cover image The Witches of White Willow

The Witches of White Willow

Angela Addams. Weird Sister, $3.99 e-book (266p) ISBN 978-1-77527-745-3

This cliché-driven series launch is set in a magical hospital near Salem, Mass., where a race of witches, magically hidden from humans, train to combat magical ailments. Hazel Knight is one of those witches, known as the Promised One. According to her mother, she is destined to sacrifice herself to feed the magic of the other healer witches. Those plans begin to go awry when Hazel discovers that the human she’s been sneaking out to see isn’t human at all, but a fellow witch named Duke Hart, who has just been assigned to complete her training. Duke sees her mother’s plans as selfishness rather than destiny, and he sets out to convince Hazel to choose love over what she’s been taught to see as her duty. The relationship, though strained by events in the plot, is already established when the book begins, and the lack of development on the page makes it feel somewhat stale as the plot winds to a close. Undemanding fans of paranormal tales will find this story a passable way to spend a few hours. (BookLife)