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Seriously Wicked    by Tina Connolly Amazon.com order for
Seriously Wicked
by Tina Connolly
Order:  USA  Can
Tor, 2015 (2015)
Hardcover, e-Book
* * *   Reviewed by Hilary Williamson

I have enjoyed Tina Connolly's Ironskin fantasy series for adults so was intrigued to see her venture into the YA world with Seriously Wicked, starring teen Camellia who really, really does not want to grow up to be a seriously wicked witch like her adoptive mother Sarmine.

Connolly has great fun with it. The family raise a werewolf cub (Wulfie) and have a dragon (Moonfire) with a damaged wing in the garage. Both require a fair amount of care from Cam. And the witch keeps her very busy with shopping chores for ingredients like goat's blood and dried pig's ears. Any deviation from these orders results in nasty punishments, such as pumpkin plant mummification.

Poor Cam juggles it all with the usual teen angst and high school challenges (often caused by her nemesis Sparkle). Then boy band cute Devon shows up at the school bus stop. He is inadvertently pulled into one of the witch's spells - a demon summoning! Can Devon resist the demon's eating his soul for long enough for Cam to find a cure? And how will she stop the upcoming 'atomic phoenix explosion' at her school?

It's tons of fun to watch her do it, with a little help from her best friend Jenah. And there's a delightfully twisty ending that I'll leave you to discover for yourself.

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