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Reckless Magic  By  cover art

Reckless Magic

By: Rachel Higginson
Narrated by: Bailey Carr
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Publisher's summary

"Twilight meets Harry Potter." Fans of magic, mystery and romance will fall in love with book number one in the Amazon Best-Selling Star-Crossed Series!

Sixteen-year-old Eden Matthews has been in and out of private schools for the last two years. She can't seem to stop herself from closing them down. Kingsley is her last chance to finish high school. Only Kingsley isn't like the other schools she's been to. The students are different. But, then again, so is she. After meeting Kiran Kendrick, the mysterious boy who seems to be the source of all her problems, she is suddenly in a world that feels more make-believe than reality.

When her best friend Lilly is taken away and Kiran's life is threatened, Eden finds herself right in the middle of an ancient war that is so much bigger than high school. She alone has to find a way to save her best friend and the boy who has captivated her heart.

Reckless Magic is an intricate story about adventure, magic and forbidden love. Eden Matthews is an unlikely heroine determined to save the world and be with her one, true love before it's too late.

©2011 Rachel Higginson (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

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The Main Character is an Absolute Idiot.

(SOME SPOILERS) The main character is 'special,' in more ways than one. A witch is not told what she is (but the adults know, they just don't tell her. They watch while she nearly kills people on accident and get expelled three times though). She has convinced herself that she is crazy. This might make sense if her powers were primarily mental a la telepathy, precognition, retrocognition, etc., but they aren't. She sets schools on fire, calls up plagues of bugs, floods classrooms, and throws men yards away without touching them. Other people see these powers. Other people hold her accountable. She knows she caused the chaos. It makes absolutely no sense for her to think she is crazy and it is all in her head. Within the first fifteen minutes, she meets two people (including a gorgeous secret prince, of course) who recognize that she is not human and who can read her mind. (Because the adults responsible for her don't teach her how to protect her mind before sending her to a school filled with mind-readers.) She knows her power reacts to one of the two characters, they make it obvious they know she has power, they literally ask her what she is, they can read her mind, AND THEY ASK HER IF SHE HAS ANY QUESTIONS. She, moron princess extraordinaire, says NO, and they, able to read her thoughts, just...don't tell her what she is. They just let her continue to blast electricity all over the place like it's the cutest thing. Fast forward the first few hours of this stupidity, and weeks in book time, and she still thinks she's just crazy, even after seeing people shapeshift and nearly killing four people with her mind to save the prince (apparently this is a bad thing because it made him look weak. It would have been much better if she'd let him die). It's really, really, ridiculous. If you like yelling at stupid people in books, you will enjoy this read. If you can't handle stupidity, avoid at all cost.

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116 people found this helpful

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unlikeable characters

I really liked the world and the plot of this story but both the heroine and the love interest were so annoying! I wanted to throttle them both, yet I listened to the whole book waiting for it to get better because I liked the plot.
She willfully ignores whats going on around her and to her. She has magic - but wont aknowledge it despite destroying 3 schools? Then people are answering her thoughts and she just brushes it off. Then she finally tells someone about it, and it feels like an after thought, and neither of them really react.
Also, she never asks 'why'. That might be what bothers me most. Any normal person would question things. Especially once she knows that everyone around her knows what's going on and she's still in the dark. As if any orphan wouldn't at least ask who their parents are to the person that knows. Or why she keeps blowing stuff up!!!
I think this characters lack of questions is an artefact of the authors attempt to keep the reader in suspense, but it's lazy. In a world of magic it's super easy to explain almost anything, like a spell to limit her curiosity or something. Or at least have the other characters avoid her questions.

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Meh

book would be better if I could actually like the heroine. Unfortunately, she comes of as a stubborn idiot. Stubborn to the point of absolute stupidity. Ick.

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28 people found this helpful

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Very good!

I purchased this book because it was described as a cross between Harry Potter and Twilight, two of my favorite things! While not as life changing as either of the above mentioned, still very good and I will continue on to book two.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Wow, this dragged in the worse possible way.

Imagine having the worse possible first day. But you experience every second of stupidity and irrational hormonal feeling. It’s auditory torture to hear her talk about her growing uselessness and non-existent self-esteem. She also has periods of self assurance that are quickly upended by her sheer lack of actual ability to back any of her claims. Also, all your problems began because you were late on the first day. Maybe come earlier since you don’t know where everything is. But hey, let’s not have accountability for our actions. How could she not figured out that she has magic?! It’s really hard to take her seriously. How many times will this girl faint?! Also, it’s so cringey to have two boys man-handle the useless MC. The sheer number of times these boys freely touch a helpless girl, grab her arm tightly among other things. So gross! But, I guess it’s okay because of their cute European accent, right?! Are they suppose to be British because the performance was closer to some sort of Russian. It’s bad all around.

