A good mystery that had a cool noir feel to it. There were a few things that took me by surprise and a few that I caught on to right away. If you like an intriguing southern mystery, this is a great read.

Murder, magic, energy, and religion is all connected in this interesting YA fantasy. The dark writing tempts and teases; Enjoyed the characters though I'd like to delve deeper into personalities and history. The story/plot itself was intriguing: women of color disappearing past and present; these women linked with a magical, secret society. It was at times confusing. All in all a good first effort for the author.
I'd like to read a follow-up story of Matt and his powers and supporting characters.
Voluntarily read ARC for honest review.

DNF @ 25 % It didn't grip me as I though it would.

Collette is sure she died . There was a fire and she could feel life and her soul slipping away. Then the urge to breath hit her. And connects brain and lungs to mouth to swallow cold and dirty water and realizes she is drowning. Electricity rages in her chest, throat and scrapes at her brain. Then Collette realizes she is too exhausted to put her shields up .Collette is an Empath. All Collette’s life she could see emotions and she could also feel them. Then Collette realizes she will run out of time before she reaches land. Then Collette feels someone close and hears “ hold on”. Then Collette gets knocked in the face with a life preserver and the man yells for her to hold on to the life preserver and he will pull her in. Once in a house the man she feels calm with and nicknames “ Mr. Familiar” grazes her arm when he hands her some black tea with lemon and a shock of electricity Then the man says his name is Matt Collette had been almost eight years old before she had learned to create a mental block that shielded her from people’s emotions. Then a door slams and Matt tells her to stay there no matter what she heard not to go upstairs. Then Coillette hears Raphael in her head. Then Matt says he almost shot Colette’s cousin. Then Collette asked Matt if he could see Raphael as most of the time he appears to Collette as a shifty eyed tabby cat and all the time she is the only one that can see Raphael. Then Raphael gave Collette an excuse and says “dad knows you have were in his special liquor cabinet after bible study”. Raphael is Colette’s imaginary friend at least she thought he was imaginary. Then Raphael has cleaned Matt’s memory but said he did let Matt remember Collette Then Raphael gets one of the guys to drive them and cleared his mind also. The Raphael said they were going to Collette’s new home. Raphael agreed Collette had in fact died. Then he told Collette her mother was dead she had been for a long time. The Raphael said it was his job to get Collette settled again. Raphael said he had always been and that some called him a familiar but her mom called him friend. When Collette asked what was wrong with her Raphael said she had been apart from her body for quite awhile that there will be things she knows nut has no memory of learning and others that will just be new to her. Then they come to a grand house and they sat on the steps. Raphael said Collette had always known she was special. Her mom knew it and it scared her . She had styled Collette . Then Raphael said to go in the house he wanted to give Collette a tour of the house before he left and reminded Collette he could not stay. Raphael was never in human form very long . Then Raphael said it was not his place to tell her who she was that there were others who were better equipped for it then he was and then he handed her a folded and yellow envelope with her mother’s handwriting on it. On the inside of the envelope it said “ Get thee to church - Mama” . Then Raphael was gone. Then Summer who was the niece of her lawyer came to pick Collette up and introduce her her uncle Silas who was counsel to the supernatural . Raphael had left the gloves which were Collette’s armor. Skin to skin contact was too intense for Collette. The next day Summer came to take Collette to school and Matt comes up to Summer and asked for an introduction to Collette. Then Collette gets a peer advisor. Named Qutey. Collette shadows Qutey and ended up assigned to a project with Carlos. Qutey and Carlos and Collette and they had to investigate a local mystery.
I didn’t really care for this book. It dragged for me. I just didn’t find it very interesting and had a problem with it keeping my attention. I also found this a little confusing, this just wasn’t for me.

