by Erica Lucke Dean

The prologue in this one gets right into action. A historical backdrop with the conflicts from the time of Charles II is established. A woman is pregnant and fears that her child will be deemed the son of a traitor. Her husband is missing, perhaps captured. In desperation, despite the dangers involved, she turns to a local witch.

When we start the story proper, it is modern day. In many ways it reads like a typical YA Romance story about a girl about to start college. The father died, the family moved, and she's going to live at home while attending a small campus. She meets a few local girls, one of which takes an instant disliking to her and is really bitchy. So far ticking all the boxes, including spotting a cute guy.

However, there's a mystery to the cute guy. It takes quite a while to get back to the historic part of the story or for the time travel element to come out, but when it does the title makes perfect sense and the concept is actually rather intriguing and original. The writing is also good so although I'm not really into college settings, it kept my attention.

The second part of the story really drew me in and got very exciting, but then it stopped on a cliffhanger ending. I presume another book is planned as some of the salient points were never explained, like how the time travel aspect works, though there was a good opportunity. Also, a few inconsistencies in the characters began to emerge so though the writing itself is very good, the plotting left a lot of holes and the ending was far too abrupt.

by Erica Lucke Dean

After a prologue to give some background information about what happened with Laith and Maddox in the past, chapter one starts off as a direct continuation of the first book. This made me wonder if this one would end in a cliffhanger as well and decide I was finished with the series if it did.

Questions of who Ava loves and which is the good brother get more complicated in this one, but we get a nice trek through history and even meet a famous person or two along the way.

I felt the twists and turns in the plot of this one were less believable than in the first book, but it kept my interest and I enjoyed the read, even if I did sometimes want to tell Ava not to do something stupid! We see different sides of both Laith and Maddox, which is where I had a little issue with consistency.

The historical aspects of the story fit well enough and while I'm not an expert on any of the periods we traveled through, they rang true. The convolutions of time travel worked well and I enjoyed learning more of the 'rules' that affect the twins as they move through time, though the source of the ability was magic rather than science.

I could see how this one needs to end, but the chance was missed to keep the story going through another crisis. It didn't actually end on a cliffhanger, but definitely set up for a next book. My only other complaints is that though sex wasn't actually graphic, it was a bit much for a YA book. Pre-teens read these after all.

A generally enjoyable time travel book, but I feel the plot has lost its way.

Dieser Teil der Buchreihe von Joachim Meyerhoff ist mir bis jetzt der Liebste. Er schreibt dort über die Jahre, in denen er bei seinen Großeltern in München gewohnt hat und seiner Zeit in der Schauspielschule. Nicht nur habe ich etwa fünf Minuten Gehzeit vom viel beschriebenen Haus seiner Großeltern gewohnt (also ein angenehm vertrautes Setting und ein Wiedererkennen einiger beschriebener Orte für mich), auch habe ich das Buch pflichtschuldig zu meinem Münchenaufenthalt mitgenommen und verschlungen. Also mittendrin statt nur dabei :) 

Ich liebe den Schreibstil des Autors und seine Erzählungen berühren mich und bringen mich genau so zum lachen; so muss ein gutes Buch sein. Das Einzige was mich über das Ende des Buches hinwegtröstet ist, dass ich bei einem kürzlichen Ausflug zum im Buch auch erwähnten Buchladen am Marienplatz (ekelhaft umgebaut und verkleinert, buuuh!) ein neues Buch der Reihe entdeckt habe.

Ich kann nun nichts anderes mehr tun, als alle seine Bücher und insbesondere dieses wärmstens zu empfehlen. 

On a whim, I picked up Lunch Witch #2: Knee-Deep in Niceness by Deb Lucke. I was intrigued mainly by the artwork (it's a graphic novel) which at first glance seems delightfully whimsical. However, I found myself disappointed with the book overall. The story was only so-so and didn't really do it for me. I've certainly read more engaging graphic novels for this age group. Our main character, the Lunch Witch, was fairly boring. The plot was...threadbare is the only word I can think of to describe it. The highlight of the book were the pets (the bats were especially entertaining). The artwork was hit-or-miss and didn't make up for the bland storyline. I read some reviews for this book after I had finished and it seems that the consensus is that after the first book in the series (oops I started on #2) this one was a bit of a letdown. I've also just discovered that they're making a film adaptation with Kate McKinnon as the lead. Now that I'm looking forward to especially considering how the main character is depicted as such as the archetypal hag and you just know she's gonna be hilarious. With that being said, this book didn't rate higher than a 4/10 for me I'm afraid. I have no plans to continue reading anymore of the series. :-/