Wither's Rain

John Passarella

The first book in this series, Wither, was co-written by Passarella and a friend of his. This one was written by Passarella only, and it shows.

Wendy Ward is back, and so is Wither, who survived being crushed under an old mill when some of her (sentient) blood escaped. Now, Wither has to find a new host, and she does in Gina Thorne, a depressed, scared teenager who's just had an abortion. Wither now has to rebuild her coven, but at the same time, she wants revenge on her killer. You know it won't be long until Wendy Ward is once again at risk.

While the thrust of the book is pretty indistinguishable from the first novel, the style doesn't match up. The writing doesn't have the same quality as the first novel did, and Passarella throws in a sex scene that wouldn't seem nearly so out of place were it not utterly gratuitous, not to mention written like it came straight out of a Beeline Two-for-One Special.

I'll still finish the trilogy, because I've invested this much time in it, but if the final book has the same kind of drop in quality, I won't be able to recommend it. This one's marginal at best.