Each month beginning March 1st, 2012, challenge members will read or re-read the title for that month. In addition, challenge members will either post a review, their reading experience, character castings or anything else related to that title. You have freedom to have fun with your monthly post so be creative! Seeing as this series is 13 novels long, this challenge will last 13 months.

As this challenge started in March 2012 and it is already February 2013, you can tell that I am a little behind…

Waking the Witch by Kelley Armstrong (UK cover)

Waking the Witch (Women of the Otherworld #11)
by Kelley Armstrong

Published: 27th July 2010

Columbus is a small, fading town, untouched by the twenty-first century. But when three young women are found dead – victims of what appear to be ritual murders – things start to get very dark, and very dangerous . . .

Private investigator Savannah Levine can handle ‘dark and dangerous’. As the daughter of a black witch, she has a lot of power running through her veins, and she’s not afraid to use it. But her arrival in Columbus has not gone unnoticed. Savannah may think she’s tracking down a murderer, but could she be the killer’s next target?

Of course she could always ask her old friend (and half-demon) Adam Vasic for back-up. But Savannah has her own – very personal – reasons for keeping Adam well away from Columbus. And in any case, she can rely on her own powers. Can’t she . . . ?

As with previous Women of the Otherworld Challenge posts this is not going to be a “normal” review.

This book contains many firsts. It is the first book narrated by Savannah, who we first meet in Stolen. Savannah is the first (and only?) character we see in the series grow from a teen into an adult. The story is also about Savannah’s first solo case. In a lot of ways this book is kinda scary, especially when you think that there are just six years between the publication of Stolen and Waking the Witch!

This book was something of a surprise for me. To be honest, when I first got it I wasn’t too sure what I thought of Savannah being the narrator. I was happy with her being a secondary character, and I wanted to see more of the main characters I had come to love. However, I found myself really enjoying the story and having Savannah as the narrator. I also enjoyed the appearance of Adam as a main character.

Waking the Witch is, in many ways, the beginning of the final arc of the series. The plot of the book is surprisingly complex, and a lot of the fallout that comes from this book is reflected in the next book in the series Spell Bound. It was fun watching Savannah solve the case, even if the consequences are less than ideal. Armstrong ends the book with an evil little twist.