WARNING: Spoilers!

Alrighty kiddos, Morgan is back at it again with the confusing feelings a dumb life choices. So Vol. 2 seems to be more like two distinct novels instead of the one novel like Vol. 1. Although really Dark Magick seems more like the conclusion to Vol. 1 then the beginning of Vol.2, formatting wise I would have put it in Vol. 1. Dark Magick wraps up Cal and Morgan’s relationship, while Awakening starts the beginnings of a friendship with Hunter and Sky and the mending of Bree and Morgan’s relationship. I found myself telling Morgan shes dumb a lot during these three novels, cause she refuses to live in the reality of the story. Like other characters present her with solid evidence and she is just like that’s not true. She makes horrible life choices and I’m frustrated with her immensely.

A good place to start is Dark Magick. It picks up in the aftermath of Hunter and Cal’s battle to the death with Cal the winner. If the first three didn’t make me dislike Cal the fourth one certainly did. So Morgan is absolutely convinced that she has killed Hunter and is racked with guilt about it. Selene and Cal both convince her that it was in self defense (and it technically was). But do you know who didn’t feel guilty Cal. Cal didn’t feel guilty. Something Morgan just pretended not to see. Another thing that really should have been a tip of that maybe Selene and Cal were not the best people was the fact he lied about being Woodbane, something that was really freaking Morgan out when she found out she herself was of reformed Woodbane blood. You know who was telling the truth about Cal being Woodbane? Hunter that’s who (more on that later). When she told Cal about her mother’s coven tools he told his mother and Selene literally drove to Morgan’s school just to talk to her about the tools and then was very upset when she found out the Morgan had bound the tools to herself; I was like “GIRL THEY ARE USING YOU!” Then, you know for good measure, he tries to kill her. I never likes Cal from the beginning. He was just to suave and charming so I kinda saw the whole “using you for more power” thing coming. What gets me is that despite people who know better, Hunter and Sky, and even her (ex) best friend, Bree, were all like Cal isn’t good he’s a liar and hes filling you with nonsense. Does she listen to them? No. No she doesn’t. Then when Morgan finds out that low and behold Hunter is indeed alive she is elated that she didn’t kill him and that he is alive. Cal on the other hand is not elated that Hunter is alive and well. In fact Cal is the exact opposite of elated. He tried to convince her that they would be better off if Hunter were dead. Does she take this as a red flag that maybe just maybe her boyfriend is an absolute ass? You would think that she would but she doesn’t.

Speaking of Hunter, I absolutely adore him. He is awkward and beautiful. He comes across as a bit cold (I’m convinced its the British), but really he cares very deeply about his family and his friends. He takes his job as Seeker very seriously, even though it takes a really heavy toll on his conscious. I like him a lot more for Morgan A) cause he’s an actually good guy and B) because he is a lot more level headed and lives in the reality of the story unlike some people *cough* Morgan *cough*. Morgan immediately rights him off as the bad guy, mostly because Cal tells her so and some because she feels uneasy when hes around. She also rights off Sky, Hunter’s cousin, as evil too. This girl does a Wiccan Mind Meld with him and still shes convinced that hes not a good guy despite the fact that she had unlimited access to his entire mind and not a single dark thought. It literally takes Cal trying to kill her by locking her in a room and setting it on fire for her to not only trust Hunter and Sky, but to also rekindle her friendship with Bree. Hunter for his part tries his best to protect Morgan and teach her how to protect herself. While Cal wants to use Morgan’s power to further his mother’s agenda, Hunter wants her to embrace it and be able to control it. Now despite how much I love Hunter he does have his flaws. He is very touche when it comes to the subject of Cal and honestly he’s a bit jealous of the relationship Morgan had with Cal. So as Morgan and Hunter grow closer Morgan grows more and more confused about her feelings and instead of taking this is stride and giving her the support and space she needs to come to terms that her one and only boyfriend whom she was convinced she was in love TRIED TO KILL HER, he tends to blow up and become pretty angry when Cal is mentioned. Minor flaws; he’s still my favorite.

Much to Morgan’s credit she deals with a lot of shit in this Volume. As previously mentioned she is nearly burned to death by her boyfriend. She was pulled from the rubble by her ex-best friend. Then she starts falling for her now ex-boyfriend’s half-brother who is like a witch cop who wants to bring down her ex-boyfriend and his mother all while facing the very real danger that her ex-boyfriend’s VERY powerful mother wants her dead so she can use Morgan’s dead mothers coven tools unencumbered and she still has to go to math class. So I can kinda of understand her poor life choices, but that doesn’t make them any less dumb. One of the things that Morgan struggles the most with, especially in Awakening and Spellbound, is the fact that she literally is blind to people’s “dark” side, which is just slightly annoying as a ready. Mostly cause after what she has been through you would think that she would be a little less trusting and because she takes it out on Hunter a lot like its his fault that people do bad things and she can’t see it when they do. The kicker is that the whole time Hunter is just like they did this bad thing and the broke the Wiccan laws doing it and shes just like you just have a vendetta against good people. Honestly throughout the whole story she has been selfish and naive. She doesn’t really seem to care how her actions affect the people around her or even herself

So far Morgan is not the most compelling nor my favorite heroine in a story, but the story itself is pretty compelling. Hunter also kind of saves it for me so like I don’t really feel like I am forcing myself through them, but I also don’t think I am enjoying them as much as I once would have.