| Sweep | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Cate Tiernan |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Series | Sweep |
| Subject(s) | Wicca |
| Genre(s) | Fiction, Young Adult |
| Publisher | Penguin Group |
| Publication date | January 29, 2001 |
| Media type | Paperback |
Sweep is fictional novel series created by Cate Tiernan. The discovery that she is a descendant of a long and powerful line of witches, finds Morgan Rowland battling the forces of dark and sinister magick.
Morgan Rowland is a high school student living in Widow's Vale. Overall, Morgan is an ordinary girl who lives an ordinary lifestyle. Her life becomes unsettled upon meeting Cal Blaire. With his perfect nose, olive skin, and gold-colored eyes he quickly becomes the center of admiration of all the girls in school, this including Morgan and her best friend, Bree Warren. Having an air of charisma and good looks, Cal is able to gain enough popularity that he is able to gather people from his new school for a party. At the gathering he reveals his Wiccan origins by inviting his peers to join him in a circle to celebrate Mabon, one of the Wiccan Sabbaths. Feelings of surprise and discomfort cause many to leave while others including Morgan and Bree stay for the circle. Morgan from then on shows a knack for Witchcraft, which sparks Cal's interest. By Cal openly showing interest in Morgan, he ends up creating a rift between her and Bree. At the last circle, Cal forms a coven with the group naming it Cirrus. At this circle, Morgan discovers that she is a blood witch, which helps to spark something between her and Cal.
Upon learning that she is a blood witch, Morgan concludes that her parents are blood witches and confronts them. Morgan's parents deny that they are blood witches, which leads Morgan to find out that she was adopted. She runs out of the house in a fierce rage finding comfort with Cal. From then on, Cal and Morgan's relationship develops. Cal tells Morgan they were meant to be together. He says he loves her, the rift between Morgan and Bree grows, and Morgan goes on a quest to find her origins. Due to Cal and Morgan's relationship, Bree and Raven, a member of Cirrus, announce their leaving of the coven to a different coven which is headed by Sky Eventide. Morgan, in the end, meets Sky along with Hunter Niall, who is also Cal's half-brother at Cal's house. Morgan immediately feels extremely wary around Hunter and Sky upon meeting them. While trying to get away from them, Morgan accidentally stumbles upon Selene's hidden library, where she finds her mother's Book of Shadows.
Flustered from seeing Sky and Hunter in Cal's home, Morgan, wanting to get away from them, leaves the room and discovers a door hidden in the hallway. When entering the room, Morgan realizes that it is Selene's study. While glimpsing the thousands of books that mark the walls, Morgan becomes taken over by a sensation. Unconsciously, she pulls out a book with no title. Flipping through the pages she realizes that what she held was her mother's Book of Shadows. Amidst her overwhelming emotions, Cal and his mother, Selene Belltower, enter, perplexed about how she was able to enter the secret room. At first feeling guilty, but seeing the Book of Shadows is rightfully hers, Morgan confidently opposes Selene, and without any conflict Selene gives the book to Morgan. Morgan returns home. From this point on Cal's respect and feelings begin to grow for Morgan. Tensions rise and things start to become unclear as little bits and pieces of information arise. Morgan discovers that she is Woodbane, Hunter is Cal's brother and he is Seeker for the International Council of Witches investigating Selene and Cal. Morgan finds her birth mother's tools beneath their old house in Meshomah Falls, by scrying in the fire she sees her birth mother Maeve Riordan pointing under the house, so she drives there with her best friend Robbie to retrieve it. Further tensions erupt on Morgan's birthday during her time with Cal when Hunter arrives. Cal and Hunter break into an argument which ends up becoming a chase. Hunter announces his reason for being there which is to fulfill his duty as Seeker. Cal runs into the woods with Hunter following behind and Morgan following. Hunter and Cal then fight, resulting to the event of Hunter placing a braigh - a spelled chain meant to hurt witches - on Cal so that he is helpless. Cal begs Morgan to save him, so Morgan throws the athame that Cal gave her for her birthday at Hunter, sending him over the edge of the cliff and into the river.
Morgan is unsure of what to do and who to trust in Dark Magick. The secret of Hunter may bring Cal and herself together, but it is making it harder to trust anyone. But when Morgan finds out Hunter's alive, strange things start happening. At the end of the book Morgan chooses not to join Cal's mother's coven and is then dragged down to his house and is locked in his dark magical room and is stuck there. Cal's mother is after Morgan's tools, but since Morgan bound the tools to herself, Morgan is the only witch who can use them. Cal then by "solving" the problem sets the place Morgan is inside on fire. Morgan is trapped and willed to face the same death of her mother. Or until Morgan's friends Robbie and Bree crash through the door saving Morgan.
