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iariaI really love this series and Rachel Morgan as a character, all the characters are wonderful and I love this universe. The latest book is White Witch, Black Curse and as with the other books I enjoyed it. I did feel that the beginning kind of dragged with her mom and Robbie and Marshall because I realise I’m not actually as interested in them even though it was nice to meet Robbie finally and I love Rachel’s relationship with her mom.
As far as Marshall goes I like him as friend but not so much with the shipping and I’m glad it ended. I like how it ended too. But I realised that I was really missing Trent as we were getting closer to the end and he hadn’t made an appearance. And that I enjoy the Al stuff more than the cop stuff. So for me the latter half of the book was far more interesting and enjoyable.
- So my favourite part of this book was definitely the whole section between page 394 and 420 which covers Rachel meeting Trent at Carew Tower through Rachel summoning Pierce and her exchange with Al and ending with the wonderful Trent, Rachel, Al and Pierce scene in the elevator. I just loved everything about that whole section.
- I loved the Rachel/Al interactions and her determination that he respect her and the fact that he did (well, listen to her at least, even if for his own ends). I mean she makes a list of demands and he agrees to them! I was also really getting an Al/Rachel vibe. Rachel assumed that Al not wanting to leave her and Pierce alone was about him wanting to prevent Pierce from telling her some secret but that wasn’t the vibe I got at all. Not with him asking about whether she sees Pierce as a boyfriend/lover because why would he care? Yet he keeps bringing it up. This in turn made me think of how Rachel’s children will be born as demons, which Rachel even muses about in the book, and a light bulb kind of went on. Newt is the last female demon and has had numerous ‘suitors’ trying to seduce her and now we have Rachel who is practically a demon in many ways and who’s child will be a demon. I think that Rachel can breed with demons (because that is what witches were and she has been ‘fixed’) and that Al is trying to seduce her. In his own way. I kind of love this if it’s true. I… have to admit I kind of ship them a little.
“Funny how you call my witch black, when you kill for profit, and she kills… why, she hasn’t killed anyone who didn’t ask her to! Imagine that.” – Al. Hmm. First, so true. Second, was this Al just poking at Trent because he could and this was just a convenient way to do so and the whole defending of Rachel aspect was just a side effect or did he actually mean to defend Rachel?
- I’ve also realised, or perhaps simply accepted that I love Trent/Rachel probably as much as Rachel/Ivy. I really hope we get far more of them in the next book because there wasn’t nearly enough of them in this one. But I loved what we did get. Their interactions at the party were great. I loved her throwing his insecurities and issues back in his face and I love that instead of just leaving it there he purposefully followed her and that at the end he sent her the Pandora Charm – made from the hair of his personal horse! That action makes it rather personal. Plus we know that he doesn’t care about Kirsten and there was nothing (apparent) in it for him for her to remember, which makes me think that he was doing it for her. I think that he has the exact same relationship towards Rachel as she has to him. That is they seem to vacilitate between liking and hesitantly understanding each other and violently hating and being disgusted with the other. Trent having the same wave of emotions would make sense. I don’t think, like Rachel towards him, that the hate is the base emotion there. I mean his dismissal and coldness towards her actually hurt her feelings and made her cry. She even wonders why she cares what he thinks of her, indicating that she does care, and if hate was the base emotion she wouldn’t. And him sending her the Pandora Charm, made himself and from his horse, shows that for him hate is the base either, nor fear. For the next book I’m hoping that Rachel tells him Jasmine’s name with the condition that she gets to look with him to see what happened to her (and she will make sure he remembers) and that leads the two of them to try and remember their past. Together.
- I’m very caught on the picture the reporter took of Trent, Rachel and Edden. She stands between them. Trent is still thrown enough in this scene that he’s still holding his glass. Edden has his arm around her. What interests me are the subtleties of the Rachel and Trent interactions here. He puts his hand around on her waist possessively – does it only seem that way to her or does it appear that way to others and is that how Trent meant it? Why would he hold her possessively? (My inner Trent/Rachel shipper squeed a bit). He specifically moves closer to do so and Rachel notes that it would show for the camera. You would think that considering Rachel’s shunned status, her known dealings with demons, the fact that he is afraid of her would make him want to put distance between them, not make everyone think that there is a connection there. I mean after their ‘date’ to Lee’s boat party and her being at his Christmas party (I’m sure it was noted) and most especially the fact that she arrested him at his wedding, before it could be completed, and was accused by the bride of purposefully choosing to break it up (and considering that she could have arrested him just as easily afterwards) it has to be a rumour that they are together and I can just imagine the photographer’s glee at getting a picture of them together. Trent is very smart and he has to know all this, so why the closeness? Why make it seem as if there is something there? Especially considering he and Rachel were currently on the outs?
