YA Bound Book Tours: The Skinwalker's Apprentice by Claribel Ortega

The Skinwalker's Apprentice by Claribel Ortega

Release Date: 02/24/14
Amazon

Summary from Goodreads:

New York City 1984: It’s Emerald Kipp’s sixteenth birthday, and nothing has changed. She’s still the biggest loser in school, she’s still trying to find a place for herself and yeah, she’s still a witch. Her last year of high school is turning out to be the worst yet, and Emerald thinks it can’t possibly get any worse. Unfortunately for her, she’s dead wrong.

East Hampton, NY 1658: The Pennyfeathers are the black sheep of their small English settlement. As hard as they try to keep the family secrets just that, the magical bunch just can’t seem to fit in. But when a High Priestess witch chooses 16-year-old Margo Pennyfeather as an apprentice, Margo’s luck finally begins to change. What she doesn’t know, is there’s a lot more to her apprenticeship, and to being a witch, than she could ever imagine

Discover the mysterious beginnings of The Empire Witch Series in "The Skinwalker's Apprentice: An Emerald Kipp Novella."

Goodreads

Cute story about two teenage girls in two different eras who are just trying to survive being different. Emerald is a teenage girls in 1984 and she believes her aunt when she saw that they are probably the last two remaining witches. She has a hard time because she wishes she could use her magic more often but her aunt has put a cap on that. It's bad enough that surviving high school isn't easy, she is about the face something bigger.

Margo is a teenager in 1658 living in a town where her family also cannot reveal to be witches in fear of what the town people will do. She is selected as an apprentice and if she can get through the training, she could one day join The Coven and save her family from the poverty that has befallen them.

Interesting story. I liked the way the author did this, releasing the prequel to her up and coming series. According to this, Emerald will probably be the main character of the story but I won't lie. I liked reading Margo's chapter's better. I thought it was more exciting and dealt with a lot more magic. Her chapter's I believe are meant to give us a background history of the series, and I thought they where done well.

I like the magic and the adventure I found it very thrilling and I cannot wait to see what the author actually has in store for us later on. The only few qualms I had about this book is the fact that it read more like a MG novel then YA novel. Besides the magic described to be as colorful...Emerald for her age felt a bit immature to me in her actions. She is a girl who get's in trouble in school often and I think it says she is in her final year before college? So she stages the biggest prank of her life in school and doesn't realize before hand the consequences of her actions.

Also the music that was used in that age and fantasy novel was a bit odd to me. Not something I expected. Emerald is big on music, so it seems to be part of her story a lot.

Overall a decent start to a new series and I am curious to see where Emerald will mature from here.

About the Author

Claribel Ortega is a graduate of the SUNY Purchase journalism program, and got her start writing for the school’s Independent Newspaper. There, she quickly rose the ranks from editing the student’s often times hilarious ads and ramblings on the back page of the paper to staff and feature writer.

After graduation, Claribel worked as a reporter for The Rivertowns Enterprise, a local paper in lower Westchester County, New York. As a reporter, she enjoyed going to board of education meetings and texting the town mayors about the line at Starbucks.

Today, Claribel works for The Combined Book Exhibit, a book marketing company in Westchester NY.

She lives in New York with her really awesome boyfriend, her suspiciously intelligent yorkie Pancho Villa and is surrounded by an impenetrable fort of books she gets from her job.

“The Skinwalker’s Apprentice” is her first book, and cheese is her favorite food.

Author Links:

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