Too sweet for me
I found "A Modern Witch" to be a tad too cloying and precious for my taste. It wasn't a badly realised world for the most part but a couple of issues bothered me with character development.
The new witch Lauren discovers she is an extremely powerful mind witch after being thrown into a witch chat room while shopping for ice cream online.
Lauren and the four year old child Averyn are too gifted. The book focuses a lot on their training but it's stated from the beginning they are more powerful than their trainers.
The most unrealistic aspect of the book was the lack of jealousy on the part of the kids not magical. Lauren was the only character in the entire book who was ever in a bad mood. This turned out to be so because she needed protein.
I enjoyed the books Once a Witch and Always a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough for the more entertaining and complicated family dynamics.
The magical world building was similar in many ways but no one was this sugar coated and sweet. Everyone's role was to make babies. I'm not sentimental enough. I'll admit freely to crying when Neville won the house cup in Harry Potter & the Sorcerers Stone but he earned it. My cold heart was moved by his struggle throughout the entire series among the other characters.
I liked the brief story line of the coven Lauren met in Chicago. I've read one of the other novels delve into their stories. How did they react to being outed as non-magical or ridiculed like they were.
How on earth this cast of characters sustained seven books plus a spin-off without any conflict is hard to believe.
The book wasn't awful but I need a little more edge or mystery to get me involved in a seven book series. I'm not a fan of "look at the babies!" and everyone coupling up.