Spellbound by Cara Shultz Review: Spoilers

I don’t know what I was expecting when I picked up this book. A miracle maybe? Something to pick me up after reading Unearthly, in retrospect I don’t know why in the world I expected something good from a book that, and quote “has the potential to do for witches what Stephanie Meyers did for vampires”.  Apparently, my definition of good potential must be centuries off because I say this:

But, I was willing to give this book a shadow of a doubt. Emma moves in with her aunt Charlotte after her drunken dad nearly kills both of them in a car accident. Her mother is dead and her twin brother, such a tragic past. Of course, her aunt is rich and sends her off to one of the most expensive boarding schools in the city that never sleeps. New York. It is there she meets her reincarnated love interest Brendan. Of course, (gasp) there love is cursed.

Don’t get me wrong the beginning gave me hope. Emma is actually a likeable character. I was starting to look up….until she enters the school. Stereotype roll call:

 Blond Wannabe mean girl and her minions that hates the protagonist on the spot.  Kaitlin and the backgrounds.

Dump jock-that-thinks he is God’s gift to the world-and sleeps with everyone because he can, Anthony.

 Hot, perfect, male lead that exists to solely be the love interest that the protagonist obsesses over, Brendan.

Last but not least, the walking-Wikipedia. Angelique is the outcast and a powerful witch, (though we never see her powers in serious action). She provides Emma with the knowledge about the story of Lord Archer. Lord Archer falls in love with a poor maiden his family disapproves of. He goes on and marries her regardless. She of course dies, murdered by assassins. Archer, love-stricken, is tricked into cursing both their souls…

By asking some witch to cast a spell so he can meet her in the next life. To break the spell it takes a ‘selfless soul’. I wonder who that is supposed to be. coughBrendancough. Now, question? Where was the witch who casted the spell on them? Shouldn’t he be preventing them from breaking the spell? Why couldn't he live for a long time? It would have made the story more interesting and provided more conflict.

Of course regardless of this Emma just can’t stay away from Brendan. Stuff happens, they end up dating. We all know how this story ends. They all live happily ever after because Brendan saves Emma from Anthony.  Anthony teams up with the wannabe mean girl in attempt to shove her off a cliff after getting him kicked out of school. How? Emma wanted him to admit his lie about sleeping with her cousin to the school. This last bit would have been interesting if I wasn’t to the point of not caring that I skimmed those pages. Overall two stars because Emma stands up for she cousin and the beginning.                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Next to Godliness

Hey!

I thought I'd throw something out for people to read, feeling bad since I haven't done anything yet. I am trying to get as many publications as possible, and unfortunately a lot of publications don't allow second-time runs. But I can post already published stuff! This piece was published on Thickjam and I suggest other writers to submit there because it's a frequent and fast-responding publication.

Here's the site in case anyone would like to check it out.
http://thickjam.com/

It's titled 'Next To Godliness'. Enjoy!

xoxo Maggie

At the age of 19 I am on death row and want the injection so badly it hurts to not have the needle in my arm. For six months I waited for a verdict, handcuffs leaving rings around my wrists. But finally, here I am, just waiting for the trash truck to stop by, take me away, burn me up to nothing. I feel like a fifth wall, standing in meaningless silence, in vigilance for nothing.

My ex-boyfriend, he wants me dead. He’d planned on calling her Jasmine Rae- the baby girl that wasn’t his to have. I’d already be hung or shot or fried had he gotten the chance and choice. It’s funny how only true love can turn into true disgust and animosity.

But my parents are the ones who had to pull the plug or let me rot. Either way my life is done, whether I get a shot in the arm or a spot in the dark. I am a sentence strung and written only to be erased, a mistake if there ever was one. But the difference is that I won’t even leave the little rubber shavings to show I was at all.

Who knew people were easier to take back that the wrong words said or bygone regrets. Pain can’t be rescinded, but a soul sure can.

I never told anyone, but she was always Lilli to me. From the moment I found out to the last second she was mine, I called my baby Lilli Anne. But it’s a shame I was in bed the whole time I knew her. I was sick with nausea and her kicking my ribs, but I was paralyzed with thoughts of the life she’d never have; the life that I couldn’t give her. So I gave her back to someone I felt I could trust. On October 20^th I got the abortion.

I knew perfectly well that under new legislation abortion is legally classified as murder. So when my ex found out that his Jasmine was no more, he turned me in and pushed me away. Now I’m only garbage to him. Believe me these last months I’ve only wanted to be with Lilli anyway; away, far away, invisible.

And within the laws around homicide, only the biological mother and father can decide whether or not their child is given the death sentence. They brought you into this world, only they can take you out. Physical presence is determinable by flesh and blood, though whether you went to Heaven or Hell was sorted out elsewhere.

To my mom and dad, she was Amelia Jane. They were supposed to go to the park, dress her in tiny hats and shoes and play ‘This Little Piggie’. I became the monster in the closet the minute I took that away from them. After six months of indecision I was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death by lethal injection. The world is about to be back in balance, so long as I am easily forgotten.

But here I am, a trash bag full of bones waiting in the dark to incinerate or be broken down.  Everyone’s promised a hundred times that there’s Hell flames set-aside especially for me; I think I believe them. Today, I tell myself, is the day the Garbage man in the Sky comes by to toss me out. Recycle my skin so that all the battered plastic pieces will melt back into something almost as beautiful as glass. I could give it another go, if he’d let me. If you’d have me.

It’s like Lilli and I never even were. Stars that died before their light ever reached a waiting sky. Hushed, hushed, never hollow as we shine.