Novelist Shanna Miles spins a story of magic mixed with Christian elements in her book, Willow Born. I've never read a story quite like this, so kudos for its unique concept, and for featuring multicultural characters. But the combination of angels and trolls and fairies and witches took some time for me to get used to., and tended to take me out of the narrative dream, at times. The book is generally well written, with lovely, descriptive passages like "....the water smells of earth and sand and growing things.' although metaphors get tangled in phrases like ""If it (laughter, music and the sounds of people) were a food, it would be like powdered sugar, landing like snowflakes on my eyelids...". I think young adult readers will like this,

This was a very interesting concept and not what I was expecting at all. I really liked how the witches' magic was rooted in Christian-elements simply because that isn't something I've seen before. I mean usually witches and Christians are completely on the opposite ends of the spectrum, but I think it was a really great idea. For instance, the witches recited Psalms like spells and their familiars are actually guardian angels and even the villain reveal at the end was rooted in Christian mythology. There were also some of the more 'standard' witchy things like trolls and fairies and spells using herbs, but it was all blended together in a way that you don't usually see.

I also enjoyed the diverse cast of characters and the coven's background. A coven of black southern witches descended from slaves and rooted in Christianity is something that just makes so much sense I'm almost surprised I haven't seen it before this. Ultimately the reason I gave this only 3 stars was because it did veer a little bit too much into standard YA territory for me - under-developed romance and high school drama and all that. But even though a lot of adults read YA it isn't really meant for us, and I think that this would be an excellent book for high schoolers.

I was impressed with they way this book was written and how fast pased it was it kept me interested.

If you love stories about witches, magic, and the past and present clashing, this is definitely the one for you! I was hooked from the beginning when we learned Collette died and came back to life. Her journey to understand what happened to her by using a school project to investigate her death, as well as watching her navigate high school, friends, and her crush was interesting.

Miles’s strengths are clearly in writing and descriptions, such as her use of color and movement to describe the emotions Collette sees in others. For example: “a milky-green anxiety is buzzing around him.” In addition, each character was fully developed with strengths, weaknesses, motivations, and unique voices. And she did not disappoint when it came to secondary characters.

Although I loved each piece of this story – the Willows, Collette coming back and learning how to fight the demon, and the murder mysteries – there may have been too many pieces for one story. Possibly because of word count limitations, the more pieces to the plot, the less they can be developed. Although they did tie together at the end, some explanations were breezed over when they warranted something deeper.

My review on The Winged Pen blog will be posted in May.

I really enjoyed this story but it's a bit hard to follow in the beginning of the story. There is a lot of things that come out later but it felt like because the author is saving thesr things it's hard to be connected in the beginning. There is a lot of different elements in the story from angels and demons to witches, like the main character. I liked Collette as a main character. I appreciated that she actually tried to follow the advice of the wise characters in the story. A lot of times in YA the main character is very reckless and I thought she was pretty responsible. It was a grear story overall and I would definitely recommend it.

Rich in imaginative plot twists! This novel hooked me in with a story that delves into the supernatural, amidst racial tension and scandalous secrets galore! An ever timely narrative!

I received this e-book through NetGalley in return for an honest review. Willow Born, by Shanna Miles comes out June 1, 2017, from Rochelle and Reed Publishing.

Stumbling through its foreword and first few chapters, Willow Born hits its stride once our leading lady, Colette, starts attending high school. With that structure, however minute, suddenly the storytelling shifts from barreling to merely rushing, and the reader's confusion is paralleled and assuaged at the same rate as Colette's.

The story follows a young black girl as she wakes up in a lake, having been recently resurrected, is rescued from near-death by a young man, is possibly kidnapped by her imaginary friend who is possessing the body of an ill-clad co-ed, and then meets with her lawyer. Colette knows something's up (read: she probably shouldn't be alive) and when an inconceivable school Mega Project combining her Forensics class and her Journalism class (two subjects I never took in public high school) require her to dig up a cold case that just happens to be her own, she starts to learn about her past, and her self. On top of that, young girls keep disappearing, and some of them are lucky enough to be found dead. Oh, and also, there's been some angel-sightings.