Rachel responds by turning slightly so that her back is to him (‘to balance out his hand on her waist’ according to her) and all I can think is that it would make them look more like a couple, more like they were together. Her standing with her back to his chest, his arm around her waist and hand sitting possessively against her... and Edden is totally an afterthought. The photographer got a photo of them with Jenks dust settling over them, after which Rachel relaxes... so did she also get a picture of Rachel relaxed in what could almost be called Trent’s embrace? Hmm.
- This book had a lot more of the fact that Rachel is in the spotlight, that reporters and photographers know her name and the fact that she is newsworthy in her own right. I find that fascinating. I imagine now that she has web sites about her and a forum devoted to her life. I see lots of gossip and speculation about her relationships with Ivy and especially with Trent. I kind of really want to read about that now.
- The Ivy/Rachel was excellent. I loved their scene near the end when Kisten’s death is finally put to rest. I love that it was about both of them and it was something they did together. The fact that Ivy could shield Rachel from the power of the line is interesting. Them sharing auras… I feel like there’s a hint here to the answer on how Ivy could keep her soul after her death but I can’t quite grasp it. I liked Rachel burning up Art and Denon’s bodies and sealing the room forever. I like it for the power it shows she has and I like it for the love and respect she had for Kisten. This was a good farewell for Kisten. I have a feeling that he won’t play into the next books.
- I loved Rachel being shunned. I think it’s a really interesting twist and I can’t wait to see where it goes. It’s also kind of fascinating because Rachel does have a few very high-powered connections – Trent, mainly, but also Rynn Cormel and Edden – and I wonder how it’s going to work with that. I agree with her mom that she needs to get it lifted but if any witch could survive it well it would be Rachel. She is so surrounded by close friends and allies of all species – vampire, pixie, gargoyle, elf, human and now ghost/witch, and even kind of demon – that she’s not alone.
- I’m still a bit uncertain about Pierce and the Rachel/Pierce stuff but I find his old-fashioned way of talking kind of charming. It reminds me of the Middleman.
- I have grown a bit tired of Rachel constantly freaking about the blackness on her aura and doing non-white spells and refusing to accept who she is when I’ve accepted it all long ago. So the end of this book was a huge relief. Sure it was only in one moment that she accepted that she might be a black witch but who cared (not her) but I loved it all the same and it felt like a step forward.
- I did enjoy the Rachel/Glenn and Rachel/Edden scenes which we got a lot of. I really do like their friendships. I loved this line: “She ain’t no lady. She’s my witch” that Edden says under his breath, hiding a smile, at the party. It made me go awww.
- I loved the scene at the airport where Rachel is watching the witch family. I loved the detail of the mother setting a circle to keep a hold of a rambunctious toddler. But what I really love is that it was a woman they were meeting – a wife, not the husband I was expecting. I love that little thing so much. (Also that Rachel was thinking of the family she’ll never have – foreshadowing that she will with Ivy?)
- With Matalina sick throughout the book and probably dying in the next one, or before the next one, I have been thinking a lot more about Jenks and his fate. The fact that she killed off Kirsten makes me really worry that she will kill off Jenks (and I wonder if that wasn’t intentional)? She will kill off characters and she purposefully made Pixies have short lifespans and put Jenks at the end of him. Was the plan to kill him from the beginning? I can’t imagine the series without him (much like Rachel). So I’ve been thinking of ways around it and had this thought: what if she made him big permanently? What if being big meant that he would live a human or witch lifetime instead? It would change a hell of a lot and I don’t know if I would love it but it would make sense to me and be a way to keep him around. Or perhaps Rachel will find a black/demon spell to keep him alive and faced with losing him will use it?
- What was up with the chrysalis that Al gave Rachel? She puts it on her windowsill but doesn’t apparently give it more thought but I really want to know!Though if this series goes as it has been each book has approximately been in a season ... well, not entirely. Let’s see there are seven books, it’s been one year...so like, two books per season or so which means if the chrysalis doesn’t hatch till spring then we still have winter to get through as this book is set in fall at Halloween. And... maybe not. I think I was thinking of the previous book. This one ends just after New Year’s Eve. So maybe we will find out what it is in the next book. It has to be important.
