Julia Defiant
Julia and a mismatched band of revolutionaries, scholars, and thieves have crossed the world searching for a witch. But for all the miles traveled, they are no closer to finding Ko Dan. No closer to undoing the terrible spell he cast that bound an ancient magic to the life of a small child. Casimir wants that magic—will happily kill Theo to extract it—and every moment they hunt for Ko Dan, Casimir’s assassins are hunting them.
Julia can deal with danger. The thing that truly scares her lies within. Her strange ability to vanish to a place just out of sight has grown: she can now disappear so completely that it’s like stepping into another world. It’s a fiery, hellish world, filled with creatures who seem to recognize her—and count her as one of their own.
So . . . is Julia a girl with a monster lurking inside her? Or a monster wearing the disguise of a girl?
If she can use her monstrous power to save Theo, does it matter?
In this riveting second book in the Witch’s Child trilogy, Catherine Egan goes deep within the heart of a fierce, defiant girl trying to discover not just who but what she truly is.
This is the second in the Witch Child Series, a sequel to Julia Vanishes, by Catherine Egan. Despite it being part of the same series and by the same author the writing style is different which is a good thing because it shows Egan stretching her literary legs proving she’s got more than the one book in her bag of tricks.
You have to love a female teenage heroine who has been created to adeptly handle what life keeps throwing at her. It’s wonderful when an author shows a girl fighting for herself rather than playing the helpless victim in need of a guy to fight all her battles. It’s even better when it’s a teenager so young girls can be reminded of the power they have inside.
It moves at a much faster pace with tons of action packed scenes so it made for a very quick read, shorter chapters also gave the illusion of blowing through it quicker than I did with the first. Her scene development is much better in this one as she has provided much more details about the world the characters live in so you get a better feel for the shape their lives take.
Even through all the positives it still has a bit of a feel of being a ‘sandwich’ book; you know kind of like Two Towers from Lord of the Rings. The early foundation has been set but you have to string some of the story along before you can get to the juicy meat of the conclusion. It’s not a bad thing because you obviously can’t appreciate the conclusion without understanding the journey.
Egan has some true writing talent by being able to juggle multiple stories and subplots but making them all feel equally important and fulfilled. Too often when authors try this there ends up being plot holes, inconsistencies or characters contradicting each other. Thankfully she managed to escape the pitfalls by writing a well thought out book.
Very much looking forward to her third book so I can see where she’s taking us on this journey full of exciting escapades, passion and secrecy.
Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Children’s for allowing me to review this book.
*synopsis and pic from amazon.com