How bad is it that talking about the girl on the cover, who is holding a bottle of perfume while sniffing her armpit is more fun, and more interesting than actually reading this book? After putting up with 25% of this book I still feel like I'm looking at a brick wall so I'm throwing in the towel as well.



Come on Jared, throw it in for me, will ya?

I'm going to tell you a short story to express what I want to say about this book. Trust me, I'm going somewhere with this.

Imagine yourself on an avera More...

The Iron Witch, first book in Mahoney's new Iron Witch series tells the tale and Donna, a young female witch, and her adventures - if you could really call them that.

You don't need to read this book. I can copy and paste an abbrieviated version right here.

Donna: "Oh dear, my life is miserable. I'm different and unique from the people around me because I'm a witch but it's brought me nothing but pain."
Xan: "No! MY life is miserable. I'M different and unique from the people around me because I'm * More...

The Iron Witch is the epitome of a clichéd YA paranormal. There is nothing - absolutely nothing - unique and special about it. This story has been done a billion times before. And it includes everything that has made me weary when it comes to the genre: The heroine, Donna, has lost her parents due to a horrific incident in her past and has been labelled a freak ever since. She is an outsider, bullied at school by the mean popular cheerleader and her clique. She has only one close friend, whom sh More...

Those two stars may as well be accompanied with a long, drawn-out sigh.

Don't you hate it when you look forward to a book so friggin' much. . .and then, once you have it in front of you and start reading, it just doesn't live up to anything you had expected?

That, dear Goodreaders, is what happened to me when I began The Iron Witch.

The story has all the hooks in the right places. Faeries and elves! Alchemy! Conspiracies! Angst! But you know what? It doesn't live up to its potential at all. With Th More...

DRUM ROLLS...

And the award for Most Unoriginal Book of 2011 goes to...

THE IRON WITCH








Seriously, was there anything new in this book? I don’t think so. We’ve got the half-orphaned, bullied, outcast heroine with magical powers, we’ve got the best friend who seems to be secretly crushing on her and we’ve got the dark, mysterious and insanely hot boy who seems to have some kind of magical powers of his own and to whom our heroine feels an instant and soul-deep connection to. *yawn* Basically, it’s th More...

Hmm, what to say, what to say...
I guess I should start off by saying that I did actually like this one.
It has a great blend of magic, alchemical and paranormal. I enjoyed the characters, the writing was well done and the plot was thick with entertainment and intrigue.

However, there wasn't anything hugely unique in The Iron Witch and I felt like I've read all these elements before.
Donna's role is the 'freak'. She wears gloves to conceal her mysterious hands and has a power that's more like a curs More...

So disappointing.

Those are the only words I can think of to describe this book. I'm not much of a fairy person, nor vampire or werewolf. I like my fantasy to include a realistic feeling to it. Alchemy has always been the closest to "real" I could imagine. I mean, in reality, it was the base of chemistry--before "Science" became reality. So, I was looking forward to a book that had a real alchemy base. Not a side factor. Not a alchemy is magic factor.

But there was none of that. At all. Faeries. More...

I feel really torn about what rating to give The Iron Witch. If there were half-stars on Goodreads I think that I would give it three and a half. I don't know. But I did enjoy this book, and I'm looking forward to the sequels. I really liked Navin -- he was a believable and sympathetic character -- but, I don't know, I think the romance between Xan and Donna could have been better written. I feel uncomfortable saying this because I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but first of all I didn't More...

“Memories are stupid things. Why is it that I can only remember the useless stuff?” Truer words have never been spoken because right now I am remembering rather stupid stuff, but not only that I’m nitpicking over them too!

The book wasn’t terrible, in fact it was rather good at certain moments, most of which involved boy-girl interaction, get your minds out of the gutter! I was referring to Donna and Nav talking the way best friends do and to Donna and Xan, flirting away.

That said, I found the More...