- I really liked that Kim brought Mia, Holly and Remus into the main storyline. She had a short story about them in an anthology which I’d read and been kind of eh about but seeing how it tied in with Rachel’s story and the especially the tie of Ivy having given her wish to Mia was pretty cool. I’m going to have to go re-read it now.
As far as Marshall goes I like him as friend but not so much with the shipping and I’m glad it ended. I like how it ended too. But I realised that I was really missing Trent as we were getting closer to the end and he hadn’t made an appearance. And that I enjoy the Al stuff more than the cop stuff. So for me the latter half of the book was far more interesting and enjoyable.
- So my favourite part of this book was definitely the whole section between page 394 and 420 which covers Rachel meeting Trent at Carew Tower through Rachel summoning Pierce and her exchange with Al and ending with the wonderful Trent, Rachel, Al and Pierce scene in the elevator. I just loved everything about that whole section.
- I loved the Rachel/Al interactions and her determination that he respect her and the fact that he did (well, listen to her at least, even if for his own ends). I mean she makes a list of demands and he agrees to them! I was also really getting an Al/Rachel vibe. Rachel assumed that Al not wanting to leave her and Pierce alone was about him wanting to prevent Pierce from telling her some secret but that wasn’t the vibe I got at all. Not with him asking about whether she sees Pierce as a boyfriend/lover because why would he care? Yet he keeps bringing it up. This in turn made me think of how Rachel’s children will be born as demons, which Rachel even muses about in the book, and a light bulb kind of went on. Newt is the last female demon and has had numerous ‘suitors’ trying to seduce her and now we have Rachel who is practically a demon in many ways and who’s child will be a demon. I think that Rachel can breed with demons (because that is what witches were and she has been ‘fixed’) and that Al is trying to seduce her. In his own way. I kind of love this if it’s true. I… have to admit I kind of ship them a little.
“Funny how you call my witch black, when you kill for profit, and she kills… why, she hasn’t killed anyone who didn’t ask her to! Imagine that.” – Al. Hmm. First, so true. Second, was this Al just poking at Trent because he could and this was just a convenient way to do so and the whole defending of Rachel aspect was just a side effect or did he actually mean to defend Rachel?
- I’ve also realised, or perhaps simply accepted that I love Trent/Rachel probably as much as Rachel/Ivy. I really hope we get far more of them in the next book because there wasn’t nearly enough of them in this one. But I loved what we did get. Their interactions at the party were great. I loved her throwing his insecurities and issues back in his face and I love that instead of just leaving it there he purposefully followed her and that at the end he sent her the Pandora Charm – made from the hair of his personal horse! That action makes it rather personal. Plus we know that he doesn’t care about Kirsten and there was nothing (apparent) in it for him for her to remember, which makes me think that he was doing it for her. I think that he has the exact same relationship towards Rachel as she has to him. That is they seem to vacilitate between liking and hesitantly understanding each other and violently hating and being disgusted with the other. Trent having the same wave of emotions would make sense. I don’t think, like Rachel towards him, that the hate is the base emotion there. I mean his dismissal and coldness towards her actually hurt her feelings and made her cry. She even wonders why she cares what he thinks of her, indicating that she does care, and if hate was the base emotion she wouldn’t. And him sending her the Pandora Charm, made himself and from his horse, shows that for him hate is the base either, nor fear. For the next book I’m hoping that Rachel tells him Jasmine’s name with the condition that she gets to look with him to see what happened to her (and she will make sure he remembers) and that leads the two of them to try and remember their past. Together.
- I’m very caught on the picture the reporter took of Trent, Rachel and Edden. She stands between them. Trent is still thrown enough in this scene that he’s still holding his glass. Edden has his arm around her. What interests me are the subtleties of the Rachel and Trent interactions here. He puts his hand around on her waist possessively – does it only seem that way to her or does it appear that way to others and is that how Trent meant it? Why would he hold her possessively? (My inner Trent/Rachel shipper squeed a bit). He specifically moves closer to do so and Rachel notes that it would show for the camera. You would think that considering Rachel’s shunned status, her known dealings with demons, the fact that he is afraid of her would make him want to put distance between them, not make everyone think that there is a connection there. I mean after their ‘date’ to Lee’s boat party and her being at his Christmas party (I’m sure it was noted) and most especially the fact that she arrested him at his wedding, before it could be completed, and was accused by the bride of purposefully choosing to break it up (and considering that she could have arrested him just as easily afterwards) it has to be a rumour that they are together and I can just imagine the photographer’s glee at getting a picture of them together. Trent is very smart and he has to know all this, so why the closeness? Why make it seem as if there is something there? Especially considering he and Rachel were currently on the outs?
