Dead Witch Walking (The Hollows, Book 1)

I "bought" a free Kindle copy of Dead Witch Walking some months ago and was immediately excited that this book, which seemed to have a lot of potential and hardcore fans, was free. Of course, then I did what I always do when I receive free, courtesy of Amazon, not a penny wasted, e-books... I kept it on my Kindle and let it rot there because let's face it, if it's free it can't be that good (I do the same thing with the single of the week on iTunes...leave them on there until they come up on shuffle and even then I skip them most of the time). Yeah, well, I was wrong because Dead Witch Walking was great.

I'm not too much of a fantasy fan (I haven't read much of it and some of what I've read I did not like), but do to my anything but brief obsession with Charmed that started when I was 9, I have major, super-duper, love for witches (no seriously I do) and anything to do with them be it movies, books, games, etc. I guess my main problem with fantasy is that a lot of the time it veers toward ultra cheesy romance (or maybe I'm thinking of "paranormal romance", I might be), but there was no romance in Dead Witch Walking (unless you count that extreme palpable sexual tension that Rachel Morgan seemed to have with Ivy)! Color me completely shocked!

What is it with witches that just makes them seem bad-ass (I am of course not counting Phoebe from Charmed who really got pathetic after the second season)? Because Rachel Morgan was sort of badass. She was awesome in all of her witchy glory and most importantly, she wasn't whiny or self-centered. I guess the only thing that bothered me somewhat was that everyone kept saying what a great runner she was, but the chick kept getting caught, so she really wasn't that great of a runner. I wouldn't put my money on her.

But I think the main reason I loved this was because Dead Witch Walking was really escapism at its best. This book doesn't take itself seriously at all and doesn't try to be deep or meaningful. It was just a great, fluffy, and most importantly, fun read. It was just highly enjoyable reading about Rachel trying to escape from the baddies with the help of her vampy partner, Ivy and her other pixy partner, Jenks. Rachel's relationship with them was just great and hilarious since they're all so different from each other. And I loved Ivy. Another kick-ass character. She has to be the character I'm most intrigued about.

So, I really loved Dead Witch Walking. Sure it wasn't a ground-breaking masterpiece, but it really made the suckish fact that summer's over which means school starts again, much more bearable. I cannot wait to read the other installments of the Rachel Morgan/the Hollow series. Here's hoping that the rest are just as fun and just as hilarious as the first one.

Really enjoyed the entire series, and can't wait for the next book. The books keep your interest and are hard to put down. Now I just have to find another author to tide me over until the next release.

I got this book when it was promoted as a freebie. I finally decided to give it a read while between preferred writers. I really enjoyed it! I found the adventure, the characters and the "new world" an inventive perspective. I haven't read other writers in this genre but I very much enjoyed this book. I am thrilled its a series as I will be back for more!

For those who don't know Stephanie Plum, she is a Janet Evanovich character who is brought to life by the author and portrays a bond enforcement agent who gets the job done, but never smoothly.

Rachel Morgan, the main character, in this series is a white(?) witch who is a runner (sort of like a bounty hunter/police) and her runs never go smoothly either. I thoroughly enjoyed the novel and have since read two more of the series and working on the fourth. It is fast paced, suspenseful, humorous, and heart-wrenching. The author does an excellent job of bringing the characters to life and the settings into view.

I got this for free from one of the Free Fridays e-book offers B&N is doing on their e-reader / nook blog, so I'll try to be nice.

Overall, I was sort of underwhelmed by this novel. I'm not much into the whole supernatural realism / urban fantasy trend that has been growing, but this book didn't manage to turn me off immediately, so I guess that's a positive. The characters were introduced pretty well and the back-story of the alternate history was filled in piecemeal in the earlier chapters, though it was a bit shallow in the details and it felt like only a partial recap. Overall the story was well planned out, however many of the plot threads were left unresolved at the conclusion in an obvious attempt for a continuing series. Some of there characters were only sparingly described as I suppose they would be featured more prominently in later novels, but as this was the first book in the series, I was left disappointed with what I got. Between the less than impressive writing style and the plot that did not manage to keep me hooked, I won't be reading any more of the series (unless they pop up for free, but even then it still wouldn't cause to drop whatever book I'd be in the middle of at the time).

I gave it a 3/5 since it was free and I actually read the entire book, but if I had to base my decision on the sample chapters, I wouldn't have bought it. It had a lot of potential that just wasn't filled.