I must say I was quite surprised with this book. I went into the book extremely wary as I’ve had a few bad experiences with books from the amazon lending library. I had low expectations, so therefore anything other than horrific failure would have impressed me. With that in mind, I really enjoyed “The Line.” I’m not sure if it was because I went into it expecting failure, or because it was a fun read, but either way, I liked it and am tempted to pick up the second book in the series.
The book starts off a bit rocky, introducing us to the soon-to-be 21 year old protagonist, Mercy Taylor, a tour guide that specializes in twisting the truth about local spots into something more colourful for bored tourists. At the start, she sounded and acted much younger than 21, as I originally thought she was still in her teens, given the way she behaved. Mercy is a twin and a dud at that. She comes from a large, prominent family of witches and is constantly reminded for the family position and her lack of magical abilities, while her sister is the most powerful witch the family had seen in a very long time.
As she has no powers of her own, she finds herself going to a local ‘hoodoo’ doctor when she needs a spell to make herself fall in love with her friend who has been deeply in love with her for forever it seems. This is when the book starts to get interesting. A spell is performed, a murder committed, a position usurped, and eventually an understanding reached. All of the family secrets that kept coming up and undone were interesting, and things I did not expect considering the slightly lulling beginning and something I thought may have been a product of poor writing, turned out to be perfectly executed.
There are a few moments that may turn readers off and make you very uncomfortable. Both are abuses of power against women that leave them very violated. I was left feeling unsettled with one of these situations and really, really hope younger readers understand that these actions were wrong and are not left confused by the mixed message being given by the author.
Overall, the book is free and an easy read, though it does present various problematic messages concerning love that may be difficult to ignore.