In Dark Magick Morgan was betrayed by the first boy she ever loved (Cal). Now Morgan must attempt to get on with her life. Morgan begins to study with Hunter, and slowly begins to realize her feelings for him. But dark magick seems to be surrounding them and someone close is to blame. Hunter and Morgan slowly start to get closer throughout the book. Hunter suspects that the dark magick is being used by David Redstone, owner of Practical Magick, and Morgan's friend. Morgan does everything she can to try and prove it was not him, but in the end, Hunter is right. The day before David gets stripped of his powers, Morgan and Hunter share a passionate kiss, and after Hunter strips David of his powers, he gives Morgan the stone Morganite, and it shows that Morgan is the thing/person that Hunter desires most in his heart.
Kithic and Cirrus merge and Morgan becomes aware of her feelings for Hunter. Throughout the book Morgan and Hunter's relationship develop with an occasional mishap. The two later find out that the severed brake lines and the sawed posts were the workings of Cal when he admits it upon their meeting at the old Methodist cemetery. Hunter and Cal at the cemetery prepare to fight when Morgan binds them with a spell. Keeping the binding spell on the two of them, she forces Hunter into her car and drives to Hunter's house where she releases him. If things couldn't get worse, Mary K., Morgan's sister is kidnapped by Selene. Morgan and Hunter go to Selene's and Cal's old house to battle it out with her. Just as Selene's magic was about to hit Morgan, Cal appears and steps in front of the dark magick, sacrificing himself for Morgan and ultimately proving to her that he had indeed renounced his mother's beliefs and that he really did love her. Selene falls to the ground, grieving over her son's dead body. While her guard is down, Hunter attempts to put the braigh around her wrists, but she is automatically enveloped by the darkness within her, causing the braigh to corrode. Just when all seems lost, the darkness exits her body, and the physical strain kills Selene. They leave the house, along with Mary K., who doesn't seem to recall any of the events that just occurred. Sky and another person, seemingly a member of the International Council of Witches, then arrive at the house and take Cal and Selene's body away. Morgan is undecided as to her feelings for Hunter.
Morgan has a dream about a ritual sacrifice. The Witches Council thinks that it is a vision of the future. They suspect that it is a vision of an illegal sacrifice by a Woodbane coven, Amyranth, to obtain power. It is suspected that the sacrifice may in fact be a child of one of Amyranth's members. The council sends Hunter to New York, the place where the coven is suspected to operate, to investigate. Morgan goes with Hunter; however, she also wishes to discover more about her birth parents, something which can only be done in New York. At the invitation of Bree, they stay at the apartment of Bree's father. Robbie, Sky and Raven come along for the ride. At a New York disco they meet Killian who turns out to be Ciaran's son. It is then believed that Killian is the target of the Amyranth sacrifice. Ciaran meets Morgan in a shop about witchcraft, and he decides to sacrifice her. He sets a trap for her to steal her powers, but when he finds out Morgan is his daughter he helps Hunter to stop the ritual before it is too late. During the time that the ritual is taking place, Morgan realizes that Hunter is her "mùirn beatha dàn"(soul mate). In the end of the book, Morgan breaks up with Hunter because she finds out that she is Ciaran's daughter, one of the most evil witches of the age, and also her mother's "mùirn beatha dàn", but he killed her, so Morgan believes that she's like poison, and being around Hunter is going to get him killed because both parents are Woodbane, the evil clan of the Seven Great Clans. Although her mother has renounced evil, her father is "the Wiccan version of Hitler."
Morgan has broken up with Hunter and has found out that Ciaran is her true birth father, making Killian her half-brother. The council of witches sends Eoife, an elderly witch, to Morgan to ask her for her assistance for the rescue of the Starlocket coven, which the International Council of Witches thinks the mysterious dark wave will strike next. Morgan has to get close to Killian to get closer to Ciaran so she called Killian to Widow's Vale and asked him to contact Ciaran. She feels apprehensive and hesitant about facing Ciaran, but at the same time, has a strange urge to hug him since she has finally found her true father. She refuses to hug the same man that killed her mother Maeve Riordan and Angus, her lover, however. Near the end of the book, she shape shifts into a wolf, with Ciaran, and learns his true name, which can control him. Morgan is faced with a choice between the people she loves and the powerful and seemingly dark magick her father can teach her.
Morgan gets back together with Hunter, and during a family dinner with Hunter, Mary K finally finds out the truth about what Selene had done to her, and how Selene and Cal died. To make things worse, strange occurrences begin to happen in Morgan's presence. Books begin flying and light bulbs explode, and no one seems to know the cause - thus attributing the blame to Morgan. Morgan's school grades begin to slip and she finds herself having difficulty finding a balance between her school work and a life of Wicca.
