Review: Halfway Dead by Terry Maggert

Title: Halfway Dead
Author: Terry Maggert
Series: Halfway Witchy Series #1
Publication: June 29th 2015
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Purchase on: Amazon
Rating: 3/5

Review copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.

   

Carlie McEwan loves many things. She loves being a witch. She loves her town of Halfway, NY—a tourist destination nestled on the shores of an Adirondack lake. Carlie loves her enormous familiar, Gus, who is twenty-five pounds of judgmental Maine Coon cat, and she positively worships her Grandmother, a witch of incredible power and wisdom. Carlie spends her days cooking at the finest—and only—real diner in town, and her life is a balance between magic and the mundane, just as she likes it.
When a blonde stranger sits at the diner counter and calls her by name, that balance is gone. Major Pickford asks Carlie to lead him into the deepest shadows of the forest to find a mythical circle of chestnut trees, thought lost to forever to mankind. There are ghosts in the forest, and one of them cries out to Carlie across the years. Come find me.
Danger, like the shadowed pools of the forest, can run deep. The danger is real, but Carlie’s magic is born of a pure spirit. With the help of Gus, and Gran, and a rugged cop who really does want to save the world, she’ll fight to bring a ghost home, and deliver justice to a murderer who hides in the cool, mysterious green of a forest gone mad with magic.

I really liked Halfway Dead. It definitely ended up being something right up my alley with the way this story involved witches, witchcraft and diverse magical creatures. 

I have to admit that this book didn't hook me right from the start. I actually had a bit of a tough time getting into it. It took me a little over the first half of the book for really starting to like it. Some things confused me a bit but I hope this doesn't scare people away because it really is a great story. 

As much as I wasn't sure about the main character, Carlie McEwan, at first, I ended up loving her. She's a witch so that makes her awesome already but she's also very snarky and very good at her witchcraft. 

The story really started picking up once she, together with Jim, went into the forest to find these special trees. Not long after that they meet Wulfric, an ancient vampire. These three made quite the pair and I loved their dynamic. 

Overall, Halfway Dead by Terry Maggert had a bunch of great characters, magic galore and good writing. It was pretty great even though it took me a while to get into it. The second half and the ending certainly saved it all for me. Gotta love that!

       About the Author:

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Born in 1968, I discovered fishing shortly after walking, a boon, considering I lived in South Florida. After a brief move to Kentucky, my family trekked back to the Sunshine State. I had the good fortune to attend high school in idyllic upstate New York, where I learned about a mythical substance known as "Seasons". After two or three failed attempts at college, I bought a bar. That was fun because I love beer, but, then, I eventually met someone smarter than me (a common event), and, in this case, she married me and convinced me to go back to school--which I did, with enthusiasm. I earned a Master's Degree in History and rediscovered my love for writing. My novels explore dark fantasy, immortality, and the nature of love as we know it. I live near Nashville, Tennessee, with the aforementioned wife, son, and herd, and, when I'm not writing, I teach history, grow wildly enthusiastic tomato plants, and restore my 1967 Mustang.