This was a good read. I really enjoyed the story and I liked watching it unfold and grow as the book went on. That's how I felt about Waterspell, the story just keeps getting bigger and bigger. It's like an iceberg, with 90% of its mass being underwater, I feel like I still have only seen the tip. I totally understand what the main character, Carin kept saying. Just when she finds one things out there are at least two more questions that come to her mind. This book left things so open that I could see it really turing into a long series.

I really really liked Carin. She is strong willed and stubborn, yet caring. She knows how to look out for herself because she has to. As someone who considers herself to be a pretty independant person, I really respect that trait in people. She was a little too nosey for her own good, and it got her into trouble because she is not the sneakiest person around, but somehow it all just fit her. It's hard to explain, but I just felt like Carin was a really well developed character and all the parts of her personality complemented each other and it just worked. I was a little bummed that there was no romance at all in the story. I thought something might happen with the stable boy but he was surprisingly absent for almost all of the story.

My favorite part of the book is that the "puzzle book" that the warlock cannot read is "through the looking glass"! I Alice in Wonderland, so it was really cool to see it incorporated as a mysterious and powerful book. (I reccomend anyone that has not read through the looking glass to read it immediately) I am dying to find out if this book has some sort of deeper involvement. I think it does, but this book is pretty vague on things like that. You don't really get any solid answers that you can "hang your hat on".

While I did enjoy this story and am interested in reading the second book in the series to see where it goes, I would have liked a few more questions to have been answered in this first installment. It's odd, in a way so much happened in this book, but on the other hand I felt like we made only a little overall progress. If that even makes sense. But Carin and the warlock have so much potential to go on some really cool adventures and journeys and I really want to see something epic develop. All of the groundwork has been laid in this first book, so I am thinking and hoping that the second book just picks up where this one left off and runs with it!