Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper

by:  Kendall Kulper
published by:  Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
publish date:  September 23, 2014

Avery Roe wants only to claim her birthright as the witch of Prince Island and to make the charms that have kept the island's sailors safe at sea for generations, but instead she is held prisoner by her mother in a magic-free life of proper manners and respectability. Avery thinks escape is just a matter of time, but when she has a harrowing nightmare, she can see what it means: She will be killed. She will be murdered. And she's never been wrong before.

Desperate to change her future, Avery finds a surprising ally in Tane—a tattooed harpoon boy with magic of his own, who moves her in ways she never expected. But as time runs out to unlock her magic and save herself, Avery discovers that becoming a witch requires unimaginable sacrifice.

I found it odd that this book was classified as a YA book.  It didn't have a YA feel.  I think it's one of those books that would have fit neatly into the New Adult category if New Adult hasn't quickly become another term for dark and dirty romance.  However, that's a topic for another day.  Thinking back on it, I'm not really sure it would have been a good fit in adult literature either, because it didn't have the maturity adult readers would have expected.  So it was too mature for YA, but not mature enough for Adult, in my opinion anyway.

All that said, it was a really good story.  For generations the Roe Witches have been keeping the people of Prince Island safe and prosperous.  Until Avery's mother attempts to run away and break the hold that the island has on the Roe women.  She takes Avery away from her grandmother, the current Roe Witch, to be raised away from magic.  When the Roe Witch dies, there will be no one to take her place.  However, when she does die, all the magic holding Price Island together ends and the island becomes a dangerous place to be.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that loves historical fiction for one.  I liked that aspect of the story.  The witches keeping the whaling ships safe.  Readers the like witches and magic will also like this one.  I think readers of Kathleen Kent or Katherine Howe would really like this book.

 

Autumn's Top 10 of 2014

They are in no particular order:
I Shall Be Near to You by Erin Lindsay McCabe
Bird Box by Josh Malerman
The Kept by James Scott
Panic by Lauren Olivier
Goat Mountain by David Vann
The Painter by Peter Heller
I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
The Storied Life of AJ Fikery by Gabrielle Zevin
Conversion by Katherine Howe
Divided We Fall by Trent Reedy

I will say that I Shall Be Near to You was my absolute fave of the year.  Goat Mountain, The Kept, The Painter and I Am Pilgrim have all stuck with me.  I still think about those books from time to time.  I'm ready for 2015 and a really good crop of new books!

Conversion by Katherine Howe

by:  Katherine Howe
published by:  Putnam Juvenile
publish date:  July 1, 2014

It’s senior year at St. Joan’s Academy, and school is a pressure cooker. College applications, the battle for valedictorian, deciphering boys’ texts: Through it all, Colleen Rowley and her friends are expected to keep it together. Until they can’t.
 
First it’s the school’s queen bee, Clara Rutherford, who suddenly falls into uncontrollable tics in the middle of class. Her mystery illness quickly spreads to her closest clique of friends, then more students and symptoms follow: seizures, hair loss, violent coughing fits. St. Joan’s buzzes with rumor; rumor blossoms into full-blown panic.

I love Katherine Howe.  The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane is one of my all time favorite books.  So when I saw she had a book coming out this year, I was beyond excited.  I could not wait to read this book.  I will give a word of warning:  DO NOT READ The Fever by Megan Abbott before reading this book.  It will ruin things!!  You will feel like you're reading the same book.  The Fever was not a good book.  Conversion was a good book, so try to keep them straight!!  It was uncanny how similar the two books were.

What I liked about this book was that it did directly relate the modern day with the Salem Witch Trials.  It was actually drawing parallels between the modern day story, the testimony given and Arthur Miller's play The Crucible. I really enjoyed how the author tied all three together.

I would definitely recommend this book.  It's classified as YA, but I think it would have wide appeal considering the subject matter.  It was very well written and seemed to be well researched to me.  It would make a great Fall read!

Autumn's Most Anticipated of 2014

The Killing Jar by Jennifer Bosworth  
Conversion by Katherine Howe 
Goodnight June by Sarah Jio 
While Beauty Slept by Elizabeth Blackwell 
End Time by Anna Schumacher 
Scan by Walter Jury and S.E. Fine 
Forget Me by K.A. Harrington  
Ask Me by Kimberly Pauley 
Fog of Dead Souls by Jill Kelly 
The Widow's Walk by Robert Barclay

Salem Witches Week: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

by:  Katherine Howe
published by:  HarperCollins
publish date:  May 2009

Harvard graduate student Connie Goodwin needs to spend her summer doing research for her doctoral dissertation. But when her mother asks her to handle the sale of Connie's grandmother's abandoned home near Salem, she can't refuse. As she is drawn deeper into the mysteries of the family house, Connie discovers an ancient key within a seventeenth-century Bible. The key contains a yellowing fragment of parchment with a name written upon it: Deliverance Dane. This discovery launches Connie on a quest--to find out who this woman was and to unearth a rare artifact of singular power: a physick book, its pages a secret repository for lost knowledge.

As the pieces of Deliverance's harrowing story begin to fall into place, Connie is haunted by visions of the long-ago witch trials, and she begins to fear that she is more tied to Salem's dark past then she could have ever imagined.

I read this book about a year ago.  It's one of those books I still think about from time to time.  That's always a sign of a really good book.  The writing in this book was particularly good.  The author easily intertwined the past with the present day in a new and interesting way.  I really enjoyed this book and I thought it was an intriguing mystery type book, but I thought it had a little too much supernatural to go along with it.  That was just my one little negative about it.