Witches Unleashed by Carrie Harris

 WITCHES UNLEASHED

BY

CARRIE HARRIS

Three extraordinary supernatural heroes join forces with Ghost Rider to capture Lucifer himself and return him to Hell, in this staggering Super Hero adventure from Marvel: Untold

Johnny Blaze, aka the Ghost Rider, has accidentally released Lucifer from Hell, and that’s a serious problem. While hunting the 666 fragments of Lucifer’s soul now loose on Earth, Johnny enlists the aid of witches Jennifer Kale, Satana Hellstrom and Topaz to track down a sliver of the demon which is possessing the body of Jennifer’s cousin, Magda. Lucifer is looking for the Tome of Zhered-Na, aiming to release the demon within its pages and unleash hell upon the world. But the witches are the Tome’s protectors, and they aren’t going down without a fight. Now the witches must work together, trust the Ghost Rider, and put their personal demons aside to stop the King of Hell in his tracks.

Devilshly good, Witches Unleashed is the latest from Aconyte’s Marvels Untold range and features Ghost Rider as its celebrity driver.

As well as Ghost Rider, Carrie Harris brings in three witches, Jennifer Kale, Toapz and Satana to give Ghost Rider some magical clout as he has to recapture the 666 fragments of Lucifer’s soul, which he inadvertently let escape from his fiery confines when the Ghost Rider escaped from Hell’s clutches.

Up until now, Johnny Blaze and his demonic occupant Zarathos, have bee doing pretty well , and have sent about 650 (odd) fragments on their way back to the fiery nether regions, but when he finds out that the latest fragment has gone and lodged itself in one of Jennifer Kale’s relatives and most likely has magical powers (in addition to his hellish ones!), he knows he is out of his depth and enlists the help of the sisters Lefay.

In reality, the sisters Lefay are not sisters, but as they are residing in Salem, they have adopted the name after they were brought together by Doctor Strange and are now running a magical shop in the town, in order to keep their cover and live as normal a life as possible. That is until Johnny Blaze comes a – knocking.

Now, I have to say that I have been really enjoying what Aconyte books have been doing with the Marvel books and letting writers bring their own individuality to the stories that they are putting out. However, I also admire the fact that they are not relying on the canon heroes to bolster these titles, but are bringing in some of the more unheard of characters in the Marvel Universe.

In Witches Unleashed, Carrie Harris does a fantastic job of bringing the sisters Lefay into the universe, and I must say for me, they were the stars of the book. From the moment that they enter into the story, the narrative just lights up. Firstly, there is Satana, a half demonic succubus who besides learning to curb her demonic side, is also embracing her human side and the difficulties of living with others. Then there is Jennifer Kale, the level headed studious type, who is coming to terms with the loss of her brother Andrew, killed by the demonic force Hellphyr. Who she guards in the book that she protects, The Tome of Zherad – Na. And finally, there is Topaz, the beating heart of the group. Who with her empathic powers carefully takes care of the group.

I read this at the speed of light and quite simply couldn’t put it down. I loved the Lefay sisters. If you like a found family trope then this has it in buckets. The sisters fight together (each other and everyone else), care for each other and laugh together. They all have such a big heart and this comes through constantly.

Granted, Jennifer can get a little annoying at times, and Topaz a little cloying. However, they all grow in the book and each have a good character arc, but for me Topaz is the one that has the best of the arcs, and I couldn’t help warming to her the most. Apart form all this, the three witches interact well with each other and the interplay between them is handled with such dexterity that even Johnny and his demon warm to their cozy little family life.

You cannot help but like Witches unleashed, it is just infectiously good fun that is written with a blisteringly fast paced that never lets up for a minute, and Carrie Harris manages to balance to balance the book perfectly with good characterisation and an action filled plot. Well worth a read!