Review: WitchLight Trilogy by Debora Geary

I’ve done the review on the first three books in A Modern Witch by Ms Geary and now am reading the the WitchLight Trilogy which (no pun intended) focuses on the journey of two witches and their mentors. I’ve read the first two of the spin off and am actually finding myself a bit more involved in this series. This spin off was very cleverly done. The author took a pretty good character from A Modern Witch Series and made her an outstanding lead with added depth and parts of her story into the trilogy.

The lead characters are developed in depth. You appreciate them and can’t help getting drawn into their stories. The premise of this series is helping witches who are having issues even if they don’t want to admit it. There are 3 mentors and two students. The main mentor, Jenny, is tasked by her mentor to get involved and help two very different witches find their way.

These two witches are extremely different and have individual problems they don’t willingly recognize. The younger witch, Lizzard, is extremely gifted and smart but very insecure. Her hopes and dreams seem out of reach so she hides behind a smart mouth and getting into trouble. She has had a very tough life and when faced with putting up or shutting up, she runs away. The witches pull some strings to keep her out of juvie and try to help her grow and provide some stability in her life. Elsie is a professional and thinks she is just burned out and needs some time away from her practice to focus on charitable work. In other words she needs a new perspective and thinks she can devote some time to helping witches when she is the one who really needs the help. She’s a bit of a know it all and is completely blinded to her needs. She is rigid in control and just won’t let go.

Jenny as the head mentor knows she cannot handle these two on her own. She enlists some additional mentors, Lauren, (the lead in the first A Modern Witch) a new witch and her best friend, Nat, not a witch at all. Nat has other skills and is eerily able to read people. The whole witching community introduced in the Modern Witch Series ends up involved. The author combines the two series effortlessly.

When you begin this trilogy, have a Kleenex handy. You become so invested in the characters, their feelings, and awakening there is no way you CAN’T not feel for them and their mentors. Jenny is constantly questioning herself and how she can help her students. The following is one of my favorite passages in the novel when Jenny turns to her own mentor for advice and help.

Melvin looked off into the distance. “Why don’t you use a tripod when you take portraits?’

Twenty-five years together and he could still confuse the hell out of her. “too rigid. I need the freedom to move the camera to where it needs to be. If I lock it into place, I always miss the best shots.”

“Indeed.” He smiled softly. “Teach your students not to be tripods, then. Show them the difference between truly supporting someone and merely propping them up.”

There is a lesson in there.

While are plenty of things happening in the series, the thing you need to know is this series deals with people. Their hopes, their dreams, learning to trust themselves and others with their feelings, are beautifully portrayed by Ms Geary. I don’t want you to think you are going to cry from sadness and empathy. There is laughter and joy and even some tears to spend on the laughter and joy. I don’t think my feelings have run the gamut in a long long time. It was extremely refreshing to do so.

This is a trilogy and a spin off, so my advice is to read the first books in the Modern Witch Series, Modern Witch and Hidden Witch; then read the first of this trilogy, Witches on Parole: Unlocked, the third in the Modern Witches Series, A Reckless Witch, and THEN read Witches Underway (Book 2 of the WitchLight Series). If that’s not enough, the final WitchLight Series book, Witches in Flight, is planned for release in March 2012 and the fourth in A Modern Witch Series, A Nomadic Witch, in late spring. That’s a coven of Witch books, sorry couldn’t resist!

From visiting Ms Geary’s website and her Facebook page, I gather she doesn’t tweet but does have a lot of interaction with her fans on FB and on her website. You should stop by.

My rating for the first two books in the WitchLight Series:

4 Stars (This is a very solid four, no weaknesses)