Review - A Magic Dark and Bright by Jenny Adams Perinovic

Title: A Magic Dark and Bright (The Asylum Saga, #1)

Author: Jenny Adams Perinovic

Pages: 321

Publisher: Bookish Group Press

Releaes date: 28th April 2015

Blurb from Goodreads:

She meant to help a ghost...not unleash a curse.

Amelia Dupree hasn’t seen the Woman in White since the night her brother died. 

The ghost seems to have disappeared from the woods surrounding Asylum, Pennsylvania—that is, until Charlie Blue moves into the creepy old MacAllister House next door. Amelia can’t help liking him, even though she spent her childhood thinking his grandmother was a witch. And she definitely can’t ignore the connection between his arrival and the Woman in White’s return. 

Then Amelia learns that the Woman in White is a prisoner, trapped between the worlds of the living and the dead. Devastated by the idea that her brother could be suffering a similar fate, Amelia decides to do whatever it takes to help the Woman in White find peace--and Charlie agrees to help her.

But when Amelia’s classmates start to drown in the Susquehanna River, one right after another, rumors swirl as people begin to connect the timing of Charlie’s arrival with the unexplained deaths. As Charlie and Amelia uncover the dark history of Asylum, they realize they may have unleashed an unspeakable evil. One they have to stop before everything they love is destroyed.

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My Review:

*I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to Patchwork Press - Cooperative and NetGalley*

3/5 stars

Amelia Dupree hasn't been the same since Mark, her brother, died.

That night was the last time Amelia saw The Woman in White, a ghost that haunts the woods near her house.

When Charlie moves into his grandmother, Amelia's neighbour's house, she takes an immediate liking to him.

Then the Woman in White returns and girls start turning up dead in the local river.

Why does the Woman in White keep asking Amelia to help her?

Which of the young women in Asylum will turn up dead next?

Are the rumours that MacAllister's are cursed and witches true?

A Magic Dark and Bright was not what I was expecting and I have mixed feelings about it.

Good points:

I liked the historical side and thought Amelia was a likeable protagonist (most of the time).

I didn't guess the baddie's motif.

Bad points:

I didn't like Amelia's mother - she told Amelia to talk to her and basically not to keep secrets but she was keeping a big secret from Amelia.

No one seemed that worried when the first few bodies started turning up.

Amelia didn't ask some pretty obvious questions like why did her brother have the ring? Was his death somehow linked to the Woman in White?

Amelia and Charlie didn't seem that wowed when they realised that magic is real.

We never found out exactly what happened the night Mark died. Sure he was in a car accident with Amelia and we know that Mark had been drinking but how did they crash? And what was Amelia's scar from?

Overall this was a unique read but I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would.