Witch Child by Celia Rees

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This was one of my, if not the one, favorite book I have read. This book is one that you start and cannot put down until you have finished reading it. It was so interesting it left you clinging to the edges of the page, ready to turn because you needed to know what was going to happen next. It made me laugh, cry, and get excited all in one book. Once I finished, I ran out and got it's sequel, The Sorceress, which was just as good. Here is a synapse of the book Witch Child by Celia Rees. After seeing her beloved grandmother accused of witchcraft and tortured, teenager Mary Newbury is rescued from the same fate by a mysterious, wealthy woman who arranges for the young girl's passage to the English colony of Massachusetts. Accompanying a group of Puritans, Mary is befriended by a widow and tries to blend in among the rest. Initially set in mid seventeenth century England, Witch Child follows Mary as she sails across the Atlantic to the shores of Salem, Massachusetts. After a brief stay in the newly settled town of Salem, Mary follows the group to a small settlement called Beulah. Mary's last days in her small English village are full of fear and sorrow. Expecting to be the next person accused of witchcraft, she readily accepts passage on a ship to the New World, a place where she hopes old fears will not be as strong. While on the ship Annabel, Mary's uncertainty about her future in the Colonies matches the Puritan's worries about leaving England. Mary follows the widow Martha Everdale about the ship, helping where she can, without much purpose.