Reviews

The Hidden Witch by Chandelle LaVaun

Only show reviews with written explanations

ksalyers's review

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adventurous emotional sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

elvendorkette's review

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4.0

Harry Potter (or every magic academy story ever) meets Divergent, perhaps?
I enjoyed the story, although the ending was, well, simply dumb, really. And here's a spoilery why:

Spoiler

They couldn't let Bettina talk for one second, eh? - Just enough so she could have said she didn't kill Timothy. It felt like a forced cliffhanger, just so there'd be enough drama and suspence to carry us over to the next book. Yet, being all magical and such, I bet some witch could have just come up with a truth serum or a spell, and Bettina would have been declared innocent in no time, right? And no one, not even her soulmate-Jackson, stopped for a minute to wonder whyyyy oh why would Bettina even want to kill Timothy. Silly, very silly.

The rest of this review is a recap for myself, before the release of the next book, soooo.. very spoilery things ahead.

Spoiler

Right, so, the book is about Bettina, aka Tina, who is a hidden witch, in that she can't access her magic, unless she's super scared, anxious, or angry. She finds out that she's a witch when she's 16, and then gets shipped off to a magic academy, in Eden or something.

Bettina is tall and has blond hair (which apparently makes her a supermodel). And she is weird, occasionally at the beginning, totally sassy and fun, occasionally during the entire book, aaaaand somewhat kickass, yet not a total prodigy right away. Bettina has a best friend called Tegan, who turns out to be the High Priestess (a tarot card witch, aka a big deal in witchy circles), but Bettina hasn't yet found out what Tegan is, seeing as they keep conveniently missing each other. Bettina also has a friend called Dean, who discovered that she was a witch and helped her get to the school. She is roommates with Lennox, aka the resident "has a weird haircolor and is thus charmingly weird" person. Aaaand Bettina is in love with Jackson Lancaster, who is a hot Brit superstar witchy boy, and who has some huge family issue with magic being restored to them only if Jackson manages to impress the angel Michael.

The academy has four "houses" or suits(?) or something. Bettina is a Sword along with Jackson, which means they're the future knights, aka fighters for the witches. (Think Dauntless from Divergent.) Bettina has to train with/under her soulmate, aka Jackson, who is an asshole to her, because he fears she will mess up his family's quest for reclaiming their lost magic. But they kiss, can't deny the chemistry, etc. And obviously no one has yet admitted or declared that they are soulmates.

Oh, and Jackson is only 16 too, but totally kicks everyone's butt.

Other bits of info: Tegan and Tennessee are the new power couple among the tarot card witches. They are also soulmates.
The book ends with Bettina, Jackson, and four other Swords (Trey, Warner, Gen and some redhead whose name started with an 'E'.. Evie? Elena? Something.) going into the Old Lands (some scary place with monsters and a nice dragon), and Warner getting lost and separated from the rest. The others bring the E-chick back to Eden because she got hurt, and they go back a bit later with new/more people. One of these new people is Timothy, who is a tarot card too, and somehow he gets stabbed with a bone by some shadowy creeps, and when Bettina tries to get the bone out (per Timothy's dying request), she gets blamed for murdering Timothy. But before she can even say "it wasn't me", she's tied up, gagged, and jailed. Because why not.

More bits of info:
Bettina's parents are not witches.
Bettina's magic is comes out in pink clouds.
Her sword is a white falchion that has some rainbow-y shimmer to it. Her sword is the same shape as Jackson's.
Before the trip to the Old Lands, there was a war between witches and demons. Also, some 'Gap' needed to be closed by some Twins, which they did. So yay?

duvyna's review against another edition

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1.0

So this is a spin-off that says it can be read as a stand-alone but can't, it will be confusing with the stuff from the other series going on. This annoyed me but I thought I'd still try... This girl gives going with the flow a whole other level of mellow. Yeah no she should not be this laid back about any of it. The last straw though is when this really started leaning into Harry Potter, just flat-out ripping parts of that off unashamedly. Just wow

lyric_h's review

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4.0

That ending left me absolutely flabbergasted. I couldn’t believe they just didn’t let her talk about her experience and how the demon attacked them. The ending was amazing but the writing was just ok and the beginning was iffy. I didn’t like how there was a real explanation for Betinna just moving on and playing w the Ouija board. 3.5/5 stars for me!