Adventures in Ink (Reviews): The Memory Witch Review & Excerpt + #Giveaway

The Memory Witch

Book # 1

Heather Topham Wood

Genre: Paranormal Fantasy

Release Date: December 15, 2013

Publisher: Crescent Moon Press

ISBN: 978-1939173614

ASIN: B00HB67IWY

Pages: 230

Goodreads Rating: 4.08

My Rating: 4.0

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Book Description:

Ten years ago, Quinn Jacobs’ mother made a bargain with a local witch—steal away Quinn’s memories from the first eight years of her life and in return, Quinn would spend a year in servitude to the witch.

On Quinn’s eighteenth birthday, she’s forced to leave her home and friends behind. For the next year, she’ll live at the Chadwick House, learning everything she needs to know about being a spellcaster. As her powers grow, Quinn begins to unravel the secrets of the past and the reason her mother was so desperate to conceal the horrifying truth.

My Take On The Book:

I’m not completely sure how I feel about this book. The story was unique and entertaining and it flowed well enough that I was able to read it quickly but I felt like it was missing something. A certain je ne sais quoi.

The main character Quinn was likeable enough but I felt desensitized to her turmoil. While I was remorseful and disgusted with many if her struggles they weren’t hard to guess and due to the speed of the story, I wasn’t able to forge an emotional connection or investment in Quinn or any of the other characters.

The Great (Pros):

Storyline. Interesting and unique. Its definitely a book you can get behind.

Mason. Mysterious yet caring. One of the only character that really seemed to show some sort of development.

Stella. Quirky old woman. Flawed but you get a very grandma-ish feel from her.

Connection. One of the things I really liked from this story was the connection between each character. I myself may have struggled to forge an emotional bond with these characters but I liked how their bonds formed and solidified as the story progressed. The way they interact with each other and lastly the way that all the events that transpire connect with each other on some level.

The Not So Great (Cons):

Pace of the story. It wasn’t slow and it wasn’t fast but it was just there. There didn’t seem to be much time for character development.

Lack of emotional connection with the characters. Like I said before. Something kept me for actually feeling something for the characters.

4 Quills

There was a lot about this book that I liked and a lot that would like to see unfold in the future books of this series. While there are some parts that I was not a fan of and parts that I consider to be cold in description the writing style and talent are most definitely there. I can’t wait to read more work from this author and while there is no word on the release of book 2 I’ll be keeping an ear out and my eyes open for any news on that.

Excerpt from The Memory Witch

I didn’t have a single remembrance before the age of eight. The first day of kindergarten, losing my first tooth, my first best friend—these memories vanished into an unexplained chasm and were still missing ten years later.

My mother would never explain the root of this anomaly to me. The only thing she’d say is that losing my father that year did something irreversible to my brain. A crater opened up inside of me and every early memory fell into oblivion.

I had eight years with my father before he died—but I didn’t have one memory of him. I didn’t know what it felt like to be inside of his embrace. I had no recollection of the scent I breathed in when he gathered me up into his arms. I had to imagine the memories through a haphazard collage of photographs and videos left behind.

My father was murdered in a fumbled burglary attempt at our home. My mother told me I should be grateful we weren’t home that night because we would be six feet under right alongside him. The ice in her voice made me wonder if she blamed him in some way for being killed.

Mere weeks after we laid him to rest, we moved two hours away from our New Jersey hometown to Harveys Lake, Pennsylvania. A visit to his final resting place was a rare occurrence and we were estranged from my father’s side of the family. The part that I always had a hard time wrapping my head around was that my father’s unsolved murder never plagued my mother. She never sought out the killer to exact justice for taking a father away from his young daughter.

She insisted we needed a fresh start. And for ten years, I lived a seemingly normal teenage existence with the exception of my unique case of amnesia. My mother never brought me to a team of doctors to analyze my brain and she has never pushed me to remember. I comprehended the oddities surrounding my life, but we’d lived this way for so long that it became normal.

Until the day that everything changed.

About The Author

Heather Topham Wood’s obsession with novels began in childhood while growing up in a shore town in New Jersey. Writing since her teens, she recently returned to penning novels after a successful career as a freelance writer. She’s the author of the paranormal romance Second Sight series and the standalone The Disappearing Girl .

Heather graduated from the College of New Jersey in 2005 and holds a bachelor's degree in English. Her freelance work has appeared in publications such as USA Today, Livestrong.com, Outlook by the Bay and Step in Style magazine. She resides in Trenton, New Jersey with her husband and two sons. Besides writing, Heather is a pop culture fanatic and has an obsession with supernatural novels and TV shows.