Review: Born Wicked (The Cahill Witch Chronicles #1) by Jessica Spotswood

Title: Born Wicked
Author: Jessica Spotswood
My rating: ❤❤❤
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Romance, Historical
Release date: February 7th, 2012
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Summary: Everybody knows Cate Cahill and her sisters are eccentric. Too pretty, too reclusive, and far too educated for their own good. But the truth is even worse: they’re witches. And if their secret is discovered by the priests of the Brotherhood, it would mean an asylum, a prison ship—or an early grave.

Before her mother died, Cate promised to protect her sisters. But with only six months left to choose between marriage and the Sisterhood, she might not be able to keep her word... especially after she finds her mother’s diary, uncovering a secret that could spell her family’s destruction. Desperate to find alternatives to their fate, Cate starts scouring banned books and questioning rebellious new friends, all while juggling tea parties, shocking marriage proposals, and a forbidden romance with the completely unsuitable Finn Belastra.

If what her mother wrote is true, the Cahill girls aren’t safe. Not from the Brotherhood, the Sisterhood—not even from each other.

My thoughts: Born Wicked takes place sometime in the end of the eighteenth century, and is about Cate Cahill, who is a witch. Her mother was a witch, too, as are her younger sisters, Maura and Tess. When her mother died, she asked Cate to protect her sisters, which isn’t a very easy task, since they want to use magic, and aren’t even close to as careful as Cate. They have to hide that they are witches, since the Brotherhood would send them away if they found out about them. They also have to hide it from their servants and their father, who is barely ever home since their mother died.

   Cate is sixteen, and soon, she has to declare her intention, whether she will marry (and if so, who), or if she will join the sisterhood, but if she joins the Sisterhood, in New London, she has to leave her sisters, and if she marry Paul, her childhood friend who just came back to Chatham from New London, she might have to leave them anyway, if Paul decides to go back to New London.

   Cate is very protective of her sisters, and constantly worries about them, and about the future. In the process of protecting Maura and Tess, she’s started to avoid being around people, in the fear that they will notice something is up with them and report them to the Brotherhood. Every time she has to make a big decision about something, she bases it on what would be best for her sisters, instead of what she wants or needs. She’s very selfless.

   I guess I like Cate, most of the time. There was nothing really wrong with her, and I liked that she cared so much about her sisters, but sometimes, it felt like she was a little slow in understanding. She fights all the time with Maura, and I understand why, but it feels like some of the arguments could be avoided if she tried to be there for them, more than just to protect them from the Brotherhood.  Some of the fights just felt pointless, and didn’t add anything too important to the plot (some of the fights were important, but some wasn’t).

   I hated Maura. Seriously. She’s awful. Although Cate was nowhere close to perfect, she did her best to protect Maura and Tess, and Maura is so ungrateful. Instead of being grateful, she picks unnecessary fights and does everything to make life hard for Cate. There really aren’t words for how much I hate Maura. It feels like she only can feel anger or sadness, not happiness or love or any positive emotion, at least not until the end. And she just keeps getting worse.

   The librarian at my school recommended it for me, and she is usually very good at giving me new, great books to read, so I had pretty high expectations of it, but was disappointed. Many of the characters were annoying and boring.

   The plot was okay. It wasn’t great, but okay. It was pretty boring at times, so I just didn’t feel like reading it because nothing happened. It was only until later on in the book when things started getting exciting. The writing was good, but I was distracted from it by the boring plot.

   I’ll read the rest of the series, because I want to know what will happen to Cate, and I would recommend it, and you should give it a chance, but maybe prioritize other books on your TBR, if you have any that seems more exciting.