Witchling (Sisters of the Moon, Book 1) by Yasmine Galenorn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Witchling / 0-425-21254-8
When I first read "Witchling", I was inclined to give it a mere 3-4 star rating, but now that I've re-read it again after reading the next two in the series, I can admit that I really love this series and I enjoyed "Witchling" far more now that I can see where the series is going.
A fun and fantastic series, the "Sisters of the Moon" books feature a sort of "Charmed"-esque world, with the three titular sisters combining good sense, strong magic, and family ties to defeat powerful demons and solve supernatural mysteries.
One of the things I like best about this series is the thought and care that Galenorn has put into building her world - the magical residents of "Otherworld" are out in the open, with no Masquerade to maintain, and much care has been put into fleshing out what such a world would look like, with new businesses popping up to cater to the OW residents and with human groupies and protesters taking to the streets. Creating a world without a Masquerade is tricky, and requires a lot of care and thought, but it allows the story to focus on the important elements of plot propulsion and character development, rather than having to devote huge chunks of time and space to cleaning up magical messes that really shouldn't be possible to hide in the first place.
More than anything else, the "Sisters of the Moon" series focuses on character development. The very few things I disliked about this novel - Camille's "Sex in the City" like obsession with clothes, lingerie, and other novelties she shouldn't be able to afford and wouldn't have the time and luxury to enjoy under the developing serious circumstances in the novel - melt into the background over the series as the sisters change and develop. Each of the sisters has her own personal demons and difficulties - in part due to their cross-breed heritage, but also in part to their own past difficulties that need to be overcome. As the world starts to fall apart around them over the course of the series, each sister starts to grow, evolve, and tackle her own personal demons. This isn't, in short, a series for reading out of order, because the sisters change slowly but noticeably over each novel.
"Witchling" is told from the point of view of Camille, the oldest sister, and it's interesting to see her from the perspective of her two younger sisters over the course of the next two books. She is deeply passionate and extremely sexually liberated, attracting a small harem of gorgeous, dangerous men over the course of the series. And yet, her first passion is always for her sisters and her family as she struggles to shelter the other two in her role as oldest sister and surrogate mother.
I highly recommend you check out this wonderful series. "Witchling" admittedly gets off to a gently rocky start, but if you enjoy this novel even a little, you will almost assuredly love the overall series, and this fantastically charming world will draw you in and refuse to let you go.
~ Ana Mardoll
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