Berls
Written on Sep 5, 2014
3.5 Stars
It Takes A Witch was another book club find that I really enjoyed. There’s definitely a bit of the ridiculous, but in a really fun, have a good laugh kind of way.
I really enjoyed the unique way witchcraft is setup in It Takes A Witch. Being a witch is a genetic thing – like most – but witches really only have one power. It was fun moving around this small town filled with different witches and learning about the different kinds of witches and what they could do. The other thing I really liked was that you didn’t always know who was a witch – there are lots of them in the small town, but there are plenty of norms too. And one of the number one rules of being a witch is that you can’t tell a norm. If you do, you could lose your powers. So I had a lot of fun trying to figure out who was “safe” to talk to.
That’s the other thing I really liked – the rules. I loved that there were rules to being a witch – and consequences for breaking them. I just felt bad for Darcy – the main character – because she’s new to her powers and her aunt isn’t really helping her much. She’s blundering around on her own and sometimes she gets into trouble… Though its been like a slap on the wrist so far.
Darcy was a fun character, though I didn’t get particularly attached to her. I liked her, but there’s nothing about her that stood out as particularly special, I guess. She’s a genuinely good person with good intentions, so that was a plus. I didn’t enjoy the semi-frequent references to missing her husband – she’s recently divorced – and her budding romance was fine, but didn’t get me excited or anything.
It Takes A Witch was definitely more about the cozy mystery style and the fun small town element for me than it was about the specific characters. There were a lot of them, and since we were constantly trying to figure out who could do what, I also sometimes got them confused.
The narration was okay – and I’ll continue the series listening – but I will say they narrator – Coleen Marlo – had a bit of a scratchy, grumbly voice that took me a little bit to get used to. Once I did, it worked fine and she did do a good job giving the characters distinct voices that matched their personalities.
If you like a cozy mystery with small town hijinks and a bit of magical mayhem mixed in, you’ll probably have as much fun with It Takes A Witch as I did.
