I probably grabbed this ebook by Mira Monroe when it was on sale or something. I found it while browsing my Kindle library recently and decided to give it a shot.
I like the concept, but the writing is terrible.
It’s about a 17-year-old girl, Willow, living with her very wealthy dad and housekeeper, and also still trying to deal with the grief and guilt of her mom’s death when Willow was 6 years old. Her mom died in a car crash and Willow is convinced it was her fault, although I don’t think it’s ever explained how Willow reached that conclusion, aside from the fact that grief can make us believe ridiculous things.
When we meet Willow, she is in court-ordered therapy because a boy spontaneously combusted while attacking her. He sued her, claiming she attacked him when he was trying to help her. Willow’s dad paid a lot of money to make the lawsuit go away and the court mandated Willow attend a certain number of therapy sessions to manage her “anger issues”.
Of course that’s not the only weird thing that happens to Willow. At her fancy private school she wishes her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend would get a nosebleed, and then she gets a spectacular gusher of a nosebleed.
When Willow gets home after school, she’s told she’s expected to attend a family dinner, even though she’s heard nothing about this family dinner before this point. Then a woman Willow doesn’t recognize shows up at their house and announces she is Willow’s maternal grandmother, as well as Wiccan royalty. Her husband has just died, which means it’s time for Willow to take the throne.
According to Willow’s dad, it’s tradition to not tell Wiccan royalty that they’re royalty (or even Wiccan) until it’s time for them to take the throne, which makes no sense whatsoever. Isn’t a position of royalty something you should spend pretty much your whole life preparing for? As if it’s not bad enough to throw someone into the world of magic with 0 preparation, you’re throwing them at the top of that world and expecting them to lead with 0 preparation. In what world does that sound like a good idea?
Of course, to make things worse for Willow, there are some people who want her on the throne and are there to protect her, while others want to destroy her and her line, and she has no idea who’s on which team. The ones who show up and attack her are pretty obvious, but there are others who try to get close to her until someone else tells her that person is really there to kill her. Who’s she supposed to believe?
I liked the concept for this book, but the writing was terrible. I definitely won’t be reading any of the sequels or anything else by Monroe.