Entangled (Spellbound #1) by Nikki Jefford

Entangled (Spellbound #1) by Nikki Jefford

Goodreads Synopsis
Two months after dying, seventeen-year-old witch Graylee Perez wakes up in her twin sister Charlene’s body.

Until Gray finds a way back inside her own body, she’s stuck being Charlene every twenty-hour hours. Her sister has left precise instructions on how Gray should dress and behave. Looking like a prep isn’t half as bad as hanging out with Charlene’s snotty friends and gropey boyfriend.

The “normals” of McKinley High might be quick to write her behavior off as post-traumatic stress, but warlock Raj McKenna is the only person who suspects Gray has returned from the dead.

Now Gray has to solve the mystery of her death and resurrection and disentangle herself from Charlene’s body before she disappears for good.

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Considering the synopsis is all about Graylee waking up after dying, I assumed the story would start here or at least relatively close to here. But this event didn't happen until 50% of the way through the book. I was semi-disappointed with this one but it was still good.

Gray and Char are twin sisters only in looks because underneath everything else, Charlene is a huge, murderous bitch. At times it seemed like very lazy writing because Gray and Char were just complete opposites and didn't seem to have much character development throughout the novel. They felt really static and this was only book one. Of course, Gray had "some" character development at the end, but I would chalk that up to knowing she could scare her sister in Stacey's body moreso than being confident and becoming "her own person". 

The magic in this made sense, but some things still confused me. For one thing, why are non-magic humans called "mortals" if witches can be killed just as easily as humans? How do differently abilities manifest themselves within different witches yet everyone seems to have a lot of the same abilities, such as floating? Why do they go to a church for their "Gatherings"? Why can they go to a regular high school when they obviously use magic in front of humans even though they aren't supposed to? Who made the rules for the witches and why are they enforced in some cases but not in others?

Even with the blurb, I wasn't too sure as to why the whole first half of the book occurred. It seemed like weird filler to give us "back story" but it didn't really set up the rest of the novel so much as have what seemed like two distinct parts to the novel. There was a "before" section and an "after" section and they didn't seem to mesh. It would have been one thing if the sisters tried to collaborate and find out what happened to Gray but that didn't happen. It ended up just being a shit show of "my evil sister is also a slut that sleeps with everyone" instead of building up the mystery and tension until the final twist was told. There was a good story line but poor execution on that front in my opinion.

I didn't like either Gray or Char and I definitely did not like Raj or his relationship with Gray. He was creepy and violated her at the beginning, then started to like her because she was powerful. And she was so weirded out by him and so adamant about not liking him and then all of a sudden they are together and making out? That doesn't make sense to me. That is not a good start to a relationship. I do not like them together. I also didn't like the way Char was portrayed: a whiny, bitchy, murderous girl who does whatever (or whoever) she has to in order to get her own way. Why can't there just once be a teenage girl whose twin sister isn't intent on murdering people.

Overall: 3/5 stars because it was shaky at first but gained some momentum. Then it all just sort of fizzled.