy Holder & Debbie Viguié. Wow, ok wow compared to the first book this one is like five times better, and by that I mean it seemed to have gotten edited, there was flow, and it didn't feel like it was written by two people. You can check out my review for the first book here.


   Again, I don't think the synapses for this really gives you good insight about the book. Curse picks up shortly after Witch leaves off, Holly, Amanda and their coven have been learning all they could since the Black Fire, knowing that Michael is still out there. But when Holly is sent a vision telling her the Jer is still alive will she abandon her coven to find and save him. Meanwhile, Michael is believing that in order to conjure the black fire again for the Supreme Coven he needs to kill the strongest Cahor witch, aka Holly. Informed of a curse put on the Cahor's that any they care for drowns, he stops at nothing to lure Holly and anyone in the coven on a boat for the forces he created to aid in this curse.
Nicole, being scared of what having that kind of power truly means, we find her traveling through Europe only to have a coven of good male witches find her. Feeling as if something is following her, she grows attached to Philippe whose become like her protector.

  This one is diffidently much better written and edited, though there are still inconsistencies through out the book and repeatment, though not nearly as much. The main thing that was consistently repeated was Kari, Jer's sort of friend w/benefits, was so pissy with Holly for getting Jer almost killed, and its like pretty much the only thing we get out of that character. This one had better flow and when is changed the point of view or even the century you were told so the flash backs to the 1500's and whatnot your not sitting there wondering,  'umm where the heck did this come in?', much like I kinda felt with the first book. These history parts or the book are Luc Deveraux tracking down and trying to put an end to the Cahor's

   I'm still not seeing any other aspect of 'Romeo & Juliet' other then what is very clearly two families that want each other dead. Then again, an I just now thought of this while typing, Jer is recovering from his burns, that would have killed him if it weren't for his farther making a deal to keep him alive because he is part of the key to Back Fire, on a hidden island so I guess that can be seen as when Romeo gets banished. Our supposed Romeo & Juliet meaning Jer and Holly have still got no romance going on except that they say they love each other, but how, there's nothing there for any romance to build on for us, the readers perspective, we get nothing from the first book but what I told in that review, and they don't even see each other but in a vision. So in the romance department there's which is I guess our 'main' romance is more like on the second burner cause there's not one but two brewing romances, Amanda and Tommy of which Tommy has always had a crush on her and is trying get up that courage to say it however he might not need to anymore as we kinda get a hint the Amanda might be starting to see him in a different light, and Nicole and Philippe of which you definitely see a spark, he becomes her protector in a way and I'm more interested in how this gets through.

   We definitely see more Wiccan type magic and traditions. At the very beginning of the book there's an author's note from Nancy Holder saying the she learned some of the traditions of Wicca, and you gotta respect her for that cause that is really doing your research. I don't care who are if you want to represent something accurately, like for an acting part or a book, whatever, you got to learn what it is otherwise it just a much of stereotypical stuff. We learn that the cats the girls have are in fact their 'familiars' and they are as important to the coven as any other person in it, we see the use of oils and herbs. We also see the not so Wicca type magic and the magic we see in movies and books, like big magic battles with fireballs or a ghost army type stuff, so having the two together is sorta interesting.

   We see Holly change almost a selfishness comes over her about finding Jer. Then she does something she thinks she has to, a sacrifice, to save save everyone one from this drowning curse. This sacrifice takes something away from her, or put something in her, however way you want to look at it, taking her innocence or putting something dark. But even with this selfishness to find Jer she knows she need to make sure her friends/coven is safe. Of course there's a big battle of which Holly decides to really show some strength, I felt this battle for the most part then towards the end of it it kinda lost me but I still liked it. Wish Nicole its the exact opposite, no longer looking to steal the show. When this coven finds her and having to change where they are very few nights because of whatever this thing that seems to be following them. There's even a battle with them as well, and hopefully with out giving to much away Nicole gets captured by Eli Deveraux and the next ruler, as it were, of this Supreme Coven. She put her flirt on in hope that would create some kind of way to escape, or that Philippe would have time save her, but things don't quite pan out that way. We find out something happen however I'm not gonna tell, and I so want to find out if and when Philippe saves her.

   By the way I shared two cover with you cause the first one is the cover for the combined book, which is the only way I've seen it, like in stores or the library, I've always seen two combined books for the series its vol. 1 and 2 and then the final book. The second cover I saw on goodreads and I just like it so much I couldn't not share it with you.

 ~Hope you enjoyed~