Blog Tour: Secret Legacy by Carissa Andrews [Review + Giveaway!]

Secret Legacy

(The Winhaven Witches #1)

Author: Carissa Andrews

Published: September 8th 2020

Number of pages: 289

Format: ebook

Purchase: Amazon, B&N

From Goodreads: 

☆☆~~ 50% of Royalties Donated to the American Cancer Society! ~~☆☆

Nestled in the woods of Windhaven, Blackwood Manor waits to unleash a dark and deadly legacy…

When Autumn Blackwood shows up at Windhaven Academy for the Witching Stick Orientation, she hopes to find out what dormant powers she could possibly possess to have been accepted to the elite supernatural school. Instead, the academy is in chaos as everyone frantically hunts for two missing girls.

But as school begins with Autumn no closer to figuring out her powers, strange occurrences start to follow her everywhere. Even at home, Blackwood Manor keeps many secrets, and Autumn can’t escape its haunting past.

New friends urge her to learn more about her family’s history in order to unlock her powers and make sense of what’s happening at Blackwood Manor, but Autumn’s not so sure. Once an accident brings Autumn face-to-face with death, however, she realizes her gifts are tied to a legacy that can either save or doom them all…

My Review

Let's just start by saying that Secret Legacy was such a pleasant surprise for me! I rarely read books about witches, or paranormal in general, so I decided to pick up this review opportunity to range over my reading preferences. And I was not disappointed!

Of course, this book has its flaws, but it was entertaining enough to read in just a couple of days and to make me wonder about how the story might continue. Autumn is a funny narrator: young but mature, a little unconventional and appearently, supernaturally gifted. I found her voice to be extremely enjoyable and easy to follow, so much that I was a little bit disappointed when I realised that the book ended. I really would have loved to live a little bit more in that world and experience a little bit more paranormal events. For being such a pleasant world, I though that the author should have payed more attention to its characteristics, and dedicate more space to answer some major questions that inevitably raise: how did supernaturals and mundanes coexist? How do those powers work? I'm sure that some of these doubts will be answered in the following books, but still, I felt like some basic world setting should have been given at the beginning. This said, I particularly liked the development of the Blackwood's "micro-world", which was much more structured than the general setting: their history, their legacy and all the mystery that surrounds them was driving me crazy with curiosity and a little fear - you definitely get some horror vibes there! 

Speaking of the characters, they were all quite enjoyable but I didn't get the chance to get attached to them. The story is so fast-paced that there is not really a particular focus on any of them, so when you finish reading the book, they don't really stick with you. I would love to get to know them better and explore the relationship they had and will hopefully rebuild. If there is one thing I must reproach the author is the love at first sight clichè - or maybe I should reproach Autumn for being so naive? I mean, wouldn't you get suspicious if you magically encounter your big love at night, in a cemetery? I have to say, though, that despite the unreliable beginning, the love story does continue with a much slower pace, gaining more credibility that I hope they will demonstrate in the following books.

So I'm giving this book a 3.5 stars, mainly because of its vaguety. It has all the good premises: a nice story, a good, creepy atmosphere, interesting characters - but not enough space is payed to any of them, due also to the lenght of the book: just 289 pages! But I will definitely take a look at the rest of this series because I'm sure that the best is yet to come! 

*I'd like to thank the author for giving me the opportunity to review this book!

Rated

About the author:
“An author emerges from the depths of Minnesotan waters. Sci-fi/Fantasy is my pen of choice.”

Carissa Andrews is a Minnesota-based genre-bending author who writes a combination of science fiction, fantasy, and dystopia. When not writing her own books, she’s busy reading them.

Carissa’s internationally bestselling trilogy, The Pendomus Chronicles, is now in digital, print, and audiobook formats. She has hit the scene as an up and coming speculative fiction author who uses a mix of scifi and fantasy, twisted in modern mythology and alternative history.

She lives in central Minnesota with her husband and brood of five kids. Not to mention, her insane husky puppies, Aztec and Pharaoh.

 

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The Giveaway!