Series: The Witchlands #2
Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy
Format: ARC (received from Susan Dennard)
Page Length: 384 pages
Publisher: Tor Teen
Publication Date: January 10, 2017
I'd like to give a million thanks to Susan for sending me a copy of Windwitch. Although she provided me with a copy of her book, it in no way whatsoever affected my thoughts/opinions about this book. These opinions are completely my own.
About Windwitch (via Goodreads):
Sometimes our enemies are also our only allies…
After an explosion destroys his ship, the world believes Prince Merik, Windwitch, is dead. Scarred yet alive, Merik is determined to prove his sister’s treachery. Upon reaching the royal capital, crowded with refugees, he haunts the streets, fighting for the weak—which leads to whispers of a disfigured demigod, the Fury, who brings justice to the oppressed.
When the Bloodwitch Aeduan discovers a bounty on Iseult, he makes sure to be the first to find her—yet in a surprise twist, Iseult offers him a deal. She will return money stolen from him, if he locates Safi. Now they must work together to cross the Witchlands, while constantly wondering, who will betray whom first?
After a surprise attack and shipwreck, Safi and the Empress of Marstok barely escape with their lives. Alone in a land of pirates, every moment balances on a knife’s edge—especially when the pirates’ next move could unleash war upon the Witchlands.
Sometimes our enemies are also our only allies…
After an explosion destroys his ship, the world believes Prince Merik, Windwitch, is dead. Scarred yet alive, Merik is determined to prove his sister’s treachery. Upon reaching the royal capital, crowded with refugees, he haunts the streets, fighting for the weak—which leads to whispers of a disfigured demigod, the Fury, who brings justice to the oppressed.
When the Bloodwitch Aeduan discovers a bounty on Iseult, he makes sure to be the first to find her—yet in a surprise twist, Iseult offers him a deal. She will return money stolen from him, if he locates Safi. Now they must work together to cross the Witchlands, while constantly wondering, who will betray whom first?
After a surprise attack and shipwreck, Safi and the Empress of Marstok barely escape with their lives. Alone in a land of pirates, every moment balances on a knife’s edge—especially when the pirates’ next move could unleash war upon the Witchlands.
I hate to bring in a pun from the start (it was not intended), but I have no other way of describing my feelings for this book: Windwitch completely blew me away. While I thoroughly enjoyed Truthwitch, Windwitch went above and beyond all my expectations and had me on the edge of my seat, captivated from start to finish. Susan’s writing truly shines through in this newest installment in the Witchlands series, and her hard work definitely paid off because the end result was absolutely magnificent.
The interwoven plots and character arcs throughout the story were so well done. I’ve never been the biggest fan of third-person, multi-POV books, but Dennard crafted this book masterfully. Although I’d sometimes wish that I could know what was happening to a character immediately after their chapter closed, I was quickly drawn back into the next character’s story again and loved the change of pace the new POV provided. The characters were so fleshed out and real to me, and I felt so attached and connected to them as they struggled and fought back against their enemies, whether those obstacles were people, their own raging emotions and thoughts, or something else entirely. Although this is a fantasy world, their emotions and struggles were no less real to me, which was quite refreshing.
Another amazing thing was that I actually liked every single character's POV, even those of the characters you are told to dislike in book one (particularly Vivia). In Windwitch, you really get to see a different side to all the characters, and it really makes you doubt everything you believed about them, especially those you believed were the antagonists of the story. I know some readers have mentioned how they disliked the separation of characters and friends from one another throughout the plot, but I have to disagree. I thought it was overall a positive thing. As I kind of mentioned before, the characters felt a lot more realistic and flawed to me in Windwitch, and I think those traits and their identities were made more clear and distinct due to the separation and individual struggles each had to face. Obviously a support network is a wonderful thing, but some battles have to be fought alone, especially when trying to discover one's identity/sense of self.
I'm not going to go into detail about the plot itself because I don't want to spoil anything, but Windwitch continued to raise the stakes for the characters and continued to pick up the pace. It was such a fantastic second installment in the series, and I can't wait to see what happens in Bloodwitch and beyond.
My rating: 5 stars
I'm not going to go into detail about the plot itself because I don't want to spoil anything, but Windwitch continued to raise the stakes for the characters and continued to pick up the pace. It was such a fantastic second installment in the series, and I can't wait to see what happens in Bloodwitch and beyond.
My rating: 5 stars
No comments :
Post a Comment