I was so anxious to read this book. The premise sounded intriguing, and I thought the cover was pretty cool (not that the cover honestly says anything about the story behind it or that I read a book based solely on the cover, although *cough cough* I kind of do :P). Then I read a couple reviews that said the book wasn’t so great, and my excitement deflated a little, but I still wanted to read it and find out what I thought about it. And, if truth be told, I was kind of disappointed.

The Iron Witc More...

Derivative and lackluster. That’s the best I can sum up this book as.

Okay, so the romance is another one of those gag me, “Dude, you are sooooo hot!” “You too, babe.” “You wanna bone?” “RAVISH ME NOW!” Donna is all obsessed with the bloody bastard and is all in lurve as soon as she meets him. Bleh. I’m tired of this stuff.

Donna is some super special girl with these uber awesome tattoos on her arms which is supposed to hideous as heck, but if I had tattoos like that in high school I’d be the badd More...

This book was painfully dull, I regret to say. I pride myself on my ability to stick it out to the bitter end, but with so many other books commanding my attention, I had to leave The Iron Witch unfinished.

I will say this though - If you base a part of a character's personal struggle on a physical imprefection, let that imperfection be a tangible thing. I wasn't sold on the heroines aversion to her tattoo/scars. Let your characters be physically flawed in a way that really is cripping or confro More...

Review can be found at Madhouse Reads

Karen Mahoney's "The Iron Witch" evokes conflicted sentiments within me. I probably should not have liked this book as much as I did given the familiar elements and progression, but somehow it had its moments of bringing me into the overarching story. I didn't go into this novel with high expectations, and part of the reason I decided to pick it up were because I was approved for an ARC of the third and final book of this respective trilogy. It seemed interesting, so I jumped at the chance.

Donna More...

This book was just ok for me. I liked how it began and was excited to see a book that mixed witches/alchemists with more paranormal fantasy characters like the fae. But the world didn't come together for me. There wasn't anything about the world or the characters that I adored or couldn't live without. There were some plot holes (Maker?) and the book felt a bit jumbled. I also would have liked more connection with Donna, more time in the world Mahoney created, and more climax build up.

One thing More...

How would I describe this story in one word? Underdeveloped. It had so much potential that went unrealized. I was rather intrigued by the premise (a girl whose arms have been adorned in iron tattoos as a result of powerful alchemy that saved her life. I mean, sounds kick-ass, right?), but overall the reading experience left me with a very underwhelmed feeling. Although it was well-written, it lacked a degree of freshness and new ideas that made it hard to engage in the story. I had a hard time i More...

This review is also posted on my blog, In The Good Books.

I had The Iron Witch on my to-read list ever since the (gorgeous) cover was unveiled months ago. The blurb made me think the book would have a twisty, complicated, clever plot, though I found after reading that it didn't have that. A complication was introduced - Navin's kidnapping - and it had a fairly straight-forward solution.

Overall, though, I did enjoy this book. Even though the plot wasn't as complicated as I thought it would be, it More...

Review orginally posted at http://bookstobrightenyourmood.blogsp...

2.5 stars
The Iron Witch,left me with somehow mixed emotions.Although i wasn't really amazed by it,i can't say i didn't like it at all either.There were times i was really excited with it and eager to know how things evolved and times were i was a bit bored.I just couldn't get into this book,no matter how much i wanted it.

I was more than excited when i picked up this book.It was among those books that i wanted to read as soon as i More...

Originally posted at: http://alexandrashostak.blogspot.com/...

THE IRON WITCH is a YA urban fantasy novel centering around Donna Underwood, a high school student branded a freak by her classmates because of extraordinary strength due to the iron and silver tattoos covering her hands and forearms. The tattoos are alchemical--the result of an attack by malicious fae creatures and the magic used to save her.

The story is fast paced like the best action movie (I love action movies.) Only a few pages g More...

Mini Review
I love the cover of this book and the synopsis is what really made me want to get my hands on it. With high praise from and a comparison to some of my favorite authors, I had a feeling I would enjoy THE IRON WITCH immensely. This book immediately pulled me into the life of Donna as she tried to remain in the background while keeping her secrets. A secret that she’s kept from her best friend Navin until an attack blows the lid off of her hidden world.