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I adore this series

Wow this series.. I got completely sucked in to the world that Higginson created.

Eden is a 16-year-old girl who, for reasons unknown to her, keeps blowing up (or flooding or creating a plague of crazy insects) at her high schools and is forced to transfer. She lives with her Aunt Syl and eventually gets placed at Kingsley high school. Her first day she runs into Kiran and Talbott, also their first day. Kiran is extremely swoon-worthy (blonde, messy hair, turquoise eyes..) and extremely cocky. Eden sits next to Kiran in their first class and for some reason her blood goes crazy and she passes out and is caught by, who else, Kiran. She also befriends Lilly, who seems to be a loner.

Okay, enough set up...

Instead of having a normal high school PE class, the entire class goes on a camping trip. Eden and Lilly pair up with Kiran and Talbott and go for a walk.. They end up being stalked by strange hooded men and are attacked. Eden, finally realizing what is happening, discovers there is magic inside of her (as well as the strange men) and somehow sucks all of the magic out of them. She believes to have killed them and eventually ends up back at home.

Enter Principal Amory Saint. He explains to Eden that she is not going crazy and that she is actually an Immortal and has magic in her veins and that Kingsley is a school for immortals. There are four different types of immortals - witch, titan, medium, and shape-shifter. Eden is told that shape-shifters are the outcasts of the immortal society and Lilly was one of them. Lilly is sent to Romania to stand trial just for being a shape-shifter and hiding her identity. She also finds out that Kiran is the prince of the immortals and his father, Lucan is the king.

A new student named Avalon St. Andrews begins at Kingsley and immediately befriends Eden. Kiran continues to *stalk* Eden and their love begins to blossom.

Definitely continue to the second book because I guarantee that once you make it through that one you won't be able to stop.

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Pathetic Love

It was very hard for me to get through this book and there were several times I almost stopped completely. First of all the narrator drove me crazy. From the very start she emphasized too many words and made every other sentence so dramatic. Secondly the love between Eden and Kiren is pathetic and so frustratingly fake. Thirdly the story seemed empty. All this hype and then the book just ends. I know there are more in the series but I feel like there should be more substance to it.
I did start listening to Hopeless Magic and it still has me frustrated by Bailey Carr's narrating but now the "love" between Eden and Kiren is even worse! Very pathetic and fake, that I stopped after the 4th chapter and do not plan to continue. Yuck.

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  • T
  • 09-16-20

What a mixed bag!

The main character was unlikable. She was snide and sarcastic, stubborn and defensive, in capable of thinking for herself, yet unwilling to ask intelligent questions. She preferred denial.Why give a lot of power to someone lacking sense?

The story was somewhat interesting, and the world building competent, if one can get over the nauseating and idiotic so-called love, based on nothing except sexual attraction.

The narrator made me dislike the character far more than necessary. Part of it was her insincere tones and whining or practically hysterical simpering, which were incredibly irritating. She also had some pretty funky thing Going on with respect to attempting various accents.

I did find the story somewhat engaging in spite of these things, which was not necessarily good because then I had to suffer through the irritating narration. It could’ve been a good start with the addition of a little bit of wisdom or intelligence somewhere in the mix.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Interesting story line

I’ve been surprised at how much I’ve actually enjoyed this series. Originally I purchased the first one due to a sale. Quickly thereafter I’ve continued to buy the others.

While at times a bit melodramatic and over the top, overall the series has been pretty darn good. It does require a bit of suspension of disbelief given some of its leaps, but I’m reading fiction not nonfiction so that should be expected, right?

The lead character, Eden, is a bit over the top but still likeable. I buy her struggles especially as a teenager in love with two boys. I don’t buy her as much related to the revolution but I can overlook that. She displays the typical teenage angst and self centered ness that is apparent in most of these young adult books.

The supporting cast of characters are intriguing. I would have liked to know more about them and even invited a bit of story telling from their point of view. I see that further down the series some are told from their point of view so I am looking forward to that.

All in all I’ve enjoyed the books although I’ve groaned a few places. I’ll keep reading for sure. Wish there was an omnibus of the series.

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Love, Love, Love

This is one of my favorite series of all time! I have been waiting for years for it to finally be on audible so thrilled!

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