Blackheath by Gabriella Lepore

*I received an ecopy of Blackheath from the publisher, OfTomes Publishing, in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

Publication:December 20th 2015 by Oftomes Publishing

Series: The Blackheath Witches, #1

Goodreads Description:

Seventeen-year-old Maggie Ellmes is dogged by a case of chronic bad luck. She figures that’s just her lot in life—that is, until the psychic at Blackheath’s annual carnival reveals that Maggie’s problems are caused by more than just ordinary misfortune; she’s actually been cursed. 

Desperate to shake the hex, Maggie has no choice but to seek out the help of Joel Tomlins, a rebellious classmate who’s descended from Blackheath’s most powerful line of witches. After breaking all of his coven’s conventions to help her, Joel discovers that the curse isn’t as bad as Maggie fears. In fact, it’s much, much worse.

My thoughts:

Blackheath is a very short fun easy read and I think had I had the time I would have finished it in 1 sitting. It took me a few chapters to be really pulled in but once I was I flew through it.

I wasn't the biggest fan of the main character Maggie. I didn't really connect with her; it wasn't that she was flat or annoying, I just wasn't emotionally invested in her. I couldn't have cared less about her to be honest. There was nothing making me root for her.

Joel on the other hand I actually liked. It took me a while but I grew to really like him. He is a YA love interest stereotype in many ways but I found myself not really caring about that. He was dark and mysterious but also very complex emotionally. He was such an interesting character and I found myself flicking ahead looking for his name in the coming pages.

I also like how family was a fairly important theme explored. We really get to see the brother relationship between Joel and Evan. Their relationship is an interesting one due to a power imbalance in terms of their witch magic.

Gabriella Lepore is really good at creating atmosphere- I noticed this is one of her other books I've read, Secrets in Phoenix and her skill is super evident in Blackheath too. I loved the eery atmosphere created surrounding the Tomlins house.

I wanted more information in regards to the witches and covens and magic- this is the first in a series though so this could come later. I just felt like it was very surface level. There's mention of chosen Ones and such but it's never explicitly explained what they are chosen for and how they're chosen. And there is little to no exploration about where their magic comes from and it's very vague how their magic works. I may not have been satisfied with the magic because I've been reading a lot of adult high fantasy recently that goes into a lot more detail than YA.

Onto the plot; while the books is very short I felt like the plot was perfect, everything was paced nicely and I didn't feel like I was missing anything or the story was cut short. It was interesting enough to keep me reading and concise and clear what was going on. 

I do think there was a missed opportunity with maggies friends to develop some strong female friendships but that's a personal preference in my reading and it might not bother other readers that their relationships weren't fleshed out a lot.

I also felt like the story was aimed at the younger end of the YA genre, like 13/14 year olds. It wasn't anything complex or heavy it was a quick, easy and entertaining read and I will probably pick up the next book. 

My rating: 3.5 stars

Thanks for reading,

A :)

I want to say a big thank you to OfTomes Publishing for sending me a free ecopy of Blackheath in exchange for an honest review!