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Danielle

What Danielle Did Next

A YA and NA book review blog

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Entangled (Spellbound #1)

Entangled (Spellbound #1) - Nikki Jefford Crossposted at my blog What Danielle Did NextI was in two minds about this book. For the first third I honestly thought this was going to be a DNF. The book starts off with 17 year old Graylee having to talk her twin sister Charlene down from the roof of the school where she was threatening to kill herself over her philandering boyfriend. I *almost* stopped right there…Graylee manages to calm her sister who is one of the most unlikable characters I have ever met in a book down and for a while the story seems to simply be a tale of teenage girls in high school that just happen to be witches. When I read the summary I thought that Graylee would die and wake up in Charlene’s body pretty quickly but it doesn’t happen for almost a third of the book which is where my main stuggle lay. I was willing the plot along to where the action was.When Graylee finally does wake up (dead? alive?) in her sisters body, the main plot is trying to figuring out how it happened and how to get her back in her body. I admit I had my suspicions from the get-go which turned out to be right but it didn’t mean I didn’t have some fun proving that.The story is great, the plot I thought was really inventive and I was looking forward to a good “Witchy” story ala Charmed or Willow from Buffy type hijinks. My main problem was the characterisation. There really wasn’t one likable character in the book. Even Graylee who I should have been rooting for to solve the mystery of her death was at times too mean spirited herself for someone billed as the good girl of the story.The only character I liked and felt went on a “journey” (Yeah I can’t believe I used that word either) was Raj Mc Kenna, who starts out as a bit of a smarmy creep but who actually showed he had some depth and was capable of putting aside his own needs for the greater good. The mom was a little too calm and blasé over her daughter’s antics particularly when Charlene is ranting about killing a girl at school (and almost succeeding) so I’m going to take a deluded leap and believe she was self-medicating to cope with having a girl like Charlene as a daughter.The writing at times lead me to feel that this was a book for a much younger audience than the 15+ it’s aimed at which meant when it wandered into more adult waters it was uncomfortable and felt out of place.Despite my misgivings it was still quite an enjoyable book and flowed quite well. I’m not sure I would necessarily go out of my way to buy the sequel but it definitely ended up in a better place than I thought it would at the start.Rating: Three Stars ***