Review: Once A Witch by Carolyn MacCullough

Tamsin Greene comes from a long line of witches, and she was supposed to be one of the most Talented among them. But Tamsin's magic never showed up. Now seventeen, Tamsin attends boarding school in Manhattan, far from her family. But when a handsome young professor mistakes her for her very Talented sister, Tamsin agrees to find a lost family heirloom for him. The search—and the stranger—will prove to be more sinister than they first appeared, ultimately sending Tamsin on a treasure hunt through time that will unlock the secret of her true identity, unearth the sins of her family, and unleash a power so vengeful that it could destroy them all. This is a spellbinding display of storytelling that will exhilarate, enthrall, and thoroughly enchant.

  Tamsin is an outcast in a long line of witches.  Not that her family casts her out but she pulls away from them in order to try and forget.  Forget that she isn't like everyone else in her family and never will be.  At birth she was for told to be the family`s beacon and she never could get over the fact that she just couldn't be what was expected of her.  Moving away and going to a boarding school was her solution to the problem but as we all know you can never really run away from fate.

  Each member of the family has what is referred to as a talent.  The talent is different and special to the family and the people in it.  So I can only imagine how bad it sucked when Tamsin found out at the age of 8 that she was the first talentless witch in the family for as long as anyone could remember.  The family also seems to kind of push her away because of this, which in my eyes is kind of harsh.  I guess it may have been more her than them but I just felt the circumstances that caused all the turmoil in the family were avoidable.

   I frequently found that Tamsin was kind of whiny.  Every time I thought that maybe she was pulling away from the trend, she would complain about something again.  She did however have some very strong moments on which she did step up a bit but I always felt that it was going to come back around to how her sister was better or that she was just a regular person. 

  I really wanted to love this book.  I wanted to be able to write you all a beautiful and sparkling review but I just felt this book fell short on some things.  Don`t get me wrong there was some super good things about the book and I enjoyed the read.  However the things that bothered me bothered me throughout the entire book.  It was well written, with a good pace and it's own little twist.  I will pick up book two if I see it but it's not at the top of my list.