Once A Witch by Carolyn MacCullough

3.5 stars

While this book was unique in sorts, it was also a bit cliched.

Meet protagonist Tamsin, a young witch from a long generation of witches. Promised to be a great witch at birth, and then to everyone's disappointment, wasn't.

Tamsin does not feel like she fits in with her family, she is under minded by other family members, and so when she is mistaken for her sister and gets approached by a stranger asking for her help locating a missing item, a part of her cannot resist. Tamsin gets herself tied into a a huge mess as she struggles with being an average human being, and yet coming from un-average origins.

I found the idea of each witch and wizard having unique powers such as freezing people, reading minds, siren like abilities, throwing fire ect. to be a fun and unique idea for a plot based on witchcraft. I also liked the twist of the rivalry between the two magic families for the antagonist.

What I found to be a little teenage angsty was the fact that she pined instantly for her love interest, and thus began silly girly spouting here and there. Otherwise I didn't mind their romance all that much just slightly cliched.

But then there was the sister rivalry...
This was the absolute worst aspect of the book. Tamsin went on and on about how perfect her sister Rowena was, and how the world revolved around her older sister who acts like a spoiled primadonna. (Which honestly didn't help her case.)

Rowena was just an absolute snot for no reason whatsoever, except maybe jealously, to make matters worse. You would think training to be the next head of family would install some maturity and nurturing in her especially regarding her sister. Not to mention everything Rowena did was perfect and was noted in the book i.e. Rowena's hair always being a perfect chignon, or white would usually look bad on people with pale skin tones but on Rowena it only made her glow and did I mention she looked absolutely majestic?
Long story short, it got old.

The ending was very intense, and left a great opening for the sequel, Always A Witch. I felt it was a good ending since it wasn't happiness and rainbows for everybody, but rather a big life changing decision which felt realistic.