Between Witches & Angels - T.N. Traynor - ★★★.¾

AUTHOR: T.N. Traynor

SERIES: A New Dawn, #1

GENRE: Fantasy-Romance.

PUBLICATION DATE: July 10, 2020

RATING: 3.75 stars.

I picked up this book after a very intriguing review by a reader friend. Her review prepared me on what to expect from this book, which was very helpful or else I might have been utterly disappointed with the way the book turned out.

"Between Witches and Angels" tells us of Megan, a newbie witch, who decided to move to Cornwall to get over her one-sided love for Jack. Cornwall seems to be a place perfectly suited for her as it has everything she's looking for at that stage in life: witch friends, new learning opportunities, a new career, and a fabulous romantic possibility in the form of Daelan Jennings, the local rich stud. But this romantic attraction seems to be taking over Megan at a much faster pace than she had imagined, and leads to a physical as well as spiritual battle that involves witches, demons, angels and pious old ladies.

Overall, the book is a thrilling one. TN Traynor creates such a fabulous atmosphere of suspense and anticipation that you keep flipping through the pages quickly. However, I must say that the overdose of the Christian elements after the 70% mark were a misfit. (Let me clarify that I'm a practising Christian myself.) I don't mind a book being full of faith, but to start a book assuming that it has one type of story and realising after the halfway mark that the author has very different plans in mind can sully the experience.

I wish either the Goodreads page or the NetGalley summary mentioned that the book goes intensively into faith-related aspects in its second half. Those fantasy readers who aren't believers will end up giving a poor rating to the book because of this factor. It is better if the reader knows what the book entails.

Another minor crib is with the cover. It is quite unimaginative and were it not for my friend's review, I would never have picked this book up on the basis of this cover. I hope the published edition works on a more appealing image for the cover.

I'm still quite satisfied with the book as it did give me a decently good thrill. The angels were especially superb. I will probably read the second book in the series too. It would be great to know if Megan harnesses her skills for the betterment of humankind, instead of simply giving them up as in the climax of this book. I would also want Jack's character to have a greater and deeper role rather than just being the Knight in shining armour when the heroine needs help. Most of all, I would want to witches' coven with Rosalie and her gang to return in the sequel. That's a story arc that this book cut off rather abruptly.

Overall, it's a good book if you know that it isn't just fantasy but a religious fantasy.

Thank you to NetGalley and BookGoSocial for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.