This would be a killer movie. A spit your popcorn all over the people in front of you movie. Hollywood are you listening ? A cult classic B move just waiting to be found. The characters were off beat, nerdy, jockey, pretty, sneaky, deadly, wickedly fun. The main character is an ultra nerdy fake who desperately wants to impress the girl, with his fake job. The fun part is that it's not fake, it's all real and nerd boy has to fake it till he makes it basically. The unbelievable tries to kill him and it gets real, fast.
If you love dark twisted comedy, where some may die or get eaten, with bumbling heroes, who take unconventional paths, this is a book for you. if not wait for the movie it will be a killer.

If it was me it's be bye bye Ted. I would not could not, not on a train, or with a goat I could not go in that house. Omg snickers for the win ! 

A horror comedy read only .99 for the next two days. 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077SYZRLL/ref=rdr_kindle_ext_tmb

James: Witch-Hunter: Witch-Hunter Preque...

James has managed to get a scholarship for Oxford University. He expects challenges from academics, from sports, from being a poor notherner in the elite college. He even could handle a dangerous and unpleasant room mate

He did not expect murder. He certainly didn’t expect witches, witch hunters and being in the middle of an ancient war.

One of the hardest kind of reviews to write is for a book that…. Isn’t terrible? Especially when that kind of covers everything you need to say about it. Honestly I find reviews like this are both harder to write than a review that condemns the books very existence and an utter offense to the eyes of everyone who read it and in some ways more damning. I mean, everyone can read my passionate loathing for a book yet somehow it feels better than my… mild amusement?

But unfortunately mild amusement is the best this book gets from me: I don’t dislike by any means, I enjoyed it, it was an entertaining read, but there was nothing especially unique or compelling about it that drew me in or made me want to pick up the next book

Like the enemies - they’re witches. I do appreciate that the book took steps to distance evil, non-human witches and actual wiccans so we’re not demonising a whole religion, so applause (I also like that secrecy in this case is maintained because past witch hunts have shown what damage revelations can bring). But the book also did very little to define what witches were other than “evil”. Inherently evil - evil for being born, power hungry, ruthless and dangerous. It feels.. Cheap to just decide “hey evil” especially when your antagonist is so very near-human. This leads to things like the Council “binding” witches magic so they can’t use power - does this happen every time or just witches who commit crime? Is there any kind of nuance in terms of sentencing? Can witches be seen as possibly innocent? Do all of them need binding? These are all elements that aren’t explore and even james, as a man who chatters incessantly as he tells us, fails to look at even remotely.

There’s also very little exploration of magic beyond “it exists” and less real making magic an actual appreciable of the story or the witch’s existence. You could, honestly replace “witches” with vampires, demons or wereracoons and not appreciably change the story. The actual nature of the bad guys is pretty much irrelevant, they’re just a rather Generic Bad Thing to fight

Similarly, while there’s a little more information on the Hunters, in that we know they have a council and Generations, with each generation having more abilities. But there’s, again, painfully little exploration of this. How do they get these powers? (And their large stash of magical artefacts for that matter) WHAT are these powers (beyond an ill-defined magic sense?) Are they human? What counts as a generation? Does one or both parents have to be a Hunter? What about James who is a “first gen” does that mean his children would become second? If so how is this inherited? 

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The vision she'd seen in the waters of her scrying bowl under the glow of tonight's moon showed her yet another witch with the potential to become more powerful than herself. Helena couldn't ignore it. She had to act.

This was a Kindle Freebie I had downloaded a while ago, so I didn't do too much investigating beyond the title to make sure it matched the square. It is more of an introduction and set-up to the series. We are introduced to Lucius, a gladiator/Roman slave and Helena, a witch. Helena forces Lucius into a pact that saves his life but binds him to her for eternity as her assassin. It seems Helena needs to kill up and coming witches for their power. This part isn't explained too much with the ins and outs of it all.

We then fast forward to present time and meet Bethany as Lucius is in the middle of trying causing a car accident to kill her. She has no idea she is a witch but manages to blast him with her power. This shocks her and, I don't know, impresses/turns on Lucius and he leaves her alive. 

Fast forward four years and we catch back up with Helena as she questions and demands Lucius find Bethany to kill her. He claims he still can't find her but Helena knows what's up and has him followed as he goes to warn Bethany. 

Some green blasting fighting with witch on witch violence and suddenly Bethany and Lucius are our new power duo.

The writing was pretty good but the magic, witch, and paranormal side was underdeveloped; Bethany accepted being a witch much quicker than I would have. 

As an introduction to a series, I'm a little intrigued. Hopefully, with more pages the author will have the room to develop the story and flesh out the characters more.