While I really enjoyed HEXED and was looking forward to this sequel, I am absolutely blown away by how much I love it. I didn’t remember everything from book 1, so I spent the first few chapters trying to remember what all happened. There’s a nice amount of recap in it, but if you’re like me, unless you read it a week ago, that still might not help. Even though I was initially fuzzy on the details, it still took no time at all for me to connect with the story. Indigo goes to her metaphorical dark place, and she is full of so much intense emotion. This leads to her taking a lot of risks, lashing out at the people around her, and generally just giving her all to save her best friend, Paige. She is one of my absolute favorite characters I’ve read because she is so human, even with her witchy powers. She is flawed and selfish, gets jealous easily, and can be reckless, and this all makes her come to life. Surrounding her flaws, Indigo has a giant heart that makes her so three-dimensional and complex. I really, really love how she learns to embrace both light and dark sides of herself as the story progresses.

Whenever I read a sequel, I get ridiculously nervous about how the romance will play out, if there is one. I’ve read a heavy amount of sequels where the relationship goes negative or the two people are apart for 90% of the story, and it generally just all feels bad. While there were times I thought something like that was coming on in this story, I love how the author handles Bishop and Indigo. Indigo is going through so much, so naturally this will affect her love life. While the two definitely butt heads (both adorably and seriously) and fight, they have some awesome good moments as well. They’re young, and with everything happening around them, they’re still trying to find a consistent rhythm and figure out what they really mean to each other, and it’s wonderful. I also think the romance is less concentrated (if I remember correctly) here than it was in the first book. Indigo really is primarily concerned with saving Paige and struggling with her aunt, though Bishop gets plenty of story line.

The plot line keeps the action coming and throws in great twists and surprises. I couldn’t put it down, and there are SO MANY times the reader will might want to cry in anger or grief for the characters as each scenario hits. I read this in one sitting, and by the time I finished, I felt like I just wandered around in an emotionally crippling daze with a major book hangover coming on.

If you love a good witch story with heart, I can’t recommend this duology enough. It’s intense, has a kick butt main character, a swoony guy, and lots of other incredible elements. Indigo is a character I won’t forget, and I can’t wait to read more from Michelle Krys!

Originally posted at The Forest of Words and Pages: http://www.forestofwordsandpages.com/2015/05/blog-tour-charmed-by-michelle-krys/