Witches of Dubious Origin

By Jenn McKinlay            

ISBN: 9780593819753

Website: jennmckinlay.com

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Andra                   

Summary:

Zoe Ziakas enjoys a quiet life, working as a librarian in her quaint New England town. When a mysterious black book with an unbreakable latch is delivered to the library, Zoe has a strange feeling the tome is somehow calling to her. She decides to consult the Museum of Literature, home to volumes of indecipherable secrets, some possessing magic that must be guarded. The collection is known as the of Books of Dubious Origin.

Here, Zoe discovers that she is the last descendant of a family of witches and this little black book is their grimoire. Zoe knows she must decode the family’s spell book and solve the mystery of what happened to her mother and her grandmother. However, the book’s potential power draws all things magical to it, and Zoe finds herself under the constant watch of a pesky raven, while being chased by undead Vikings, ghost pirates, and assorted ghouls.

With assistance from the eccentric staff of the Books of Dubious Origin—including their annoyingly smart and handsome containment specialist, Jasper Griffin—Zoe must confront her past and the legacy of her family. But as their adventure unfolds, she’ll have to decide if she’s ready to embrace her destiny. (Goodreads)

Review:

Witches of Dubious Origin is written by Jenn McKinlay, a favourite author of mine. I must say that for some reason, I did not connect fully with the character and storyline. It might have been that it took me the better than half of the book to get to some interesting parts of the story (at least for me).

Zoe Ziakas is a descendant of witches, but promised her mother a long time ago that she would not practice magic. Unfortunately, the family grimoire is attaching itself to Zoe. So in order to figure out how to deal with this book, Zoe goes to the Books of Dubious Origin department in the Museum of Literature library for assistance. This leads to all kinds of adventures… Vikings attacking Zoe, a bit of a love interest vibe with Jasper Griff (containment specialist at the library), and learning about her grandmother and mother’s witchy lives and deaths…

I felt the writing of Ms. McKinlay in this book not up to her usual standard as far as storytelling went, which is what led me to the rating of a “3”. Luckily, there was enough of a story (finally) that it did warrant a middle-of-the-road assessment.

While I finally became engaged to some extent – the amount of reading that needed to be done to become engaged was WAY too long in my opinion.

I do like the cover art – great depiction of the Books of Dubious Origin library. What is not to like about a place which houses a lot of books!

If you are into the paranormal and witches, as well as the writings of Jenn McKinlay – you may well like this book. Give it a try. Me – I will probably just stick with the author’s other books (FYI – I LOVED her Summer Reading series and quite enjoyed her cozy mystery series – Library Lover’s Mysteries).