Spellcaster

By: Claudia Gray

Narrated by: Khristine Hvam

Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's Summary

When Nadia's family moves to Captive's Sound, she instantly realizes there's more to the place than meets the eye. Descended from witches, Nadia can sense that a spell has been cast over the tiny Rhode Island town - a sickness infecting everyone and everything in it. The magic at work is darker and more powerful than anything she's come across and has sunk its claws most deeply into Mateo...her rescuer, her friend, and the guy she yearns to get closer to even as he pushes her away.

Mateo has lived in Captive's Sound his entire life, shadowed by small-town gossip and his family's tormented past. Every generation, the local legends say, one member of the family goes mad, claiming to know the future before descending into insanity. When the strange dreams Mateo has been having of rescuing a beautiful girl from a car accident actually come true, he knows he's doomed.

Despite the forces pulling them apart, Nadia and Mateo must work together to break the chains of his terrible family curse, and to prevent a coming disaster that even now threatens the entire town, including Nadia's family, her newfound friends, and her own life.

Shimmering with magic and mystery, New York Times best-selling author Claudia Gray's new novel depicts a dark and unforgettable world of witches, curses, buried secrets, and star-crossed romance.

©2013 Amy Vincent (P)2013 HarperCollins Publishers

Compelling, fun and exciting!

Any additional comments?

Wow! I’m actually really surprised how much I really liked this book! When I got to the end of Spellcaster, I wasn’t quite sure if it was going to be in a series, but I’m thrilled to find out that there is going to be a series…because I’m seriously eager to find out what happens with the characters.

The very first scene in Spellcaster starts off with something crazy happening. I was totally caught off guard that something like that would happen right from the start. If the beginning of the book could start off that way, then the end just has to be pretty awesome, right? Well my assumptions were correct! The ending was pretty awesome.

Spellcaster is different than most of the other books I’ve read because it moves back and forth between the POV of the protagonist Nadia and the villain. So the difference with this book is there is not a whole lot of surprise. The benefit to seeing the story in the POV of the villain is that you know that she’s extremely crazy! She’s right up there with the all-time ultimate of all evil villains.

Personally, I loved the character Verlaine the best. So I was super happy when we got a couple POV scenes with her character. I would love it a lot if the next books in this series have her character throughout because I would love to learn more about her.

Overall, Spellcaster is a really quick and fun read. It reminded me why I love Claudia Gray’s writing style.

Does not disappoint

Picking up a YA paranormal romance, getting Sunnydale meets Forks is a predictable outcome. We are not asked to buy into The One, nor tolerate a cliched romance trumpeted in the blurb. Just a normal untrained witch, two half-orphaned teens and a gothicized town secret. And normal teen attraction. So far the romance seems a little more restrained than in the Evernight series, which I liked despite the romance. I'd probably bump it up one star if there weren't so many other books following the same formula.

I enjoyed the book very much

I really enjoyed the book. It was a good portrayal of good verses evil. I thought the characters were fun and developed well. I would recommend this book.

nicely done

so nice to read about magic with sparkles of real magic In it. now I need to listen the other ones

incredible!!

I loved this book! I usually have a hard time listening to books as I'm a lover of physical books but I couldnt stop listening to this.

Spell Binding YA Read!

Who was your favorite character and why?

I love Matteo. He was so loyal, sweet and honest.

Any additional comments?

Really fun and entertaining YA read!

Enjoyable story

I enjoyed listening to this book, and finished it in no time.



Not too slow, not too fast narrated; the story continues at a good pace. Sometimes some parts of the story are recapitulated later on, which is not particularly necessary to be able to keep up with the story. But as these recapitulations are not very extensive, they do not intrude.



The story is told from several perspectives, following each other smoothly.