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theeuphoriczat's review against another edition
4.0
Please do read my review of the first book!
Kullen cleaves. Ryber goes after him. Merik is left reassessing his relationship with his sister. He has no crew left. He has been proclaimed dead by his people but he isn't. We get a lot more of Vivian, I really love reading her perspective. I just love how petty she is, which is very different from the face she puts on for everyone. Safi is captured by the Hell-bard commanders. Iseult and Aeduan meet again, this time they help Owl, a young child. Honestly, the chemistry between Iseult and Aeduan is my favourite!.
Anyways a lot of things happened and I love it.
Kullen cleaves. Ryber goes after him. Merik is left reassessing his relationship with his sister. He has no crew left. He has been proclaimed dead by his people but he isn't. We get a lot more of Vivian, I really love reading her perspective. I just love how petty she is, which is very different from the face she puts on for everyone. Safi is captured by the Hell-bard commanders. Iseult and Aeduan meet again, this time they help Owl, a young child. Honestly, the chemistry between Iseult and Aeduan is my favourite!.
Anyways a lot of things happened and I love it.
fi_reading's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
nickyfox13's review against another edition
4.0
Although it feels like a second book in a series in some ways, I still truly enjoyed it and can't wait to read the rest of the series. The action packed pacing made it a joy to read, plus I cared deeply about about the characters.
betharanova's review against another edition
1.0
She beefed it, lads!
Book one was flawed but kept me hooked with attachment to certain characters. In this book, Dennard either forgot those characters existed or heaped insult after insult upon them. My rage cannot be contained. I loved my faves and I had faith in her as a writer, and for this I was punished with this grievous indignity.
First, writing and plot. Only one protagonist accomplished anything in this book, and it was at the very end. The rest of the time was spent dithering around to no particular effect. My guess is that this was meant to be a book of character development rather than real events. I’ll get to that later. Plot-wise, nothing happened. The writing remained at the same quality style-wise, but it got worse as far as factual consistency. There were certainly some retroactive changes, and multiple things that were brought up for the first time as if the reader had already heard of them.
Safi, whom I already disliked, became bearable only in the few instances she actively decided to think about her decisions before she made them. Otherwise, she got worse. She admitted plainly in the narrative that her friendship with Iseult was unbalanced and she caused Iseult to suffer—and then she promptly shifted that blame to someone else. Her storyline introduced some very intriguing characters in the Hell-Bards that captured her. However, because the narrative feels the need to give Safi her way, they were de-clawed by the end of the book.
Iseult meandered the entire time. She teamed up with Aeduan with fairly little fuss, and they walked for their portion of the book. Where Safi occasionally channeled Iseult and became halfway tolerable, Iseult occasionally channeled Safi and became an utter idiot. This was largely in the interest of forcing Aeduan to rescue her. Everything about their budding romance was forced and felt out of character for both of them, not least because neither of their viewpoints delved into why they might have any interest in one another. Like before, Aeduan’s viewpoint delved into absolutely nothing. Too often, he narrated that he was doing his own actions “for some reason.” Boy, if you don’t know, then I sure don’t, either.
I will grant you that Iseult’s character journey went somewhere interesting! There were two brief and delicious scenes with the Puppeteer, and consequences came of that. We simply were not allowed to examine it in any detail; the book was then over.
Vivia’s viewpoint was introduced. In book one, she was Merik’s older sister, the ambitious heir to the throne who was arranging piratical ventures to get resources. She was delightfully vicious. But her POV grants a different angle: she’s secretly nice, and only acts nasty for her father’s approval and her people’s respect. She even pushes away the first mate she’s in love with (a powerful witch with a mild disability; this could have been Merik/Kullen in book one if Dennard weren’t a coward) to maintain the act. She’s afraid of being hated and shunned if she’s… nicer. Girl, what. The narrative bounds back and forth between her act and her true feelings in a desperate bid to justify all her actions and frame her as the true and rightful queen who was doing it correctly all along. You know, by tearing up the legal trading contracts and risking war on her already war-torn country.
