Review: The Soul of the Witch by Dana Michelle Burnett

I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This book may be unsuitable for people under 17 years of age due to its use of sexual content, drug and alcohol use, and/or violence.

Title: The Soul of the Witch by Dana Michelle Burnett
Published:  July 19, 2014
Pages: 246
Format: eBook
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From the author of the haunting Spiritus Series, comes an epic, mesmerizing novel of witchcraft and revenge.
Once again, she sweeps readers away with her spellbinding storytelling and the crafting of legend. Dana Michelle Burnett creates a reality of seductive witches, murder, revenge, and an ancient secret going back four centuries.
In a small Indiana town, alone in the dark, a man watches and waits...Waiting to see if the stories are true about The Soul of the Witch.
It begins with two girls, the very best of friends with an amazing psychic bond. As children they were lonely outsiders, but now as adults, Devan and Janesa’s powers are growing stronger and more difficult to control. When a mysterious stranger comes to town offering to tell them a dark and magical secret about their past, they are thrown into an old battle they didn’t start, but one that threatens to claim their very lives.
Jealousy and suspicion threaten their lifelong bond as they set out to solve the mystery of their past and their budding supernatural powers. The novel moves from past to present from the small town of New Albany, to nineteenth century England, to the witch hunts in Ireland, and back again. A complex tale of seduction and evil unfolds--starting on a fateful night in the sixteenth century because of a forbidden love and a curse . . . A curse meant to punish and torment throughout the following centuries.
Can they trust this stranger? Can they trust themselves as the dark secrets they learn threaten to tear them apart? Will the curse at last claim The Soul of the Witch?

Rating:

 

From the very beginning I was captured with the story. You have two young women who seem normal but there is more to them than just being a female. They are a bit different than other people. There is something in the air with them, and people can see it or feel it radiating off of them.

For some reason they can get men to be tempted by them by just walking on by. Devan and Janesa became friends in school, and they are inseparable. If you see one then the other one is close by. They can not find happiness with others. The girls get jealous, the boys stick around until Devan or Janesa dump ’em. It’s a cycle but one that you see both of the girls constantly struggling with.

Now you do get thrown in the past by letters that get read. These letters are important because you find out who Devan and Janesa are related to. Now while reading the letters it got kind of boring for me, even though I knew the letters were giving me information. I got a bit bored reading about who was marrying who, this one had a child or 8 children. This person died. And I really did get the significance of it all but I started to lose my interest.

The author did do a good job bringing the present and past together. There were no gaps or trying to figure anything out. I can say the twist involved that Devan and Janesa are a part of I didn’t even see that coming and it was pretty cool how it all played out.

The ending wasn’t much of what I was expecting. There is a fight scene or a magical fight scene how ever you want to see it. I expected more of a BAM! Not a simmer of something. The girls have to end what has been started for centuries and the being that they fought has been around for a long period of time. And so I figured more spells or more magic casting something. Not one thing and then it is all hunky dory.

Overall a really good witch story. The story draws you in and keeps you wanting to find out who Devan and Janesa are or at least what they are. I do like this author’s writing style and how she can tell a story so I will be keeping an eye on her for future books.

Dana Michelle Burnett spent most of her life writing short stories and sharing them with family and friends. Over the years, her work was published in numerous commercial and literary magazines including Just Labs, Mindprints: A Literary Journal, Foliate Oak, and many more. Her short story John Lennon and the Chicken Holocaust was included in The Best of Foliate Oak in 2006.

In 2010, Burnett’s first novel, Ghost Country, was released. Based on her own Cherokee heritage, the novel marked her return to the literary world after a four year hiatus. She followed that with the release of her romance novel, Two Out of Three in the summer of 2011.
Spiritus is the first novel in her new paranormal romance series by the same name. The second book, Haunted, is expected in the spring of 2012.