ARC Review: White Witch by Trish Milburn

Published Date: March 1st, 2012
Finished Date: March 4th, 2012
Publisher: Bell Bridge Books
Format: eARC via Netgalley
My Rating: 4/5
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Blurb from Goodreads:
Witchcraft Is Her Family’s Business. No One Quits The Family And Lives To Tell About It.

“Jax” Pherson has power, enough power to know her future will end in service to the dark coven her father controls. Unless she can stay hidden in a small community in the mountains of North Carolina. She must find a way to live without magic and deny the darkness she feels welling up inside her—the same dark power that fuels the covens around the world. All she wants is a normal life. A boyfriend. Friends. Some place to belong, but all too soon Jax’s barely begun new life hangs in the balance when she discovers that the boy she’s attracted to is sworn to kill her kind. He’s a hunter with good reason to kill everything that goes bump in the night. Even the most fleeting use of her power is tantamount to signing her death warrant and will bring both hunter and coven down on her. But can she walk away when her friends are threatened by an old evil? Something created by the magic of witches? Jax’s only hope of survival is to convince the boy she loves to forget everything he’s ever been taught and help her find a way to fight the covens. To believe there is some good in her.

My Review

White Witch is a good mix of YA Romance with lots of action and high school drama. The only regrettable thing was...That cliffhanger!!!

My Summary

Jax Pherson is a witch from the Miami Coven. Witch covens around the world gained power a long time ago by absorbing the powers from the earth at specific locations, but this in turn filled them with darkness. Jax feels that darkness inside her, her power spiking whenever her temper flares. These covens want absolute control, so whenever a witch tries to leave the coven, they will hunt her/him down and drain them of their powers and subsequently, their lives. Painfully.

Jax watched her mother's powers and life get Siphoned away by her father when she was but a youngin', and she has had a terrible fear of escaping ever since. But as she reaches her seventeenth birthday, she will be expected to kill for her coven. And that's when she plucked up her courage and sneaked away.

All she wants is to have a normal teenage life - go to school, make some friends, go for prom, and such. She's tried enrolling in a few schools, but has never gotten a successful application because apparently, a parent or guardian was required to be present. So when she comes to her next destination, North Carolina, she tweaks her plans and manages to enrol in Baker Gap High School. And there, she meets a new friend and her cousin, Toni and sexy Keller, and also a new enemy in the form of cheerleader Stacy and said cheerleader's mindless cronies.

Keller and Toni's families happened to be witch hunters, and all is fair and well for Jax for a time, normal high school drama and romance, until her secrets start to become harder to hide, and her family will hunt her down to the ends of the earth to silence her and take back the absolute control that they demand...

My Thoughts

WHITE WITCH had the epic final battle that BREAKING DAWN didn't have, and the sane romance that Twilight didn't have, but still retaining that little unrealistic instant connection between the heroine and male protagonist. Some cases, like the one in FIRELIGHT by Sophie Jordan, that insta-love relationship was one of the best and most believable insta-loves I have ever read. I could feel the sizzle of attraction between them, the tension when they were alone in some dark place, and the sacrifices that they are willing to make for each other. But I couldn't for WHITE WITCH. Pity, really, cause other than that, I thought that this WW was a pretty entertaining YA Urban Fantasy!

Witches, both female and male, are all beautiful and either really kind-hearted or nasty as hell. Jax falls under the GORGEOUS blonde with a humble heart category. Er, ok. I'm not that big into gorgeous, blonde babe heroines who catches the attention of the entire school - stares and drools from the males, and envy and jealousy from the females. I mean, really? And just so that it is not generic enough, she makes an enemy of the mean head cheerleader and her mindless cronies on her first day of school. But that's not all there is to Jax - thankfully - she's also a mean machine when it comes to using her powers! She's badass and way powerful. More so than anyone could've ever anticipated - even her! Something happened when she fought the people who were after her, who are her power-hungry father and coven, that made them afraid of her. Something big. Something "bright" and magnificent. Ok, bright was a pun. Read it and you'll know it. :) But yes, Jax was not the fragile pretty-face that I thought her to be when I first read about her.

The reason why I said that the romance here was a little unbelievable was because firstly, Jax shouldn't have approached Keller in the first place since she already knew he was a witch hunter. (Abnormal and illogical behavior on her part!) Secondly, she hung out with him. (No sense of self-preservation on her part!) Thirdly, she saw him, "omg big hottie", and suddenly there's a current of electricity flowing between the two of them. Like suddenly. Ok so she went against all forms of normal behavior, hung out with Keller, and she deigned to start going out with him when he wields a gun EVERY NIGHT hunting paranormals like her. And on top of that, she spilled the beans about her identity to Keller after this particular incident. I mean, you don't tell a witch hunter you're a witch just because he's your friend and he suspects you're a witch. If he knows already, shouldn't the first instinct of a person who has been living life on the run to, well, run? Far away from danger zone? But well, Jax didn't and just dumped the cat out of the bag and looked at Keller with goo-goo eyes, hoping he will look at her the same way, heart breaking into a million pieces when he didn't. Well, what did she expect, his uncle died because of witches and his mom left because of that too. Ok, I'm exaggerating, but someone's got to stand for logic.

Keller was cool. Handsome, good with a gun, tough guy, protective and all. The whole package. The reason why I didn't swoon all over him is because I've seen his type plenty nowadays in YA novels. The genre is practically saturated with this type of guys, including adult fictions PNRs, UFs, Fantasy, Historicals, and all, so for me to swoon over another male protagonist, he's gotta have something extra on top of all the others. But Keller was cool. That I'll give credit.

As for the side characters, Toni is the best friend Jax has always dreamed of having, and she also happens to be, so coincidentally, Keller's close cousin. Toni's a cool chick, one who stands up for her friends, plays the drums for her rock band, and wears shirts with funny quotes. As for Jax's evil, heartless bastard of a father, he was rather....fake. That typical You-Have-Failed-Me-By-Running-Away-Thus-You-Are-No-Longer-My-Daughter-And-I-Will-Kill-You-And-Your-New-Friends-Now-Slow-And-Painfully evil villain. It got a little corny at times, but oh well, he is the evil villain, so I'll just get on with things.

Let me tell you that I LOVED that ending battle! It was epic, fast-paced, and...that suspense! They were all in some seriously deep shit, one of them was dying, and I just couldn't see a way out of their predicament. But Milburn did it. She opened a door for Jax and others and everything went out with a BOOM! Epic.

And then we have.. THAT CLIFFHANGER ENDING!!!! Noooooooo! Milburn can't end the book like that...this is just....torture!! And it's not a good cliffhanger ending. Dammit.
WHITE WITCH had action, had romance, had friendship, had suspense, and had the high school drama that most YAs seem to have. It was very generic and stereotypical, but amusing all the same. It made for a quick, light and fun read. Until you reach the three-quarters mark. That's where the thrill comes into play. It was so much more than what I expected actually, and I really liked it!

*eARC courtesy of Bell Bridge Books via Netgalley*

P.S. I was planning on writing a short review, but look how it turned out! Well, please excuse me my verbosity. Seems like I had more to say about WW then I thought I had! XP

My Rating