Review: The Coven: Fire & Ice by Verdell Walker

The Coven: Fire & Ice
by Verdell Walker

ebook
Published January 1st 2013

GoodReads † Amazon † BN † Smashwords

After her clique's bullying causes a classmate’s suicide, Kat Grey trades the vicious world of the California “in crowd” for the chance to become a better person in Massachusetts. But when she steps in to protect a classmate from being bullied, Kat sparks a war with Hannah, Milton Academy’s resident Queen Bee.

Kat’s courage and compassion attract the attention of Blaze Ward, Hannah’s ex-boyfriend. As they fall in love, Kat discovers that Blaze is more than the boy next door. He’s a warlock. He is also the leader of an in-crowd like no other – the Brotherhood, five young warlocks charged with defending witches and humanity from a demonic adversary named Seth.

Kat challenges Blaze to become a better man and leader while he helps her find redemption as she makes it her mission to stop bullying at Milton. But when Hannah teams up with Seth to destroy her, Kat becomes a hostage in the age-old war between the Brotherhood and their greatest enemy. Saving Kat will require more than Blaze’s strength and skill; it will mean breaking one of his kind’s most sacred laws. Blaze will have to make a choice: his honor or Kat’s life.

I read The Coven: Fire and Ice a couple of weeks ago and decided I needed a moment to really absorb it all and think about what to say. This book isn't bad at all. It’s actually really good and entertaining from beginning to end. I started reading it on my lunch break at work and could not stop. I would sneak little breaks in the back just to read a page or two. I read it on my iPhone so that was a bonus. I was able to read the entire time. I just did not want to stop reading it. When I put it down all I did was think about it that’s how good it is.

So why the 3.5 stars? I found way too many similarities to other books out there. Particularly one – and I really hate to say this, but I had to do a little research and find out if this was originally a Twilight fanfic. It seems there are so many and I can’t keep up with them. I did not find any information or clues that it was, so I kept on reading. But there were plenty of things that reminded me the Cullen family, only this story isn’t about Vampires, it’s about witches.

The Coven has everything a YA novel needs to be great. It has action from beginning to end, a romance that is forbidden, tons of secrets, and a hot boy that every girl wishes would pay attention to her. Of course the new girl (who has her own demons to hide) grabs hot guy's attention, but not in your typical boy meets girl way. She gets caught up in one of their battles and nearly loses her life. All of that happens in the first couple of chapters. I thought that was a great start and it grabbed my attention immediately.

I was hooked while reading it, and when done, it consumed my thoughts for days. I really liked it, but did not love it. It just didn’t stick out from anything else that I've read.

Do I recommend it? Yes. I am sure there will be tons of readers who will pick this book up and fall in love with Blaze and the world Verdell Walker has created.

Would I read a sequel? Heck yeah. Verdell Walker can write one hell of a fight scene. I hope there is a sequel, actually. I liked it a lot.