Of Witches and Warlocks Review

I initially picked up Of Witches and Warlocks for two reasons. Firstly, I enjoy stories about witches and secondly, I kept hearing about the “Vance Mangum Fanclub” and quite frankly, I like a hot guy as much as the next girl so I wanted to know what made this guy so appealing. Vance is of course one of the main characters from the book alongside Portia, a young witch in the making. Here’s the synopsis:

“Portia Mullins had always lived the life of a normal teenager, up until her sixteenth birthday. She is then informed by her grandma that she is actually a witch who is a descendant of a long line of witches and warlocks. After overcoming her disbelief she finds that being a member of the coven comes with one great perk in the form of the school's handsome bad boy, Vance Mangum. Vance and Portia have an immediate connection as a budding romance begins, only to be threatened by turbulent skies on the horizon as Vance's checkered past rears its ugly head to haunt them. Portia is forced to use her untried powers in defense of everything she loves in a desperate attempt to hold on to the one thing that really matters in her life.”

I know a lot of my friends and fellow book bloggers have fallen head over heels for Vance and I am no exception. Vance is the archetypical bad boy with a dark past who also cuts a lonely figure. Whilst he can be a little overbearing at times when it comes to Portia, it’s all so incredibly romantic and I LOVE the telepathy between them. My favourite moment between Vance and Portia was when Vance confessed that he knew about her two year crush all along. That was cute.

As an aside, I had a lot of trouble saying “Vance Mangum” and often ended up saying “Vance MAGNUM” which rolls off the tongue easier and is how he shall be known to me from now on LOL.

With regards to the story, I really like the fact that Portia is a young witch, just discovering her powers. I quite like the fact that she is more powerful than expected and I’m guessing this is setting up some sort of storyline as to either WHY she is powerful or when her amazing powers are needed. Having said all that though, I did have a few issues with the book. Some of the issues were minor like spelling and grammar errors and unnecessary repetition but I was reading an earlier copy of the book and I believe that this has now been rectified in later versions.

My main issue was actually with Portia. The relationship between Vance and Portia is certainly intense and all consuming, even perhaps overbearing at times but I overlooked that because of the magic involved. What I can’t get my head around is that I felt like Portia had no sense of self. We know almost NOTHING about her. I have no idea where her interests lie, even what her hopes and dreams are outside of loving Vance. Besides these new powers and knowledge of witchcraft, he has consumed her and whilst you could argue that’s a realistic perspective for a teenager, it’s not exactly normal. There has to come a point when you need some separation, surely. Again you could argue that this is no normal relationship and magic is involved but I cannot believe she doesn’t have at least ONE freak out moment along the way. Portia is EXTREMELY accepting of EVERYTHING after being lied to for her entire life and I just find it difficult that she hasn’t lost it yet. I’m hoping that it’s simply a case that the freak outs are to come in future books and I look forward to seeing the fallout.

Overall, Of Witches and Warlocks is a book to get lost in. I enjoyed the story, especially the romance and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in book two.

Of Witches and Warlocks is part of a series and was first published in November, 2009 with the newer versions being published in 2011. The sequel entitled The Demon’s Kiss was published in April, 2010. To find out more about Lacey Weatherford, click here. She is also active on Twitter.