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Book Review: Halfway Dead by Terry Maggert

It's finally Friday guys, and I can't even begin to describe how excited I am.

I've been waiting for this particular weekend forever, as Neil and I are going away, and I'm looking forward to sharing a day in the life post about it once Blogmas starts on December 1st.


However, for today's post, I'm really excited to share a review for a book I just finished that is definitely out of my normal reading comfort zone, and I can't wait to tell you all about it. :)



Halfway Dead by Terry Maggert;






Publication Date: June 30th, 2015.

Source: Author


I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are one hundred percent my own.


Synopsis:

Come for the waffles. Stay for the magic.

Carlie McEwan loves many things. She loves being a witch. She loves her town of Halfway, NY-a tourist destination nestled on the shores of an Adirondack lake. Carlie loves her enormous familiar, Gus, who is twenty five pounds of judgmental Maine coon cat, and she positively worships her grandmother, a witch of incredible power and wisdom. Carlie spends her days cooking at the finest-and only-real diner in town, and her life is a balance between magic and the mundane, just as she likes it.

When a blonde stranger sits at the counter, and call her by name, that balance is gone. Major Pickford asks Carlie to lead him in to the deepest shadows of the forest to find a mythical circle of Chestnut trees, thought lost forever to mankind. There are ghosts in the forest, and one of them cries out to Carlie across the year--come find me.

Like the forest shadows, danger can run deep. The threat is real, but Carlie's magic is born of a pure spirit. With the help of Gus and Gran, and a rugged cop who really does want to save the world, she'll fight to bring a ghost home, and deliver justice to a murderer who hides in the cool, mysterious green of a forest gone mad with magic.

Review:

Meet Carlie, a young woman who loves waffles (cooking and eating them), her hometown, her family, and her slightly overweight and spoiled cat, Gus. However, Carlie's not your typical young woman, she's also descended from a long line of powerful witches, who have chosen to use their powers for good rather than evil, and would do anything to protect humanity and their hometown of Halfway, New York.

Halfway doesn't typically see a lot of crime though, and requests for Carlie's help tend to lean more towards the "help my son get over the loss of his beloved pet", rather than helping to solve big city crime action. However, there's always been a story from her family's heritage that tells of a haunted place in the local forest, a story that's had no affect on Carlie personally, until a suspicious customer comes into her diner one day calling her by name, and requesting her help to find a mysterious circle of trees that interest circulated in after a photograph was sent out, and he believes if successfully found, these trees would have the means available to save this particular species of tree from dying out. 

However, Carlie soon realizes there's more to this man than meets the eye, and it will take her own magic and strength, along with her Gran, a rugged cop on a quest for justice, and a couple of other supernatural quirky characters thrown in along the way as her present world finally collides with the history that's been a black mark in her family's heritage for as long as she can remember.

I can honestly say I wasn't sure what to expect as I went into this novel, as it definitely didn't fall into my usual favorite categories of books. I don't tend to read supernatural books that aren't YA for one thing, and I also don't tend to read a lot of books that focus on witchcraft. I found myself pleasantly surprised however, as the unfolding of the story in this novel had me hooked from page to page, and I really fell in love with Carlie as a main character. While she's spunky, sarcastic, and too infatuated with waffles for her own good, she also has a big heart, and is willing to go to any measures to use her powers for the good of all mankind. She's also no damsel in distress, and it was really refreshing to see a character of a young woman who's the strength in the quest, rather than fading into the background behind her male counterpart.

Also, while this book has a tiny bit of a romance element, it's definitely not the main focus of the book, and that's definitely not the normal type of supernatural books I read. I found this to be a refreshing change for me, as instead, the story focuses on Carlie's relationship with her family and friends, and the reader got to see more of character in the way she interacts with everyone, rather than just with a love interest.

I'm extremely grateful to Terry Maggert for the opportunity to have read this is, as not only is it an amazing book that I gave four out of five stars to, and will be recommending to others to read, it also opened a new reading door for me in terms of adult supernatural novels. If you're looking for a suspenseful supernatural novel with spunky but heartwarming characters that will have you hooked from page one, then I highly recommend giving this one a chance! I'm currently reading the second book, and am honestly loving it just as much as the first guys!


Thanks so much for reading everyone, and I hope you all have a great weekend.





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