Witchshadow Review

*A little Spoilery*

War has come to the Witchlands . . . and nothing will be the same again. Iseult has found her heartsister Safi at last, but their reunion is brief. For Iseult to stay alive, she must flee Cartorra while Safi remains. And though Iseult has plans to save her friend, they will require her to summon magic more dangerous than anything she has ever faced before.

The structure of the plot wasn’t a favourite of mine to be honest. I didn’t really like that we lost all of that time right at the start and then have to have flashbacks throughout the course of the plot to find out what happened. Once again Safi and Iseult have been torn apart and even though they are evolving and distinguishing themselves as characters we don’t see them together enough anymore.

I feel like this was definitely Iseult’s book as she figures out what it means to be the new puppeteer and her voidwitch powers. We witness her struggle with the guilt of having to kill so many people and being able to do it so easily and not giving in to that ‘monstrous’ side of herself that she feels is within her. She has many revelations and epiphanies and we learn so much through her about the truth of who the paladins actually are.

Safi’s storyline was a little stunted to begin with. I didn’t really care about the Emperor at all and I wasn’t as invested in what was going on with that. I did like the fact that we learnt more about the Hell-bards and their history and the restrictions that they have now that Safi is one of them.

Vaness and Vivia was a storyline I wasn’t sure where it was going. Definitely didn’t think that they would actually form a relationship which seems to be the direction it’s going. Having that weaved into Stix and Ryber and their adventures was very entertaining and had me wanting to find out what was going to happen next.

Overall the Paladin’s and Exalted Ones were brought into the story way too quickly for me. Had they been introduced right from Truthwitch at maybe I would be on board but right now I’m kind of confused as to who is who. You absolutely need to read Sightwitch to have any indication as to what was going on in this book and even though I only reread it a month ago I was still kind of like huh?

The only thing that is really pushing me forward is Iseult and Aeduan finally being reunited and Merik’s little appearance right at the end with those mysterious sisters. I have no idea what is going to happen next I just hope Iseult and Safi get a chance to sit down, catch up with us and let us as a reader take a breather.

⭐️3/5 stars I’m invested, the story just veered far from what I was expecting

✨Witchlands Series Reread Update✨

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I just finished Bloodwitch and I am all up in my feels again! The majority of the first half I had a vague idea of what was happening and the direction the book was going but I completely forgot the second half of this book as it’s been over 2 years now that I read it. I loved that we get so much more of Aeduan and his point of view and we learn more about his background. Him finding out who his father was and then the flashbacks to his childhood and how out of control of his powers he was and the subsequent ostracization. Seeing him slowly fall in love with Iseult is just so precious, trying to deny his feelings because he believes he actually can’t feel because he is this monster. Then coming to the realisation and accepting his feelings, telling Iseult and then being dragged apart again. One thing I have found about this book was that it was a little hard to visualise what was happening at the end. It was all a little frantic and rushed and I couldn’t picture the setting at all and how the doors in the mountain was set up. Where exactly the standoff with Merik and the Fury was taking place at and how they ended up there in the first place. I was taking my time and reading quite slowly to try and take everything in but I was still just that little bit confused. Other than that I love the progression of all of the character and where they have ended up and I am sooo excited to finally be able to dive into Witchshadow fresh and updated.

✨Witchlands Series Reread Update✨

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Look what I finally received in the mail!!! I am soooo beyond excited to finally have Witchshadow in my possession and I am going to be able to continue this series in the very near future. I still have to reread Bloodwitch which will happen hopefully this week or even next week and then I can finally move on and see where the series will go next! I’m not quite sure how many books are going to be in this series, but I’m pretty sure there is going to be another one after Witchshadow. There are so many storylines still up in the air and so much is happening at the moment that I’m sure Susan Dennard could potentially stretch this out to even  8-10 books which I am definitely here for and will continue to read I’m sure! 

✨Witchlands Series Reread✨

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I think similar to my first experience reading this book it was a great insight to a lot of the lore and historical aspects of the Witchlands and the history of the magic. Even though this was quite short I feel like this book really laid the foundations for the rest of the series. Finding out about Eridyisa and how she was a sightwitch and the doors she created and the 12 paladins was very interesting and I was very much engaged in her diary entries. I wasn’t as engaged with Ryber’s point of view as what I probably should have. Again super interesting seeing all the other sightwitches being called and her having to delve into the mountain on her own to find out the cause. But once she goes down there it was just a little difficult for me to actually envision the whole scenario. I highly appreciated all of the illustrations that were added in, they were illuminating and gave me an idea of what was actually chasing her through the mountain. If this was a full length novel that really went in depth about sightwitches and how Ryber found them and a whole comprehensive storyline I think I would of definitely loved this a lot more than I do now.

✨Witchlands Series Reread✨

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Windwitch still maintains the very fast pace that Truthwitch set but it was just that little bit less exciting. The majority of the book is just Safi and Iseult moving further and further away from each other and though they are striving to reunite their circumstances just keep pushing them apart. There is also a good chunck of the book where they are both just travelling through areas, and though we get to see more of the world it’s not very interesting. I still don’t really trust Vaness and though Safi has decided to trust her I can’t help but think that she isn’t going to hold up her side of the bargain. The addition of Vivia’s perspective added another layer of depth to the storyline and was a way to almost challenge Merik’s very one sided view of his sister and what she is doing for their people. Aeduan is still my favourite of all of these characters and I really enjoyed how multifaceted he is. This book overall was entertaining and quick to read, I do feel like it isn’t as thrilling as the first book but it’s definitely building upon the foundation that was laid in Truthwitch and we are discovering so much more about this world and the magic.