Lonely Souls

#1 in The Witch Avenue series

by Karice Bolton

Age: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal, Romance, Witches

Format: Ebook, 305 pages
Published On: June 24, 2012
Source: Received from author as part of the blog tour. Also it's FREE for Kindle and at Smashwords!

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First Sentence: "Mom!" I hollered more for my benefit than hers.

18 year-old Triss has just graduated from high school but the biggest event in her life is yet to come - her acceptance into the Witch Avenue Coven. Yes you heard it right, Triss is a witch. I must admit I was very surprised with Triss' behaviour toward her witchy powers. All she did until now is collect herbs, make potions and learn only some simple spells. She used her magic wand mostly to stip potions or as a pestle for godsake! If I was a witch I would be eager to learn awesome spells to make dragons, enchant magic carpets, dive underwater for hours and have my own flying broom!

It's not correct to say that Triss is not interested, she did declare multiple times that she could not wait to join the coven so she could explore their library, but she is obedient and patiently waits until she is allowed to access more complicated spells and magic. But then something happens that turns Triss' life upside down - her mother disappears. The Coven declares her mother dead and Triss only has small group of friends to support her and help her search for answers. Logan, her best childhood friend, starts teaching Triss more advanced spells so they could fight together. These lessons were fun, because it gave us perfect opportunity to gradually learn more about witches and their powers in The Witch Avenue series.

Except witches and paranormal events revolving around Triss' mother's disappearance, Lonely Souls also focuses very much on romance. But since it's my favorite kind of love story of childhood friends who start realising they are in love, you won't hear me complaining. And Logan has such romantic statements, I cheered for him almost from the start. I mean just look at these beautiful quotes:

"Everything that I loved about you back then is present sitting here in front of me, except now you've grown into a woman who is unbelievably strong, brave and beautiful."

"I'll always be here waiting for you," he said, touching my chest with his fingertips, drawing a shape of a heart.

"I'm giving you everything I have, Triss. I want to be yours, and I want you to be mine. No matter what storms lay ahead of us, I know that as one we can make it. I'm not perfect by anyone's standards but you make me want to strive to be the best person I can be."

As self-published novel go, Lonely Souls is mostly free of grammatical errors (or I have been too engrossed into a story to notice them). There are some words and phrases that repeat a little too much for my taste though. Logan's lips 'tugged upright slightly' so many times I started doubting is that the beginning of a smile or if it's a tic.

While I am nitpicking I may also point out another thing: Most books that are part of the series have some grand backstory that gets resolved in the end, but each book is a mini quest or some task or problem that our heroes resolve on their journey. There is no such thing in The Witch Avenue series, or at least in Lonely Souls. Triss is trying to find her mother and although she discovers a lot of clues, it still seems like this search will last until the end of the series.

If you are looking for young/new adult paranormal series about witches and you like reading about childhood friends discovering their feeling are more than just friendship while they stir trouble and potions, throw spells, break rules and fight to discover the truth, then I recommend that you check out Lonely Souls by Karice Bolton - it promises to be a start of an interesting series.