Book Review: White is for Magic by Laurie Faria Stolarz

White is for Magic (Blue is for Nightmares #2)

Laurie Faria Stolarz

Review of Blue is for Nightmares

Publication Date: May 8th 2004

Publisher: Llewellyn

Pages: 301

Genre:  Contemporary, Thriller, Young Adult

"I'm watching you . . ."

A year has passed since Stacey Brown saved her best friend from a horrible death. Now she's having nightmares again, haunted by ghosts of the brutally murdered . . . and by a crazed stalker. As she desperately casts healing spells, a new student named Jacob enters her world. Beautiful and mysterious, he reveals that he is also having dreams. To stop a killer, they must join together. But can Jacob be trusted? Or will this new love cause her darkest dreams to come true?

Here I am continuing on my Stolarz journey with book two in her Wiccan/Witchcraft Series and I already know that I am enjoying this series more than her Deadly Little Series. It could be the wiccan influences, or it could be the way all the characters. As I've mentioned before, Stolarz's characters are one of her strongest points, and what I really enjoy in this series is the very realistic way all the characters interact with each other.

Stacey's new relationship starts floundering as soon as reality hits and they realize how awkward it is that Drea has returned, that he does't quite support Stacey's nightmares and finally, maybe just maybe, it was just lust and puppy love and it's faded, as happens in High School. They both try hard to make it work, but it's falling apart.

White is for Magic also is an excellent sequel for the fact that it builds and expands on the first book. New characters are introduced, old stories explored more, and we continue to learn about Stacey's world of magic.

I really enjoyed the use of Maura to push this book through while everything else is happening. The bad guy is both old and new at the same time and completely unexpected for me. In general, however, we didn't have to explore new reasons for why someone would be after Stacey, and instead we can explore the aftermath of the first book and the introduction of Jacob who gets Stacey a lot more than Chad, for obvious reasons.

Also it becomes quite apparent that Drea and Chad will forever be attracted towards each other, because after his "run" with Stacey it seems that's the direction he's returning.

This is a series I for sure plan on continuing till the end as of now. I really wonder what direction Stolarz will go now as the nightmare avenue is the theme of the series, but it's also been kind of stretched as far as it will go. Though for all I know, Stolarz may come up with some way to make it work.

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