Last Witch: Fear and Fire by Conor McCreery

OVERVIEW:

It's the one time of the year when the witch known as Cailleach hunts the children of the village - so Saoirse, a brave and reckless young girl, decides this is the perfect opportunity to defy her father and discover the secrets of the witch’s tower!

But when the Cailleach captures Saoirse and her brother Brahm, their lives are forever changed in ways they never expected.

Now, Saoirse will have to save everyone she loves by discovering the truth about the mysterious mark on her shoulder - and embracing her secret magical powers!

Conor McCreery (Adventure Time/Regular Show) and V.V. Glass (Doctor Who) kick off a new young adult fantasy trilogy that shows the greatest magic of all lies inside of us!

REVIEW:

A unique take on Celtic folklore, while crafting believable and fun characters. This is definitely one of those books where you have to keep reading. The first half was a little boring as the author navigated setting up the scene and background information, but once the story took off, engagement followed. It also has a bit of Avatar the Last Airbender vibes as the main character travels and creates her group as she moves. One reviewer on Goodreads states:

"The art in this book is easy on the eyes and easy to follow, the colors are nice and bright too. The main character seems to be a troublesome tween and got grounded on her birthday for trying to sneak off to the witch's tower when she wasn't supposed to. When her father goes to the village for a holiday celebration she sneaks out again and her brother follows her. Turns out there really is a witch at the tower who tries to eat her brother. She's able to resist the witch's magic and run away with her brother. They run into her grandmother who tells her all about the witch and a legend about her and her sisters trying to take over the world. The rest of the story is the three of them trying to kill the witchs before they can take over the world. This book is the first in a series and ends a bit anticlimactically due to that. I'm curious but not excited about the next book" (Sarah).

And this perfectly sums up my feelings about this book. I'm looking forward to picking up the second in the series once I stumble upon it like I did this first volume.