Book Review #15

Book: Old Magic by Marianne Curley
Age-range: 14 and up
Rating: 3 out of 10

As a writer I have a natural editor I use when I'm re-reading something I've written.  It helps me catch the mistakes that I'm prone to make.  That, in a nutshell, is why this book was a little difficult for me to get through.  It's Ms. Curley's first novel and it makes a lot of the same rookie mistakes I make.  So the writing is a little sloppy and could do with a good going-over by a talented editor, but since it was published in 2001 it's a little late for that.

The story is unique and interesting, even though it takes a bit to get to the thick of it.  There's too much hemming and hawing by the male protagonist and it's irritating.  I'm also a sucker for a good romance and this was not a good romance.  The elements were all there, the execution was sloppy.

I would say this book is interesting, but there are too many good books out there to waste time on the mediocre.  And this is one of the mediocre.  Still, if Ms. Curley has written anything else I would be interested in reading it.  Most authors, like most cheeses, improve with time.