Rachel responds by turning slightly so that her back is to him (‘to balance out his hand on her waist’ according to her) and all I can think is that it would make them look more like a couple, more like they were together. Her standing with her back to his chest, his arm around her waist and hand sitting possessively against her... and Edden is totally an afterthought. The photographer got a photo of them with Jenks dust settling over them, after which Rachel relaxes... so did she also get a picture of Rachel relaxed in what could almost be called Trent’s embrace? Hmm.
- This book had a lot more of the fact that Rachel is in the spotlight, that reporters and photographers know her name and the fact that she is newsworthy in her own right. I find that fascinating. I imagine now that she has web sites about her and a forum devoted to her life. I see lots of gossip and speculation about her relationships with Ivy and especially with Trent. I kind of really want to read about that now.
- The Ivy/Rachel was excellent. I loved their scene near the end when Kisten’s death is finally put to rest. I love that it was about both of them and it was something they did together. The fact that Ivy could shield Rachel from the power of the line is interesting. Them sharing auras… I feel like there’s a hint here to the answer on how Ivy could keep her soul after her death but I can’t quite grasp it. I liked Rachel burning up Art and Denon’s bodies and sealing the room forever. I like it for the power it shows she has and I like it for the love and respect she had for Kisten. This was a good farewell for Kisten. I have a feeling that he won’t play into the next books.
- I loved Rachel being shunned. I think it’s a really interesting twist and I can’t wait to see where it goes. It’s also kind of fascinating because Rachel does have a few very high-powered connections – Trent, mainly, but also Rynn Cormel and Edden – and I wonder how it’s going to work with that. I agree with her mom that she needs to get it lifted but if any witch could survive it well it would be Rachel. She is so surrounded by close friends and allies of all species – vampire, pixie, gargoyle, elf, human and now ghost/witch, and even kind of demon – that she’s not alone.
- I’m still a bit uncertain about Pierce and the Rachel/Pierce stuff but I find his old-fashioned way of talking kind of charming. It reminds me of the Middleman.
- I have grown a bit tired of Rachel constantly freaking about the blackness on her aura and doing non-white spells and refusing to accept who she is when I’ve accepted it all long ago. So the end of this book was a huge relief. Sure it was only in one moment that she accepted that she might be a black witch but who cared (not her) but I loved it all the same and it felt like a step forward.
- I did enjoy the Rachel/Glenn and Rachel/Edden scenes which we got a lot of. I really do like their friendships. I loved this line: “She ain’t no lady. She’s my witch” that Edden says under his breath, hiding a smile, at the party. It made me go awww.
- I loved the scene at the airport where Rachel is watching the witch family. I loved the detail of the mother setting a circle to keep a hold of a rambunctious toddler. But what I really love is that it was a woman they were meeting – a wife, not the husband I was expecting. I love that little thing so much. (Also that Rachel was thinking of the family she’ll never have – foreshadowing that she will with Ivy?)
- With Matalina sick throughout the book and probably dying in the next one, or before the next one, I have been thinking a lot more about Jenks and his fate. The fact that she killed off Kirsten makes me really worry that she will kill off Jenks (and I wonder if that wasn’t intentional)? She will kill off characters and she purposefully made Pixies have short lifespans and put Jenks at the end of him. Was the plan to kill him from the beginning? I can’t imagine the series without him (much like Rachel). So I’ve been thinking of ways around it and had this thought: what if she made him big permanently? What if being big meant that he would live a human or witch lifetime instead? It would change a hell of a lot and I don’t know if I would love it but it would make sense to me and be a way to keep him around. Or perhaps Rachel will find a black/demon spell to keep him alive and faced with losing him will use it?
- What was up with the chrysalis that Al gave Rachel? She puts it on her windowsill but doesn’t apparently give it more thought but I really want to know!
- I really liked that Kim brought Mia, Holly and Remus into the main storyline. She had a short story about them in an anthology which I’d read and been kind of eh about but seeing how it tied in with Rachel’s story and the especially the tie of Ivy having given her wish to Mia was pretty cool. I’m going to have to go re-read it now.
