Consumer Critique: Housewitch

Disclosure: I received complimentary products to facilitate this post. All opinions are my own.

HOUSEWITCH, by former journalist and debut author Katie Schickel, is a fun book to read. It incorporates a commentary on parenting and family, women's relationships with their peers and spouse, elements of fantasy, and the career mom debate. 

Allison Darling desperately wants to fit in with the latte drinking, hundred-dollar-yoga-pants wearing moms that run her charming seaside town, Monrovia. Constantly feeling like an outsider, Allison dreams of more for her children.

When Allison’s estranged mother passes away, her previously dormant special talents emerge. Soon she is reunited with the family that abandoned her and learns of their heartbreaking legacy.

At the same time, the Glamour Girls, a soap-selling company run by the most popular women in Monrovia, recruits Allison to join them. They have a monopoly on everything in town, from bake sales to businesses deals. But once you’re a Glamour Girl, there’s no going back. 

Suddenly caught between the rag-tag, hippie relatives she once so desperately wanted and the rich, charismatic Glamour Girls—Allison is unsure where she fits in. Could she come to trust the strange outcast family that abandoned her, or really hang with the most powerful, glamorous women in town?

For Allison, it’s like high school all over again, except this time, the mean girls have more than killer manicures and the nobodies aren’t sulking in the band hall. They’re adults. They’ve got husbands, children, and livelihoods on the line. And they also happen to be witches.

Allison’s decision to lend her powerful magical talents to either group will change Monrovia—and Allison—forever. 

 

I really enjoyed this book. It was fun to read. It's not really a "fantasy" novel that has witches and dragons and fairies; it's more of a real-life novel with sprinklings of the fantasy world thrown in. The power struggles and relationships are convincing, and there are elements of humor in the novel that keep it light.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

KATIE SCHICKEL graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in English. A former newspaper reporter, Schickel's writing career and passion for scuba diving has taken her to Pensacola and Key West, FL, as well as throughout the Caribbean, Central America and the Pacific. She has been a freelancer for several scuba magazines, including Scuba Times Magazine and Outside Magazine. Schickel lives in Massachusetts where she spends her time writing and with family. When she’s not doing that, Schickel also surfs the chilly waters of New England, even in the winter. HOUSEWITCH is her first novel.

ABOUT FORGE BOOKS

Forge Books, an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, is a New York-based publisher of hardcover and softcover books, founded in 1993 and committed (although not limited) to thrillers, mysteries, historical fiction and general fiction. Forge includes books by bestselling and critically acclaimed authors such as Douglas Preston, Eric Lustbader, W. Bruce Cameron and Ralph Peters. Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, is also the home of award-winning Tor Books, which annually publishes what is arguably the largest and most diverse line of science fiction and fantasy ever produced by a single English-language publisher.