REVIEW: White Witch (Coven Trilogy #1) by Trish Milburn

 

Author: Trish Milburn

Series: Coven Trilogy

Genre: Young Adult / Paranormal

Pages: 188

Publisher: Bell Bridge Books

Amazon: White Witch

Synopsis. (Goodreads)

Witchcraft Is Her Family’s Business.No One Quits The Family And Lives To Tell About It. “Jax” Pherson has power, enough power to know her future will end in service to the dark coven her father controls. Unless she can stay hidden in a small community in the mountains of North Carolina. She must find a way to live without magic and deny the darkness she feels welling up inside her—the same dark power that fuels the covens around the world. All she wants is a normal life. A boyfriend. Friends. Some place to belong, but all too soon Jax’s barely begun new life hangs in the balance when she discovers that the boy she’s attracted to is sworn to kill her kind. He’s a hunter with good reason to kill everything that goes bump in the night. Even the most fleeting use of her power is tantamount to signing her death warrant and will bring both hunter and coven down on her. But can she walk away when her friends are threatened by an old evil? Something created by the magic of witches? Jax’s only hope of survival is to convince the boy she loves to forget everything he’s ever been taught and help her find a way to fight the covens. To believe there is some good in her.

REVIEW: 3.5 out of 5 stars

White Witch by Trish Milburn is the first book in the Coven trilogy and was kindly provided to me by Netgalley for Bell Bridge Books.

Jaxina Pherson a.k.a Jax Taylor is on the run from her father and coven of powerful black witches to find normality in a small community in the mountains of North Carolina. She yearns to attend school, have a few friends and maybe even a boyfriend but knows if she is caught her punishment would more than likely result in death.

On her first day in school she meets Toni and her cousin Keller, the son of a preacher and who she noticed when she first arrived, she recognizes him as a witch hunter but is inexplicably drawn to him.

White Witch was an exciting read; I loved seeing Jax find herself and accept what she was. I was also eager to learn more of the witch/human history and how the feud came about, it was fascinating; there is also a lot of angst as we are waiting to see what would happen if or when the coven caught up with Jax, it was an enjoyable anticipation.

Jax was a strong heroine, unbelievably beautiful, strong, fast and powerful; but she is yet to come into her full powers – she will gain these when she turns 17 and it is something that terrifies her for she will have to kill a human, she also knows if she gives into her feelings for Keller she could possibly lose all of her powers.

Poor Keller! He was certainly torn in his feelings for Jax but he adapted well and became a great protector although remained cautious, he had been taught from a young age to fear and kill Witches so being with Jax goes against everything he believes in. One thing that always puts me off is when a YA couple’s relationship becomes intense too fast and I feel this was the case in this book, I wish there could have been more of the forbidden hunter/hunted relationship shown rather than it focusing on the romance.

Each of the secondary characters were great, especially quirky Toni who I thought was a fantastic best friend. Stacey was the typical clichéd mean girl but Jax handled her well. I am intrigued by runaway witch Egan, he was fascinating and seems to know a lot.

I really enjoyed Ms Milburn’s fresh and engaging writing, the plot was interesting but unfortunately, nothing stood out to set it apart from other YA novels; The drama, characters and the magic though made for a really great little book, it was a quick and enjoyable read and I am looking forward to reading the sequel, Bane.