Cate Tiernan - Book of Shadows

The first book in the Wicca : Sweep series, published January 1, 2001.
Genre: YA urban fantasy
Cover: ok
Re-read: often, in Dutch



Something is happening to me that I don't understand.
I see things, feel things in a new way. I can do things normal people can't do. Powerful things. Magical things. It scares me.
I never chose to learn witchcraft. But I'm starting to wonder if witchcraft is choosing me.

This was perhaps the series that set me on the path to start reading in English. I started buying the first 6 books in Dutch and became too impatient to wait for the Dutch translation of the next book, so I just bought it in English. And re-reading it again, after many years, makes me realize the Dutch translations are very much geared towards teenagers with their use of the language, and absolutely irritates me, while I have no problems whatsoever with the English language books.

I read the whole 15 book series again in just a few weeks, and loved it. Will I ever read it again, I don’t know. It is really good.


Morgan is just a normal 16 year old highschool girl, with strict Catholic parents, a gorgeous younger sister, and some good friends. She is also somewhat of a math geek, and knows she is not pretty. She dresses very casually, and drives an old German car, called Das Boot. I could relate to her. She just lives a normal life.
And then that life is set upside down, when a gorgeous new boy starts going to their school. He is a year older, but as Morgan is in some advanced classes, she does share a few with him. He is intriguing, he seems so genuinely interested in people, and he talks to everyone, gets along with all the different cliques and groups. Bree is fed up with her current boyfriend and has her eyes set on Cal now, but Morgan sure likes him as well, Still, she knows she has no chance against her gorgeous best friend, if Bree wants a boy, he doesn't stand a chance.
But Cal seems interested in Morgan, so what is she to do?
And then he invites some people to join him in a celebration, to form a circle with him, to do something called Wicca. Isn't that evil? She is Catholic, what will her parents say? But something about it all calls to Morgan, something seems to awaken deep inside her. And she stays. But she is different from her friends, somehow, she can do things, things no one else can …


A great first book in the series that makes you want to read more, find out what will happen to Morgan and what she will learn. Lots of books don't give out any details on rituals, and the meanings of objects, the powers of herbs, and this series gives me that. I am very much interested in it, and still, just like reading recipes I will never bake, I will never try anything like this myself. But as much as I can dream about a perfect cake, I can dream about having real powers and do some good with it. It is a fascinating world out there, and who knows what is real and what is not. In this world created by Cate Tiernan, it certainly feels like it is real.

9 stars.

© 2015 Reviews by Aurian