It's confusing, yes. There are a ton of different elements, yes. You definitely have to suspend your disbelief. But I was only seven pages in when I first said, "Okay, I love this," aloud. Miles has done something that absolutely fascinates me. She has created a network of women, the Willows, who have effortlessly combined two seemingly irreconcilable belief systems: the Gospel, and old magic. Old as in lets you see kitchen fairies keeping your floors scrubbed and trolls helping your garden protect you, old. And, in fact, Willow philosophy folds in the modern sciences as well. Trolls and fairies are God's creatures, and magic is just energy obeying the laws of physics in ways most of us plebeians don't understand.

I swear, this book feels like someone took all those tumblr prompts that don't seem like they should go together but they JUST DO and made something lovely.

Along with the beauty of Willow philosophy, this book does something else that I love and deeply respect and that I, personally, haven't seen a lot in the YA Paranormal or Fantasy genres. Willow Born operates with Black As Default. Unless otherwise specified, all characters are black as default, and that's wonderful.

The main factors contributing to my rating are how confusing the beginning was, and how forced the ending felt. Miles seems to be gearing up for a sequel that I don’t feel she earned. Several story points were introduced and never followed up with (i.e. THE GUN), and while Colette is very interesting, Matt’s story really needed some filling out (WHY did he feel compelled to protect her, WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THAT?), and all the side characters seemed to blend together. In a movie remake, Summer, Qutey, and Brianna would probably be recast as one character and there would be next to no story alterations. Carlos is fantastic, though. Keep Carlos. Protect him.

Now, I know that the book-to-e-book transition often exacerbates the typo issue, and that ARCs are not finished copies, but this version had way more than it’s far share of misspellings, misquotations, and missed punctuation. It’s not affecting my rating, but it was super distracting!

So overall, I give this book a 3 out of 5 star rating. Incredible premise, but the execution could use some love.

~dustmotesandvellichor

Publishing June 1st 2017 by Rochelle and Reed Publishing

I came this close to giving up on this one. I have yet to add anything to any kind of ‘did not finish’ pile and I’m too proud to give up now, so I persevered. Here’s what I discovered:

Willow Born very much has the feel of a debut novel. It also has the feel of a novel that would have benefited from a lot of editing or perhaps just putting it aside and coming back to it in a year or so and then cutting bits and adding bits in. Does that make any sense? What I mean is that Willow Born has some really great ideas and most of the actual writing is pretty decent but there are so many loose ends or just unnecessary threads that I spent the first 60% of the book utterly confused. In the last 40% I just decided that the things I had thought were important and plot relevant and about to be explained probably weren’t any of those things and I should just read the book like none of the plot mattered.

In terms of subject/story…this kind of reads like an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer crossed with old school Dr Who crossed with some kind of teen high school drama. There’s paranormal activity, there’s time travel (of sorts) and there’s romance for the sake of romance. None of this is overtly a ‘bad’ thing it just doesn’t make for particularly compelling reading.

If you think you might give this book a go you won’t have a terrible time of it, the last 40% of the book actually got quite interesting and exciting. But you have to be willing to commit to the confusion of the earliest phase of the book first.

By the way: I received a digital copy of this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

There was a lot to love in Willow Born but an equal amount to dislike as well. The characters are unique, the plot is ambitious and original. However, for each thing I adored there was a thing that made me frown. The transitions between time and place is unclear and the pace is choppy. All together Willow Born is an intriguing and engrossing read, which I would recommend to juvenile readers.

Why DNF? Fatphobia (one of side characters is described as weak and fat) I did not read far enough to see if the label put on him is challenged. Of course on the opposite spectrum the love interest is muscular thus brave. The story overall needs to be polished more.

Liked: black love interest, main character is reborn (born? reincarnated? summoned?) knowing her past, I think overall the story is a good idea