I really liked how Donna met Xan. I More...

Ok peoples, so I'm usually all gung ho about telling you allllll about the latest and greatest book I just read.
But not this time

Oh no. No no no, indeed No! This time, I'm going to share with you the most exquisiteness pain I felt reading what I'm pretty sure was one of the worst books I've read in the past year...Put nicely, it just didn't do it for me.

Now I do want to say that I find it rather intimidating/difficult to actually put out a bad review on a book, just because it's pretty amazing t More...

Really enjoyed the characters! Great world building! Had a fantastic storyline.

Negatives:

The synopsis gave away more than I feel it should have. If it would have left out some and been a little less detailed could have made for a wonderful plot twist.

Positives:
Wonderful romance. I enjoy romance so all the romance was good for me. Some might be put off because a good part of this book revolves around her liking and getting to know a boy, but at the same time you get to know a lot more about Donn More...

I'm really sorry to say this, but the Iron Witch is a bit of a dud. Karen Mahoney has a lot of potential so I'm really hoping that the next book is better. I could see flashes of it throughout and kept hoping that the book would live up to those flashes. Not so lucky.
The plot centers around Donna, a remake of the old legends of the armless girl. She was attacked and her parents were killed/incapacitated by an wood elves when she was a child. Now she's been taken in by her aunt and an alchemists More...

Thoughts/ Review:

When I first picked up this book back in, well hell I can’t remember when [sometime this year] I was a little put off by the sheer amount of people who were disappointed with it. Still as stubborn as I am when it comes to reading, I managed to shrug it off and was determined to get into this book. I mean I paid 3.50 for it and God damn it I was going to get my money’s worth and that I did. It took me such a long time to get through this book and at so many times I wanted to get More...

I'm a cover junkie, as most of my GR peeps know, but wow, this cover is just stunning! Unfortunately what is after the cover is not so stunning.
For starters this story is all over the place and dull at the same time. I hate to write bad reviews because I think writing is like art and I hate to put down artists, but in this case I have to preach the truth, so here it goes.

The characters are mildly likeable but there is a weird lapse in there interaction with one another. The dialog made it impos More...

L'ordine occulto degli alchimisti è il primo volume di una serie urban fantasy per adolescenti, romanzo d'esordio dell'autrice inglese Karen Mahoney, che aveva attirato la mia attenzione per l'originalità dell'argomento trattato: alchimia e magia. Spinta dalla curiosità per qualcosa di diverso dal solito panorama urban fantasy popolato unicamente da vampiri, licantropi e angeli, avevo acquistato questo romanzo in cerca di qualcosa che, purtroppo, al suo interno non ho trovato.


Protagonista del ro More...

Title: The Iron Witch

Author:Karen Mahoney

Rating:.5 out of five stars

Genres: Modern/Contemporary, Fiction, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy

Quick Summary:

Donna Underwood is an average girl disguised as a YA kick-ass heroine. She has been brought up in a society of alchemists. When her best friend is kidnapped by the same entities who killed her father, she has to rely on the help of the mysterious boy she recently met in order to save him, even if it means destroying centuries of hard work and research of h More...

Originally posted on http://www.yareads.com

Donna Underwood wears long, velvet gloves everyday to hide what her classmates think are skin graphs. But really, Donna is hiding the swirling silver tattoos that reach from her fingertips almost to her elbows. These tattoos saved her life when she was attacked as a child, but her mother and father weren’t so lucky. No seventeen, Donna has trust issues and she feels like she can’t even confide in her best and only friend, Navin. That is, until she meets More...

The idea behind this story was different and fresh, and yes I am aware that I am starting to repeat myself, but perhaps that is due to the fact that the most recent books have been very few and far from being similar to one another. I suppose in many ways the book actually made me sit back and think about the xmen, because aren't there people in that who have unique powers and body parts made of different materials? The cover of the book has always captivated me as the marks on her arm are beaut More...