YA Book Review: Salt by Danielle Ellison

Title: Salt

Author: Danielle Ellison

Series: Salt #1

Genre: Young Adult

Publisher: Entangled Teen

Pub Date: January 7, 2014

Pages: 266

My Copy: Got via Entangled Teen for an honest review

Book Summary:

Penelope is a witch, part of a secret society protecting humans from demon attacks. But when she was a child, a demon killed her parents—and stole her magic. Since then, she’s been pretending to be something she’s not, using her sister’s magic to hide her own loss, to prevent being sent away.

When she’s finally given the chance to join the elite demon-hunting force, Penelope thinks that will finally change. With her sister’s help, she can squeeze through the tests and get access to the information she needs to find "her" demon. To take back what was stolen.

Then she meets Carter. He’s cute, smart, and she can borrow his magic, too. He knows her secret—but he also has one of his own. 

Suddenly, Penelope’s impossible quest becomes far more complicated. Because Carter’s not telling her everything, and it’s starting to seem like the demons have their own agenda…and they’re far too interested in her.

Book Review:

Salt is definitely one book that you should add to your keeper shelf. I love how Penelope Grey is seeking answers, but the answers she wants aren’t always the one she likes or gets answers that are cryptic. Plus I like how her and Carter have this wonderful interesting dynamic between the two of them and sometimes things get very intense.

I definitely like how this book started out. It started out very interestingly finding Penelope in a situation that looks very dire. It kind of is like she has to use her wits to get out of a very bad situation. Plus her magic  doesn’t work or is led to believe that she is a static, someone who can only do magic when someone else is around. Hence, she is very nervous and thinks that a demon stole it. Plus Salt is a good deterrent for the demons and makes them weaker. So of course, Penelope can’t do magic without her sister’s help, but finds someone she never expects, a boy named Carter. Yet when she manages to vanish a demon all by herself, she doesn’t believe it because her magic is gone or is it. I really like that Carter had that whole mysterious element going on.

Carter and Penelope really have this interesting and unique relationship that you know is going to get more complex, but don’t really know until much later in the book certain things about each other because both of them have secrets. Sometimes secrets can be a bad thing or a good thing. Penelope wants to be an enforcer and thinks that her magic is gone, but it really isn’t until she starts hanging out with Carter that she learns a lot of things that she thought were true aren’t about her magic. Also the exams to being an Enforcer, (the police force that keeps Demon activity at bay)are coming up and Connie her sister and her have the test on different days, so she is worried that she will not be able to draw her magic from her sister, but finds out that her magic is working but in unexpected ways.

I do like how the relationships between all the characters really seem to work well. Her friendships and the ones with her family really seem to be a great way to tell you who Penelope is as a person and what her home life is like. Her Grandmother and Grandfather seem to be good people with good morals and have raised both her and her sister. Also she always tell them to carry Salt with them. Salt can be a life saver. Yet her grandmother worries about how Penelope’s going to pass the test.

Yet Penelope passes the test with Carter’s help. Carter is a bit of a wild card. I like when a character is a wild card. You never know what you are going to get with him. There seems to be something that he is keeping. I like that there’s a mystery to him. I like how there’s a major twist regarding his character. He is the son of the head of the Triad. The Triad is the magical government and dispense justice in the magic community. Also the fact that he kept this from Penelope makes her really angry at him. She feels like he manipulated her. This is perfectly understandable. 

I also found that they work really well as a couple, William Carter Prescott and Penelope. They argue, fight, make up. This is normal, yet their lives are anything but normal. Something happens during the last third of this book, that was a total mind shocker. It revealed something about William Carter and Penelope that totally makes sense, but something you never expected to be revealed and gives you an understanding of why their magic works together and why the demons have been after them. The action scenes were great.

I totally enjoyed this book a lot. I’m hoping in the next book that we see more of William Carter Prescott’s home life.

Rating:

Four Hearts