The tenth book in the Sweep series is not from Morgan's point of view. Instead the book is in Hunter's point of view. Hunter was in a search for his parents who have been missing since Hunter was a child. Hunter receives information about the whereabouts of his parents, which inevitably lead him to Canada. There he finds his father, Daniel Naill, and discovers that his mother died just before Yule, when he was training Morgan. Hunter soon discovers that his father is talking to his mother (who is dead) via the use of what is considered to be a form of dark magick, against the wishes of Hunter's mother. Hunter must attempt to stop his father from doing this, while investigating a witch by the name of Justine Courceau, a witch collecting the true names of other witches, on the order of the International Council of Witches. He ends up kissing her, and then is faced with the fact that he has to tell Morgan about it.
Hunter and Morgan read the memoir of Rose MacEwan's which Hunter acquired while in Canada. Rose MacEwan is a Woodbane ancestor of Morgan and is the first person to have created a Dark Wave (a powerful piece of dark magick which can destroy entire covens). The story is written from Rose's point of view and follows her story as she falls in love, has her heart broken, and turns to dark magic as a means of revenge eventually creating the first Dark Wave, not actually realizing what she was doing at the time!
This book switches perspectives between Morgan and Alisa Soto, who discovers that she is a half-witch with significant power. Morgan, Hunter, Daniel Niall and Alisa join forces to combat a Dark Wave which is heading for them and will destroy themselves and their friends and families. Daniel discovers a way to counteract the dark wave, however any full witch would die in the process. Alisa soon discovers that her half-witch abilities may be the key to defeating the Dark Wave and saving everyone who she knows.
This book is entirely from Alisa Soto's perspective with the difficulties of finding out she is a blood witch and her weird powers and the added stress from her father and his pregnant girlfriend, Alisa's powers flood Hunter's house. After another heated confrontation with her father, Alisa runs away to Gloucester to meet her Uncle Sam. There she meets her mother's family and re-discovers with her roots with the help of family friend Charlie. She finds out the family have been plagued by mysterious mishaps that had been attributed to a curse her great-great-great-great grandmother placed on the family (having lost her mind.)
This book is written from both Hunter and Morgan's points of view and begins tying up loose ends of the past 13 novels. Morgan begins sleep-walking in life-threatening situations and begins having visions of Cal, who is dead, trying to kill her. Meanwhile Hunter is faced with a decision of whether or not he wants to work for International Witches Council anymore. The two soon find themselves battling an enemy they thought was dead. The story ends with Morgan boarding a plane to Scotland to join a Wiccan school. Hunter gives her a silver Claddagh ring, as a symbol of his love and devotion to her.
Night's Child is considered "Book 15" in the "Wicca" versions (UK and Australia), though not in the "Sweep" versions (US) where it is known as a Super Edition. Unlike the previous installments of Sweep, this book is not written in first person. Morgan is now thirty-seven years old and her daughter Moira is fifteen. Morgan's husband, Colm Byrne, whom she married in April of the same year that Hunter Niall died in a storm at sea, was killed in a train crash whilst on a business trip to London. Morgan has otherwise lived in peace working as a healer for the New Charter, and preparing to become the High Priestess of the reformed coven of Belwicket. Upon the actions of another coven, Ealltuinn, Morgan begins to realize that there are dark forces once again being built against her, and her daughter Moira discovers the details of her mother's past which have long been hidden. As Morgan discovers that Hunter is still alive, she sets out to find him with her daughter Moira, who during the book finds out that she is not the daughter of Colm Byrne as she thought she was but instead Hunter Niall's child. Moira then realizes how powerful her mother had been as she strives to find Hunter despite the harsh challenges facing her.
| Book Number | Title | Year of Publication | Perspective |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Book of Shadows | 2001 | Morgan Rowlands |
| 02 | The Coven | 2001 | Morgan Rowlands |
| 03 | Blood Witch | 2001 | Morgan Rowlands |
| 04 | Dark Magick | 2001 | Morgan Rowlands |
| 05 | Awakening | 2001 | Morgan Rowlands |
| 06 | Spellbound | 2001 | Morgan Rowlands |
| 07 | The Calling | 2001 | Morgan Rowlands |
| 08 | Changeling | 2001 | Morgan Rowlands |
| 09 | Strife | 2002 | Morgan Rowlands |
| 10 | Seeker | 2002 | Hunter Niall |
| 11 | Origins | 2002 | Rose MacEwan |
| 12 | Eclipse | 2002 | Morgan Rowlands and Alisa Soto |
| 13 | Reckoning | 2002 | Alisa Soto |
| 14 | Full Circle | 2002 | Morgan Rowlands and Hunter Niall |
| Super Edition[1] | Night's Child | 2003 | 3rd person |