The Line

The Line
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: ARC Courtesy of NetGalley

Mercy Taylor is the youngest member of Savanna's biggest Witch family's...they're the most powerful family in Savannah and they're kinda in charge. Mercy however was born without magic. Because of this, she is hated by Aunt Ginny the family's matriarch, and she's labelled as The Disappointment by her Uncle. Mercy's used to being second best to her minutes older twin Maisie in everything, including the looks department. Maisie is the apple of the whole family's eye. Despite that, Mercy loves her sister, but she's also in love with Mercy's boyfriend Jackson, and goes to a Hoodoo root doctor for a spell to make her love her BFF Peter who's in love with her.

Aunt Ginny, who's also the family's anchor/defence to the bewitched Line which separates humankind from the demon's who once ruled our realm, the wouldn't approve, there's history between Ginny and the root doctor but that's all irrelevant when Mercy walks in on her aunt's brutally murdered body. Now the Line has been compromised a Demon invasion looms, but someone stands to gain from that.

Mercy must fight for her sisters trust while being entangled in a love spell that brings about a happy/bad consequence depending on how you look at it, and even though magicless she must tap in to the strength from being born as an outcast to protect a line she doesn't feel part of. As she becomes closer to the root doctor, the only person she trusts, some shocking family secrets are revealed. Who is Mercy and Maisie's father? Why did Ginny hate her? What sinister plot was Ginny up to? And who murdered her?

I have no idea what I was expecting but it wasn't this. It was amazing! I was intrigued from the first page, and happily settled down to immerse myself in the world that has been created, I do love the beginning and all of the stories told!

Right from the start The Line hooks you straight in, and the prose is so atmospheric you feel like you're there, you can picture exactly what everything looks like and what's going on. The world building was fantastic, the world created was so unique with the powers and the law of the Witche's powers as it where. I loved how the Hoodoo magic was included as well, and that our protagonist was an outcast.

Speaking of Mercy, the characters in the book where very well written, they had a lot of depth and a lot of hidden sides that where hidden so cleverly you never see half of the stuff coming. I loved Mercy so much, I connected with her straight away. I loved that she was an outcast, and she felt in the shadow of her sister, and didn't feel good enough sometimes. It was so real to how a lot of girls feel, she was so relate-able. Quite honestly I wanted to strangle certain family members for giving her such a miserable life, but Mercy doesn't let that make her a bitter person, she's so strong and truly a fantastic role model. Even the supporting characters where all full of depth and you learn more about them as you go along.

The introductions to each of the family members weren't mad a big deal of, and there wasn't pages of information about them, it was done in a laid back and casual way, with concise information that was added to as the book went on and seamlessly thrown in. Each family member was very different from the other, and each had different powers, there was no dump of information, you learn about them through interactions between the members. There was no overuse of Southern phrases and terms and the opportunity to go on and on about landmarks in the area was rejected, it could have been a travel brochure for it, especially at the beginning....but it wasn't. There was no useless information, no pages of descriptions about things unrelated to the story.

The story was a lot of different threads, and events all woven together to create a really complex, rich web of a plot. As I was reading I kept going "oh my God no way...NO" and being totally shocked. There's plenty of twists and turns in the plot, and as each twist/shocking secret is revealed about the past I never saw it coming. It was such an unpredictable book, I never knew what was going to happen or come out next. I loved how the puzzle pieces from the past where eked out slowly and not all given at once, it added a great quality to the book. I kind of suspected the thing with Mercy's  magic but no way to that extent, the ending was just explosive, and I feel I need the next book like right now, because seriously, I can't cope with the wait for the next one!

The Line is fast paced, full of twists and turns, magic, romance and betrayal. You'll never see any of it coming. You'll feel strangely protective of Mercy because you can relate to her entirely. And you will be sucked right in to a world so atmospherically described you can feel the heat and the sun on your face. Full of intrigue and shocking family secrets, and a little bit of Hoodoo, it's a wondrous addition to the genre!