Keeper

Summary: When a 200-year-old witch attacks her, sixteen-year-old bookworm Lainey Styles is determined to find a logical explanation. Even with the impossible staring her in the face, Lainey refuses to believe it—until she finds a photograph linking the witch to her dead mother.

After consulting a psychic, Lainey discovers that she, like her mother, is a Keeper: a witch with the exclusive ability to unlock and wield the Grimoire, a dangerous but powerful spell book. But there’s a problem. The Grimoire has been stolen by a malevolent warlock who is desperate for a spell locked inside it—a spell that would allow him to siphon away the world’s magic.

With the help of her comic-book-loving best friend and an enigmatic but admittedly handsome street fighter, Lainey must leave her life of college prep and studying behind to prepare for the biggest test of all: stealing back the book.

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Review: 2 stars

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and Flux/North Star Editions for a voluntary review.

This book was awful. The main character Lainey was incredibly annoying. Throughout the entire book she whined, cried, threw fits and was extremely over dramatic. It was like a soap opera. I wouldn’t have finished this book if it wasn’t a review copy.

The thing is, it had a good plot. There was potential for this to be an interesting fantasy novel. It was like a movie with a good script, but terrible actors. I even liked some of the secondary characters. Maggie, in particular, was optimistic and accepting of the fantasy world. She would have made a much better protagonist. But Lainey was one of the worst main characters I’ve ever read about.

The writing wasn’t awful. The pacing was okay. The plot was pretty good. But I still hated this book. I found myself internally mocking it every step of the way. Lainey blamed herself for the actions of others when she wasn’t being a whiny brat. Do yourself a favor and skip reading this one.