The worst crime of all was upon Merik. I genuinely do not know where his character arc in this book came from. Like Iseult, Merik dithered around and didn’t accomplish much. He spent the book mostly being taught lessons to improve flaws he didn’t have in book one. In this sequel, Merik is forced to admit he was wrong all along: there was never any hope for trading contracts (despite the fact he got two); he shouldn’t have been obsessed with getting the throne (he wasn’t); and he shouldn’t have assumed that the navy needed him and he could rule better than Vivia (who was risking three empires’ wrath by stealing weapons and provisions). He also suffers the constant realization that he doesn’t know his capital city and never understood how his people were suffering (despite the fact that his entire motivation in the first book is how his people are starving). Merik’s self-reflection made me feel insane. I just read book one the other week, and I had no idea what these accusations were talking about.
The most uncomfortable part involved Cam, a young trans man. Cam is only present in Merik’s POV. Merik thinks that Cam is a girl who is disguised as a boy for reasons that aren’t his business. There is no other mention of trans people in the books so far. Yet when Merik calls Cam a girl, both Cam and the narrative drag him for making assumptions and being a terrible person. I’d agree if I thought Merik had any concept of people being trans. As it stands, even I couldn’t tell whether Cam was a trans man or Merik was correct until the aforementioned confrontation. This was in part because the narration refers to him as ‘she’ for all but one page of the book. It’s real uncomfortable and not how I would recommend having a trans character, especially if you’re just going to use them as a gotcha.
I truly don’t think Dennard had a plan for this one. Most characters were given nothing to do. I actually don’t believe a single character in this book was gainfully employed. Alarming flaws were retroactively made up for Merik for the sake of conflict—possibly for the sake of Vivia looking good. The romance was blandly forced at every turn, and all those turns were bad and weird. The place book two ended was not especially different from the place book one ended, except that everyone I love has been disrespected.
It is on SIGHT, Dennard.
Book one was flawed but kept me hooked with attachment to certain characters. In this book, Dennard either forgot those characters existed or heaped insult after insult upon them. My rage cannot be contained. I loved my faves and I had faith in her as a writer, and for this I was punished with this grievous indignity.
First, writing and plot. Only one protagonist accomplished anything in this book, and it was at the very end. The rest of the time was spent dithering around to no particular effect. My guess is that this was meant to be a book of character development rather than real events. I’ll get to that later. Plot-wise, nothing happened. The writing remained at the same quality style-wise, but it got worse as far as factual consistency. There were certainly some retroactive changes, and multiple things that were brought up for the first time as if the reader had already heard of them.
Safi, whom I already disliked, became bearable only in the few instances she actively decided to think about her decisions before she made them. Otherwise, she got worse. She admitted plainly in the narrative that her friendship with Iseult was unbalanced and she caused Iseult to suffer—and then she promptly shifted that blame to someone else. Her storyline introduced some very intriguing characters in the Hell-Bards that captured her. However, because the narrative feels the need to give Safi her way, they were de-clawed by the end of the book.
Iseult meandered the entire time. She teamed up with Aeduan with fairly little fuss, and they walked for their portion of the book. Where Safi occasionally channeled Iseult and became halfway tolerable, Iseult occasionally channeled Safi and became an utter idiot. This was largely in the interest of forcing Aeduan to rescue her. Everything about their budding romance was forced and felt out of character for both of them, not least because neither of their viewpoints delved into why they might have any interest in one another. Like before, Aeduan’s viewpoint delved into absolutely nothing. Too often, he narrated that he was doing his own actions “for some reason.” Boy, if you don’t know, then I sure don’t, either.
I will grant you that Iseult’s character journey went somewhere interesting! There were two brief and delicious scenes with the Puppeteer, and consequences came of that. We simply were not allowed to examine it in any detail; the book was then over.
