Review: Strange Magic

Strange Magic
Rating: 3/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Rosie Strange doesn't believe in ghosts or witches or magic. No, not at all. It’s no surprise therefore when she inherits the ramshackle Essex Witch Museum, her first thought is to take the money and run.

Still, the museum exerts a curious pull over Rosie. There’s the eccentric academic who bustles in to demand she help in a hunt for old bones, those of the notorious Ursula Cadence, a witch long since put to death. And there’s curator Sam Stone, a man about whom Rosie can’t decide if he’s tiresomely annoying or extremely captivating. It all adds up to looking like her plans to sell the museum might need to be delayed, just for a while.

Finding herself and Sam embroiled in a most peculiar centuries-old mystery, Rosie is quickly expelled from her comfort zone, where to her horror, the secrets of the past come with their own real, and all too present, danger as a strange magic threatens to envelope them all.

I'm not going to lie...I was mostly interested in this because of the cover and the whole witches thing. I'm from Surrey, which is one of the places that did have witch hunts (something I really would love to learn more about but can't find anything) and oddly enough..it was the Essex witch hunts we learned about in school. Either way, it's something I've always wanted to know more about.  

The main thing that I loved about this book was all of the history woven in to this, I learned so much from reading this book and fact was woven very cleverly with fiction. The authors take on events and filling in the blanks fit rather well and I didn't seem at all out of the realms of possibility. I just really enjoyed the historical elements to the book and all the little tidbits both witch related and otherwise. Although, I had no idea witches and criminals couldn't be buried in actual graveyards, and I now have visions of unearthing some poor soul when we have to dig up the ground for something we're doing to the house....it genuinely never occurred to me. Shame on me. 

I loved Rosie, although I was a bit iffy towards her at the beginning, I ended up liking her more and more, and I loved her relationship with Sam and how it developed over the course of the book. They made quite the team! It had a great pace, it was atmospheric and mildly creepy at points and it kept me intrigued and interested throughout, as well as fully entertained at some of the humour! It's actually quite a witty read! The end of the book seemingly sets up the next book which has me incredibly intrigued, as much as ghosts freak me out. I'm not a sceptic like Rosie unfortunately, I wish I was and reassure myself the paranormal doesn't exist but I've watched one too many ghost hunting shows to be fully comfortable! Seriously, I didn't sleep properly for a week after seeing Paranormal Activity. Anywaaaaaay, I'm intrigued to see where this series is going to go, it was a lot of fun! 
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