I may have enjoyed this book if I had read the first book in the series. It really felt like I started reading partway through the story, and therefore had a hard time getting into characters of this book, and the story itself. Both the characters and the story felt flat and uninteresting. ( )

I had a hard time getting into the book without reading the first one. I bought the first one after reading a sample and got sucked in. I haven't finished this one yet, but will edit my review when I do. I absolutely LOVE the series so far. I can't wait to see what happens. ( )

I think coming into the story without reading the first book makes it difficult to get into the characters and the plot. Who they are and what is motivating them is missing to a degree. It made it hard to care about them. normally I wouldn't do that, but i won the book on LibraryThing. So that's why I started in the middle. It is not a stand alone book. You need the beginning and end. That being said, the main female character is in my opinion a little weak for a powerful witch. I think the other witch Rana is a more strong woman, granted she is the bad witch to Miriam's good witch, but she withstands a lot to get her revenge. The strongest parts are when those two characters finally meet again. Will i go and read book 1 and book 3 and complete the trilogy. Probably not. Would i recommend this book, only if you start at the beginning. In the middle is hard and makes it hard to review since you aren't getting the whole picture. You don't know how it began or how it will end. If you chose to read it start at the beginning. I think that will make it a more enjoyable story. ( )

In this second installment in the trilogy, Miriam and Joachin are on the run from Thomas and his associates. They must overcome their own differences and find a way to escape Esbana with what remains of their tribe intact. Hopefully they will find safety in the New World where they will be out of the reach of their enemies.

I haven't read the first book in the series and after this novel, I definitely won't. This is a romance novel masquerading as a fantasy. And a bad romance novel, at that. Nothing really happens in this book. There is a minor plot of escape from Esbana, but all the action revolves around Miriam and Joachin's painfully ill-suited relationship.

Miriam is supposed to be this extremely powerful witch, but she never seems to use any of that power. She's always getting whacked on the head or fainting. Seriously, I think she faints four to five times in this novel alone. When she's not fainting, she is bemoaning the fact that she is in love with two men and can't seem to make up her mind.

Joachin is just an idiot. I think almost every bad thing that happens to the tribe can be traced back to something stupid Joachin did for no apparent reason. Yet he is, apparently, wracked by guilt almost all the time. Well, if he feels so bad about doing stupid things, why doesn't he stop doing stupid things all the time??

These two main characters are utterly unlikeable, and hate each other. Yet the novel never ceases to tell us how much they are strongly attracted to each other against their better judgement. I mean, is the author reading the same book as me? It just doesn't make sense. All the sex scenes are just horrible, cringe-inducing and ham-fisted. Just ... yuck.

I cannot recommend this novel. ( )