Vivia’s viewpoint was introduced. In book one, she was Merik’s older sister, the ambitious heir to the throne who was arranging piratical ventures to get resources. She was delightfully vicious. But her POV grants a different angle: she’s secretly nice, and only acts nasty for her father’s approval and her people’s respect. She even pushes away the first mate she’s in love with (a powerful witch with a mild disability; this could have been Merik/Kullen in book one if Dennard weren’t a coward) to maintain the act. She’s afraid of being hated and shunned if she’s… nicer. Girl, what. The narrative bounds back and forth between her act and her true feelings in a desperate bid to justify all her actions and frame her as the true and rightful queen who was doing it correctly all along. You know, by tearing up the legal trading contracts and risking war on her already war-torn country.
The worst crime of all was upon Merik. I genuinely do not know where his character arc in this book came from. Like Iseult, Merik dithered around and didn’t accomplish much. He spent the book mostly being taught lessons to improve flaws he didn’t have in book one. In this sequel, Merik is forced to admit he was wrong all along: there was never any hope for trading contracts (despite the fact he got two); he shouldn’t have been obsessed with getting the throne (he wasn’t); and he shouldn’t have assumed that the navy needed him and he could rule better than Vivia (who was risking three empires’ wrath by stealing weapons and provisions). He also suffers the constant realization that he doesn’t know his capital city and never understood how his people were suffering (despite the fact that his entire motivation in the first book is how his people are starving). Merik’s self-reflection made me feel insane. I just read book one the other week, and I had no idea what these accusations were talking about.
The most uncomfortable part involved Cam, a young trans man. Cam is only present in Merik’s POV. Merik thinks that Cam is a girl who is disguised as a boy for reasons that aren’t his business. There is no other mention of trans people in the books so far. Yet when Merik calls Cam a girl, both Cam and the narrative drag him for making assumptions and being a terrible person. I’d agree if I thought Merik had any concept of people being trans. As it stands, even I couldn’t tell whether Cam was a trans man or Merik was correct until the aforementioned confrontation. This was in part because the narration refers to him as ‘she’ for all but one page of the book. It’s real uncomfortable and not how I would recommend having a trans character, especially if you’re just going to use them as a gotcha.
I truly don’t think Dennard had a plan for this one. Most characters were given nothing to do. I actually don’t believe a single character in this book was gainfully employed. Alarming flaws were retroactively made up for Merik for the sake of conflict—possibly for the sake of Vivia looking good. The romance was blandly forced at every turn, and all those turns were bad and weird. The place book two ended was not especially different from the place book one ended, except that everyone I love has been disrespected.
It is on SIGHT, Dennard.
autumn_faerie's review against another edition
4.0
*I received a copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.This does not affect my opinion on the book.**
I actually managed to complete Windwitch, like I started it for the first time after I was done with A Court of Wings and Ruin back in June,but then I didn't actually have time to get much reading done, and I could only start it again last week and yes, I managed to complete it this time! *pats self on the shoulder*So, we get to the review, okay?
Cover and Title: The title apparently follows a pattern (?) and I'm guessing this one revolves mostly around that one Windwitch we know, though yes, we get to see a lot of other characters with some major roles.But the cover, I don't really love it like the way I loved Truthwitch, cause you know, they are mismatched covers.But yes, I like this cover too!It has this character, probably this certain Windwitch we know about, cause all the leaves in the air and a completed covered hooded figure?It couldn't be anyone else.
World building: This book has just as much world building as Truthwitch does, and it's total up to you, how you imagine each place.The maximum amount of the world you'll learn about is the immediate surroundings of each character, and after two books, I'm kind of starting to get okay with that, tbh.Maybe we could have a separate guide-ish book where the world is described?It does seem like a good idea to me.
Plot: I like how the story went in this one.I mean seriously, I enjoyed the book, yes, I kept mixing up the pirate characters at a certain point, but I enjoyed it. We don't see Safi and Iseult together in this one, but there's still the friendship between them and I'm looking forward to them being back together int he next books.But in this one, I especially liked Iseult and Aeduan's story, I love that they are growing around each other, and Merik and Vivia's story. They came to know each other for who they actually are, and it's kind of beautiful. And there are always hilarious lines to cheer you up when you get hit by sad feels! Plus romance isn't at all a major part in this book, so cheers!
“Oh, I know!" Safi clapped her hands, delighted by her own genius. "I shall call you Un-empressed."
"Please," Vaness said coldly, "stop this immediately."
