4 ½ Stars

The Weird Girls is the prequel novella of the new series Weird Girls by Cecy Robson.

The Wird sisters (Celia, Emma, Shayna and Taran) are not your normal neighborhood girls; they are the offspring of a cursed couple. Their mother was cursed by her own sister for marrying outside their race. This curse not only made their parents died young but also gave the girls supernatural powers; that wasn’t their aunt intention, it was more the result of the curse going wrong.

Having special powers haven’t made their lives easier, for the contrary it has made their existence a very complicated one because they don’t fit in anywhere.

After living in many different places they come to Lake Tahoe and fall in love with the region. They decide to buy a house and call the area their new home. They hope to finally be able to settle down and live happy and calm lives, but their plans get a bit tangled when during their celebratory night not knowing they get involve in a bar fight with a witch, and when you fight with a witch, you fight with the whole coven.

If they want to be able to stay in the area they need to solve the problem with the very unhappy coven, a coven lead by a very wicked witch that only wants blood.


Celia is the head of the family and the voice in the books, this doesn’t mean we don’t get to see the other sisters because we do, they all have an important part in the story. Mrs. Robson gave them all very different characteristics making them easier to identify.
As I said before Celia is the head of the family, she is the oldest and also the strongest of the sisters, she is a shifter that turns into a Golden Tigress. She has a dark sense of humor that I think she uses as a defense mechanism to protect her soft side, even having her sisters she feels a bit alone because her “nature” make people afraid of her.
Taran is the one that controls fire and lightning and as her power her temperament goes along with the flames.
Emme is the soft and shy one of the sisters; she has the power of telekinesis and can heal people, she also has a very nurturing personality.
And last but not least is Shayna, she is a blade master and can manipulate metals, she is a bit of a tomboy, talks like a surfer and says “dude” a lot.

The Weird Girls was everything a novella should have and more; I can even go as far as to say it reads almost as a full-length novel. Page after page it’s packed with non-stop action, a lot of conflicts and well-developed characters. The Weird Girls is fast paced read, one I can guarantee you you won’t be able to put down.

The Weird Girls is a great introduction to a new series, one that will leave you wanting for more, luckily we won’t have to wait for long, the first book in the series, Sealed with a Curse, will be release in December 31st.
I’m looking forward to read more about the Wird Sisters, I’m sure in the Weird Girls I have found a new favorite series.

I recommend this novella to all urban fantasy lovers. ( )

I have the first book [b:Sealed with a Curse|14910823|Sealed with a Curse (Weird Girls, #1)|Cecy Robson|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1343148389s/14910823.jpg|20565079] on my "to-buy" list and thought I'd start the series with this short novella. For being a short novella it's a very solid story; I only felt like I read a novella based on length. An intricate plot kept the book humming along and quite a few tense moments had me on the edge of my seat, so to speak.

An excellent way to start the series and I'm looking forward to starting the first full length book. ( )

After reading Sealed with a Curse (review to come on Team Tynga’s Reviews next month), I was eager to get my hands on more Wird sisters stories. A Cursed Embrace, the second book in the series, isn’t out yet but there is this prequel novella!

The Weird Girls is a peek into the lives of the Wird sisters before we meet them in Sealed with a Curse. In fact, it’s in their early days in Tahoe, long before they get involved with the vampires and werewolves of Sealed with a Curse. This time around, Cecy, Taran, Shayna, and Emme are facing down the local coven after they destroy one of the coven members’ talismans in a bar bathroom brawl. Yeah, you heard me. Everything started after Taran took on a witch in a public bathroom. If that’s not an original spur to a story, I’m not sure what is.

I’m coming into this story familiar with the characters and the world. I’m not sure how this story would read for someone new to the Wird sisters but for me, as a fan, I found it be super enjoyable. You get a great sense of the girls’ personalities and it’s fun to see what stays true between the events in The Weird Girls and the first pages of Sealed with a Curse, like Celia’s determination to protect her sisters, and theirs to stand by her.

I’d definitely recommend picking up Sealed with a Curse if you’re interested in Cecy Robson’s work but The Weird Girls will give you a nice taste of what Robson and the Wird sisters have to offer if you’re not prepared to go all in. And once you give them a shot, you’ll be panting for the next instalment!

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Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy

It’s becoming more and more popular for new urban fantasy series to launch with prequel novellas. Cecy Robsson’s Weird Girls series kicks off with THE WEIRD GIRLS (an ebook novella) just weeks before the first full novel, SEALED WITH A CURSE, hits shelves on December 31, 2012. There are pros and cons to this approach. Ideally, the novella sets up the characters and worldbuilding and potentially reveals an origin story that has significance for the full length novels. One of the pitfalls can be when the worldbuilding and/or cast of characters require too much setup for a novella size book.

In THE WEIRD GIRLS we sort of get a speed dating introduction to each of the sisters focusing primarily on Celia. Since Cecy Robson has created a unique mythology for each of the girls, a lot of explanation (i.e. info dumps) was necessary to explain all the unrelated powers that each sister possesses. For example, Ceila is a tigershifter…but she also can transport herself and others through solid matter, and she can turn into any animal she touches. It all struck me as pretty random, sort of like the ‘It’s a good thing she has the whatever-power-she-needs ability’.

The story was basically one long string of chaotic action scenes interspersed with some catty dialogue (the sisters get into a bar fight with a coven of witches and end up fighting in increasingly violent battles throughout the novella). I didn’t feel like there was enough time to connect with any one of the sisters, let alone four, nor were the rules of the world ever fully explained. Fortunately, there was a sneak peek at SEALED WITH A CURSE included with the novella since just in that glimpse the story structure and introduction to the girls and world was handled sooooo much better.

This wasn’t the best introduction to this series, but there were glimmers (not to mention the sneak peek) that make me think the full novels will be much better.

Sexual Content:
N/A ( )

I like these preview novellas, they give great insight into what the next books are going to be like. There are a cheap and easy way for prospective readers to try out characters before a series really starts. And in my experience with preview novellas, they have never let me down and always gets me super psyched about the upcoming books, and this novella was no different.

The pacing in the novella was really good, and full of action. Celia was a likable character for me, she is beyond ready to do anything to protect her family. And she has the inner "beast" to back it up too. If I had to have one complaint about the entire thing it would be the intro scene at the bar, the bar brawl that starts it off, the action happens so quickly that sometimes I had to re-read a couple of sentences to make sure I got what was going on. But at the same time the scene was so chaotic that it makes sense that it would be a little chaotic for the reader too.

I like the trials that Celia had to go through, they were insane, and I was sitting on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next. I don't want to really tell you about the trials because not knowing what they were up front made it all the more suspenseful.

I do have to say that I really hope one of the witches from the coven makes it into the next book, I would love to see if there ends up being a relationship between Celia and her family and that of the coven.

Overall, I think the book was really a fun read, one I totally enjoyed and I can't wait to read the next book in the series. The next book out is Sealed with a Curse so look for it to come soon! And in the meantime you should really check out this novella! ( )