Review: Smoke on The Water

Sisters of The Craft: Smoke on The Water | Lori Handeland

Published by: St. Martin's Paperbacks, August 4th 2015

Genre: Adult, Urban Fantasy, Magic, Witches

Pages: 352

Format: Ebook

Source: St. Martin's, via Netgalley

Abandoned beneath a black willow tree on the banks of a northern Wisconsin creek, Willow Black spent her entire childhood in foster care. Her entire life she's had terrifying visions, and it is these visions that eventually land her in a psychiatric facility. And so Willow takes her meds and believes she is getting better. Until she meets a fellow patient who doesn't think she is crazy at all. She thinks Willow is a witch. 

Willow's psychiatrist, Dr. Sebastian Crane, works hard to resist his feeling that he and Willow are destined to be together while also working to convince her that strange occurrences aren't the result of witchcraft… until he is thrown into the middle of a storm of supernatural events that can't be explained any other way…

Okay, off the bat, these books are really great for the witchy stuff. It's good old fashioned elemental witchcraft and I really enjoy it. The historical bits stretch believe-ability but it's easy to move past.

NOW, here's what really frustrated me with this book and the finale of the series, in Goodreads updates:

Saruuh Kelsey is 59% done

Oh my god why is everyone engaged? That is NOT the natural state of a few-months-old relationship o.O For two sisters to be engaged to their LIs??? Come ON. Does that mean Sister #3 will be engaged by the end of this book????

Saruuh Kelsey is 80% done

Heeyyyyyyy just throwing this wild idea out there but what if we had someone who saw the future AND was mentally ill, and finding out she's a seer didn't Suddenly Miraculously Cure her of her illness????? How Super Neat would that be??????? I'm fed up with this seer-in-psych-ward trope. Kill it.

Saruuh Kelsey is 96% done

Ugghhhhhhhh why is every woman's happy ending pregnancy/marriage????

Saruuh Kelsey is 98% done

Oh my GOD, of course the third sister is getting married too. How else could this love story play out....???

I've pretty much said everything I want to about the mental illness trope in my passive aggression. I hate it with a fiery passion. But the sister's stories ending in engagement, marriage, and pregnancy has got my blood boiling. The pregnancy was used as a plot device so I can sort of forgive that. But why does every sister, after knowing their love interests for bare months (sure, Becca knew Owen long before but she hadn't known him FOR TEN YEARS) get engaged???? I know this is romance, but relationships do not work that way. That's how divorce happens. 

And by having every woman's story end in engagement, and having the series end in marriage, it suggests that this is the highest thing a woman can aspire to being. A wife. A mother. And both of those things are really great, and important to women, but I would have enjoyed these endings much, much more if only one of them got engaged. I mean, what are the chances three sisters would get engaged within the same period?? Sure it's fate and magic or whatever, but it's unrealistic and frustrating. And it says that Every Woman's Story should end this way. I'd have been so happy to see the sisters continuing their magic education, for that to be their promise of the future, or for Willow to be recovering from being institutionalised, instead of marriage and motherhood for EVERY SINGLE SISTER.

Okay, rant over.

These books are good urban fantasy. I'm just mad about the message the end sends. Although, I did actually enjoy this book the least. It was a little slow and drawn out until halfway. But hey, a satisfying culmination of the witchcraft and Venatores Mali.

Characters ★★★☆

Setting/world ★★★☆☆

Writing ★★★☆☆

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