Safi absolutely did not.”
― Susan Dennard, Windwitch
Characters: I'm sure it's safe to assume now that we have four main characters, Safi, Iseult, Merik and Aeduan.At least that's how I think it is.And apart from them, we meet some other major characters, the Empress of Marstok, Vaness; and Vivia and Owl. All the 4 major characters go through some character development, some minor, some major.Safi tries to do something that isn't something stupid and irrational. Iseult has a bigger development, and so does Merik. Something in Aeduan changed too, probably from being around Iseult. And Vaness (I have a feeling I'm spelling it wrong, but I'm too lazy to go look it up somewhere ), she comes across a strong willed person, skilled at her iron witchery, no wonder she's an Empress, but I'm not exactly sure what happened to her towards the ending of the book. And going to Vivia, she is someone I really liked in this book besides Iseult and Aeduan. Everything she does, what she sacrifices, her views on things, I think she is fit to wear a crown and rule.Plus, you get to meet some interesting side characters, who are vital to the plot, create interesting relations with the main characters and are just people you need to meet!And I'm not gonna talk about Owl, you need to read to meet that character.And I can't talk more with out giving away vital elements of the plot.But here's me, waiting eagerly for the next book to come out cause this series has grown on me.
“Why do you hold a razor in one hand?
So men remember that I am sharp as any edge.
And why do you hold broken glass in the other?
So men remember that I am always watching.”
― Susan Dennard, Windwitch
And I'm still wondering who smells of Clear Lake and Frozen Waters.And I wonder what my blood would smell like to Aeduan.I'm so curious about that one.Just as I wonder how Amortentia would smell like to me.And this book had some really good lines and here's a few of them.
“The holiest always have the farthest to fall.”
― Susan Dennard, Windwitch
“It is always easier to blame gods or legends than it is to face our own mistakes.”
― Susan Dennard, Windwitch
“There are degrees of freedom. Complete freedom isn't always good, nor is the lack of it always bad.”
― Susan Dennard, Windwitch
https://liveinthepagesofbooks.wordpress.com/2017/09/03/review-windwitch-by-susan-dennard/#more-3787
I actually managed to complete Windwitch, like I started it for the first time after I was done with A Court of Wings and Ruin back in June,but then I didn't actually have time to get much reading done, and I could only start it again last week and yes, I managed to complete it this time! *pats self on the shoulder*So, we get to the review, okay?
Cover and Title: The title apparently follows a pattern (?) and I'm guessing this one revolves mostly around that one Windwitch we know, though yes, we get to see a lot of other characters with some major roles.But the cover, I don't really love it like the way I loved Truthwitch, cause you know, they are mismatched covers.But yes, I like this cover too!It has this character, probably this certain Windwitch we know about, cause all the leaves in the air and a completed covered hooded figure?It couldn't be anyone else.
World building: This book has just as much world building as Truthwitch does, and it's total up to you, how you imagine each place.The maximum amount of the world you'll learn about is the immediate surroundings of each character, and after two books, I'm kind of starting to get okay with that, tbh.Maybe we could have a separate guide-ish book where the world is described?It does seem like a good idea to me.
Plot: I like how the story went in this one.I mean seriously, I enjoyed the book, yes, I kept mixing up the pirate characters at a certain point, but I enjoyed it. We don't see Safi and Iseult together in this one, but there's still the friendship between them and I'm looking forward to them being back together int he next books.But in this one, I especially liked Iseult and Aeduan's story, I love that they are growing around each other, and Merik and Vivia's story. They came to know each other for who they actually are, and it's kind of beautiful. And there are always hilarious lines to cheer you up when you get hit by sad feels! Plus romance isn't at all a major part in this book, so cheers!
“Oh, I know!" Safi clapped her hands, delighted by her own genius. "I shall call you Un-empressed."
"Please," Vaness said coldly, "stop this immediately."
Safi absolutely did not.”
