Customer Reviews

The Summer Witch

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This book starts out as a fairly standard fantasy love story but quickly becomes a much more serious fantasy about the uses and abuses of power. It starts out slow but by halfway through you won't be able to put it down. Great character development especially.

For more info about this book and other Louise Cooper info, check out The North Spire online.

Ah, power. We all want it, no matter how much we deny we do. What would I do if I had it? What would you? Of course, you and I are good, decent people and would never abuse power. Or would we? You and I know that power would never corrupt us. And if, perchance, it did, it would take a very long time and a very good reason. Or would it? It would certainly take more than a careless word from someone to make us wish harm on them, wouldn't it? Maybe not.

And magic is always something to think twice about, to be cautious with, and to respect absolutely, because magic constantly has a way of sneaking up behind us and biting us where it really hurts. If you don't understand magic, it's best to not mess around with it. But, then, there would be no story.

The Summer Witch begins as a harmless love story but transforms into a much more complex tale about power and what it does to even the most innocent and good hearted of us. The character development is remarkably good and the emotions well explored as the main character matures. Ms. Cooper has managed to allow us to not only enjoy a wonderful story, but also to examine our human frailties, desires, and fragility.

As seems typical of any Louise Cooper title, the plot was a little slow to get going, the story gradually building until about mid-way, when I utterly couldn't put The Summer Witch down and managed to finish it in two nights (would have gladly stayed up to finish it the first night, if I hadn't had to get up early the next day).

The story is a moral lesson of the responsibilities of power and consequences of using it for either good, or ill. Not an uncommon theme of fantasy books, but I found the village setting and the relatively tight-knit community around which the story occured to be somewhat more appealing than the more epic scale reaches of other stories with a similar theme.

The village and community about which The Summer Witch is set could easily have been plucked from any fantasy setting. There's no real sense of "belonging" to an overal world, though truly there is really no need for there to be such in order for this story to actually work. I found the village, its customs and its people to be well developed and thought out.

I loved this book, although some might feel that there is a lack of world building which spoils the overall enjoyment of the book. For me however, there was more than enough development of the small village community to really stir a sense of "realness". I really came to care for the characters, (even the minor characters) and fear for them in light of threat and danger.

The beginning was slow, but the ending was all too quick in its coming and very satisfying. There is no need for this book to be longer than it was, but I certainly didn't want it to end.