I'm going to start off my review by saying, halfway through this book I was ready to give it one or two stars. The writing is beautifully descriptive, the cadence almost like poetry. But the first half was utterly boring. I almost wanted to quit reading. There was stuff happening but there just didn't seem to be enough. Add to that the insta-love and I was ready to throw in the towel. 
 And then something happened. I'm not even sure what it was, but this slow-moving read got seriously creepy and intriguing. I LOVED the second half. Really, really a lot. 
 I liked Lexi's character. She's strong and stubborn, but she also has a lot of love and protective feelings for those she's close to. Her abrupt change of feelings for Cole were a bit far-fetched though. At first she was just trying to find him and the missing children, then, all of a sudden they were falling all over each other. The build up just wasn't very believable. 
 Cole...I liked him too. I don't feel like I know him well enough to love him, but he was fine. I figured out his secret the moment he stepped into the story though. I don't want to say much else about him to avoid spoilers though. 
 The atmosphere and creep factor were the best parts of this story. Really, it was amazingly visualized. The descriptions of the more, the "fairy-tale" quality to the witch's story. If only I could write like this, if I could draw atmosphere like this... 
 I do recommend this read, but remember I have warned against the very slow first half. Stick it out though. The second half is creeptastic!