Blue Magic

From Goodreads:

From Goodreads:

The sequel to Indigo Springs, “A psychologically astute, highly original debut—complex, eerie, and utterly believable.”  —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
This powerful sequel to the A.M. Dellamonica's Sunburst Award–winning contemporary fantasy Indigo Springs starts in the small town in Oregon where Astrid Lethewood discovered an underground river of blue liquid—Vitagua—that is pure magic. Everything it touches is changed. The secret is out—and the world will never be the same. Astrid’s best friend, Sahara, has been corrupted by the blue magic, and now leads a cult that seeks to rule the world. Astrid, on the other hand, tries to heal the world.
Conflicting ambitions, star-crossed lovers, and those who fear and hate magic combine in a terrible conflagration, pitting friend against friend, magic against magic, and the power of nations against a small band of zealots, with the fate of the world at stake.

Blue Magic is a powerful story of private lives changed by earthshaking events that will ensnare readers in its poignant tale of a world touched by magic and plagued by its consequences.

My Review: This is a fantastic book! I loved it! I haven't read the first book Indigo Springs but I will now make sure to read it. There is enough background story in Blue Magic so the reader does not feel all lost.

The story is told from several different viewpoints. Astrid, Ev (Astrid’s mother) Juanita’s and Will Forrest’s. Astrid is trying to control the amount of magic released into the real from the unreal. When magic ( a blue liquid called Vitagua) was pushed into the unreal by magic hating fyremen it froze the people in the unreal and cursed the people in the real who come into contact with it. Astrid must walk a delicate line in freeing the people from the unreal while negating the effects in the real. If that was not hard enough she must also deal with her ex lover and former best friend Sahara Knax who when contaminated by the magic went insane and now leads a cult and seeks to rule the world. The government is also trying to find Astrid and shut down the release of magic. Astrid also must deal with the confusing love interest Will.

The theme of what is good and how far one will go to try and do good deeds in the face of impending disaster is prevalent in this book. Astrid wants to free everyone including those trapped in the unreal but she also does not want to hurt anyone who may be contaminated by the magic. In her effort to balance all of this she finds herself drawn deeper into different conflicts that lead to her ultimate betrayal.

The plot twist that happened was so good that I did not even see it coming. It added a whole new angle to to the story.

There were times I thought that all the lose ends of the story could not possibly fit together but at the end I was pleasantly surprised. The ending was even better than I imagined it.

This book is a enjoyable read. The plot was tight the dialogue was brilliant and the characters suck you into the story. This book is highly recommended.

Review: Club Dead

GoodReads Summary: Things between cocktail waitress Sookie and her vampire boyfriend Bill seem to be going excellently (apart from the small matter of him being undead) until he leaves town for a while. A long while. Bill's sinister boss Eric has an idea of where to find him, whisking her off to Jackson, Mississippi to mingle with the under-underworld at Club Dead. When she finally catches up with the errant vampire, he is in big trouble and caught in an act of serious betrayal. This raises serious doubts as to whether she should save him or start sharpening a few stakes of her own.

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*Spoiler Alert* I am probably the last person on earth reviewing this book but just in case you haven't read it consider yourselves warned.

 

This is the third in a series of what is now known to be thirteen books. This book is deeper and darker than the first two books. It like the first two books are all exciting and she is in love then bam Bill cheats on her and things go downhill from there. Well not completely downhill she doesn't get killed but you get my drift.

For me reading about this betrayal was painful. I did not realize just how invested I was in Sookie as a character until this happened. I was so pissed at Bill and this is a fictional person but seriously my emotions were as if they were real. Then when I started trying to tell Sookie to not mess things up more by getting involved with Eric, I knew I have become a die hard sookie fan. I will now order ALL books from my library.

In all seriousness though this book takes a darker turn. There is almost no sex in this book and there is Bill who decides to take up with his ex. I liked how this book explored that relationship. The author captured the emotions that are inherent in a betrayal.

Even though I was rooting for her not to I also liked how she showed how the “chemistry” was between Sookie and Eric. It made sense in that she was hurting over Bill to want to betray him back but she doesn’t all the way.

This not “great works of art” by any means but like a good candy bar it is hard to resist. It is great to read between more substantial books.