― Susan Dennard, Windwitch
Characters: I'm sure it's safe to assume now that we have four main characters, Safi, Iseult, Merik and Aeduan.At least that's how I think it is.And apart from them, we meet some other major characters, the Empress of Marstok, Vaness; and Vivia and Owl. All the 4 major characters go through some character development, some minor, some major.Safi tries to do something that isn't something stupid and irrational. Iseult has a bigger development, and so does Merik. Something in Aeduan changed too, probably from being around Iseult. And Vaness (I have a feeling I'm spelling it wrong, but I'm too lazy to go look it up somewhere ), she comes across a strong willed person, skilled at her iron witchery, no wonder she's an Empress, but I'm not exactly sure what happened to her towards the ending of the book. And going to Vivia, she is someone I really liked in this book besides Iseult and Aeduan. Everything she does, what she sacrifices, her views on things, I think she is fit to wear a crown and rule.Plus, you get to meet some interesting side characters, who are vital to the plot, create interesting relations with the main characters and are just people you need to meet!And I'm not gonna talk about Owl, you need to read to meet that character.And I can't talk more with out giving away vital elements of the plot.But here's me, waiting eagerly for the next book to come out cause this series has grown on me.
“Why do you hold a razor in one hand?
So men remember that I am sharp as any edge.
And why do you hold broken glass in the other?
So men remember that I am always watching.”
― Susan Dennard, Windwitch
And I'm still wondering who smells of Clear Lake and Frozen Waters.And I wonder what my blood would smell like to Aeduan.I'm so curious about that one.Just as I wonder how Amortentia would smell like to me.And this book had some really good lines and here's a few of them.
“The holiest always have the farthest to fall.”
― Susan Dennard, Windwitch
“It is always easier to blame gods or legends than it is to face our own mistakes.”
― Susan Dennard, Windwitch
“There are degrees of freedom. Complete freedom isn't always good, nor is the lack of it always bad.”
― Susan Dennard, Windwitch
https://liveinthepagesofbooks.wordpress.com/2017/09/03/review-windwitch-by-susan-dennard/#more-3787
eviethebookworm's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Death
Minor: War
rlstrayer1's review against another edition
4.0
Alriiiiiiiiiight.
So this book had me fangirling all over myself, basically. Windwitch picks up where Truthwitch left off; Safi going back to Marstock with Empress Vaness, Merick post ship explosion, Isuelt on the run from the Cleaved, and Aeduan meeting up with his father's contact. This book has all of our heroes' POVs, including a new one: Vivia, Merick's "evil" sister. We also meet a whole host of new characters (), and new relationships are built between old ones ().
One thing I didn't like (and this is me just being nitpicky) is the multiple POV in each chapter. We would maybe get 3 or 4 paragraphs from Safi's POV, then it would switch to Merick and/or Vivia for a few more pages, and then we catch up with Isuelt. It made it way to confusing and it didn't allow me to really enjoy each POV because we were constantly jumping from one to the next. The POVs converged more as the story went on, but it was hard for me to really connect with the characters early in the book because I wasn't even given the opportunity to connect.
Now the year long wait for Bloodwitch begins......
So this book had me fangirling all over myself, basically. Windwitch picks up where Truthwitch left off; Safi going back to Marstock with Empress Vaness, Merick post ship explosion, Isuelt on the run from the Cleaved, and Aeduan meeting up with his father's contact. This book has all of our heroes' POVs, including a new one: Vivia, Merick's "evil" sister. We also meet a whole host of new characters (
Spoiler
CADEN AND SAFI 4EVERSpoiler
AEDUAN AND ISUELT 4EVEROne thing I didn't like (and this is me just being nitpicky) is the multiple POV in each chapter. We would maybe get 3 or 4 paragraphs from Safi's POV, then it would switch to Merick and/or Vivia for a few more pages, and then we catch up with Isuelt. It made it way to confusing and it didn't allow me to really enjoy each POV because we were constantly jumping from one to the next. The POVs converged more as the story went on, but it was hard for me to really connect with the characters early in the book because I wasn't even given the opportunity to connect.
Now the year long wait for Bloodwitch begins......
nandaluna14's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 The first half was a little boring, but after 170 or so I really started to like it. Favorite thing about this book was Iseult and Aeduan-Love them together.