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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
Very predictable story. Not much of it was original, lots of deja vu, I've read this before! But a decent read, liked it enough to read the next one.
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I would give this book 3.5 stars. I liked it a lot, and I found myself flipping through it on my phone. I love watching characters try to come to terms when their world alters drastically. Elizabeth has been a witch hunter, gets caught with some herbs, accused of witchcraft, and ends up being rescued by the enemy. This is also pretty clean (you might need to explain what the herbs are for, and there's some kissing and mild violence) so it might be a good choice for your advanced reader.
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“In order to succeed as a witch hunter, you must learn to face your greatest fear and control it. Then — and only then — will you realize that your greatest enemy isn’t what you fight, but what you fear.”
This is one of those novels that has an interesting storyline and likable supporting characters, but the main character is very unlikeable and she will annoy you throughout the novel. I enjoyed this book. I really did. There were some writing issues, but I still think the author has potential because the issues are very fixable.
Ok, here’s a little background on the story. It’s the year 1558 and Elizabeth Grey is one of King Malcolm’s best witch hunters. Their kingdom has witch hunters because the king decided that magic is forbidden, so he wants all of the witches captured and burned at the stake. Right away, we have two problems. One, I was unconvinced that Elizabeth Grey was one of the best witch hunters. And two, there were many times when it didn’t feel like it was the year 1558. More on that later. Back to the story. One day, Elizabeth is accused of being a witch because she’s caught carrying witch’s herbs and she’s sentenced by her own boss, Lord Blackwell, to burn at the stake. She hates magic, but she thought it was OK to carry witch’s herbs for her own personal use. Hmm…interesting. She’s rescued by Nicholas Perevil who is known in the kingdom for being one of the most powerful wizards. A seer identified Elizabeth Grey as being the only person who can save Nicholas Perevil, but none of his followers know she’s a witch hunter. She doesn’t trust Nicholas or his followers, but since he rescued her and she has nowhere else to go, she doesn’t have much of a choice. As the saying goes, beggars can’t be choosers. She has these backstabbing moments where she’s completely dependent on Nicholas and his followers, but she also wants to secretly plot how she will kill them. I guess she still hasn’t learned gratitude. Her previous witch hunter friends have turned on her now that she’s the kingdom’s most wanted, so she can’t go back to her old life even if she wanted to. She manages to fall in love with two guys, Caleb who is another witch hunter and John who is Nicholas’s healer. Both of them sound like good-looking guys and if I was a teenager in 1558, I probably would have been attracted to them too. It'll be interesting to see how she continues the story.
As I mentioned before, I was unconvinced that Elizabeth was one of the best witch hunters and here’s why. Elizabeth Grey is only sixteen, but she had extensive training and education in a lot of different subjects, not just in witch hunting, so I expected her to be a bit more mature and intelligent for her age. If I were to guess Elizabeth’s ranking as a witch hunter based on her actions and personality, I would have pegged her as a flunky. She lacked intelligence, maturity and decisiveness, all of which are a necessity when you’re witch hunting. She was constantly giggling at something, which made her sound like a little high school girl rather than a highly trained witch hunter. I’m not sure how Elizabeth managed to succeed at her trade or how she got the reputation of being one of the best witch hunters. Actually, that’s not entirely true. Caleb covered for her a lot. Elizabeth was great at throwing knives, so I’ll give her props for that. It takes talent to throw a knife and stab somebody’s eye out. There were many times when her response was something like, “Yes. No. I don’t know.” When she’s in the middle of trying to capture a witch, there’s no room for indecisiveness. You need to think and react quickly. Elizabeth Grey is easily impressed by the simplest magic, which made her look a little too uneducated such as in this scene:
“Nicholas nods and gives his hand a little wave. At once, the platters rise and begin floating in the air. One by one they land gracefully on the table. Once again I’m shocked. That level of magic is beyond anything I’ve seen before.”
That’s beyond anything she’s seen before? Really? She had to learn how magic worked and be exposed to it in training in order to learn how to defend herself against it. With her extensive training, she should be beyond simple levitation. By the way, in that scene it wasn’t really magic, but you get my point.
There were many times in the story when it didn’t feel like 1558. At first, I wasn’t sure why I felt that way because I couldn’t pinpoint anything specific that gave me that impression. So, after I finished the book, I thought about it for a bit and came to a conclusion. This fantasy world is very underdeveloped, which leaves too many gaps for the readers to fill. Readers are smart and imaginative, so we can use our imagination to fill in some gaps but within reason. The world building needs more details so that there aren’t any of these fundamental concerns.
As far as the writing is concerned, it’s an easy, simple style, but one of her syntactical patterns stuck out because I thought it was overdone. I noticed that the three-part serial construction was used a lot. I’m not an English professor, so I can’t remember if that’s the technical name for it, but I know it when I see it. It’s one of the strategies that writers use to create balance and rhythm as well as to show some sort of progression or intensification. Once I saw it, I noticed it everywhere. I prefer when these strategies are used in a less glaring way. I like to feel the progression and intensification without seeing any sort of formulaic pattern. I like the strategies to be seamless and clever. I write my own fiction, so I love that awestruck feeling I get when a book is so excitingly suspenseful that it has me asking how did they do that? If I see the pattern immediately, it wasn’t done effectively. I was once told to write with formula without being formulaic. It’s good advice, but it’s also hard to follow when you’re a first-time novelist. Here are a couple of examples of the three-part serial construction:
“My stomach tightens in the familiar way it does before an arrest: part thrill, part nerves, part fear.”
And here:
“The elaborate silver frame is dull and choked with tarnish, but the glass is clear: deep, black, infinite.”
And here:
“I believe it’s why he started the _______: to kill _____, to kill ______, to give him the _______.”
And here:
“The rock breaks and I’m off the cliff now, falling through the air, plummeting toward the heard earth and an even harder truth:
_______ started the ______.
_______ killed _______.
_______ is a ______.”
I hate spoilers, so I had to leave some blanks, but you get the idea. Even with these issues, it’s still a good debut novel. The action scenes and interesting supporting characters make up for the annoyances.
Overall, I thought it was enjoyable, but I wouldn’t try to compare it to any popular, bestselling fantasy fiction as it was in the Goodreads summary. If you need to like the main character, this may not be for you.
Jenny's Book Bag The Witch Hunter review.
It has been a while since I finished a book that wasn't a requirement for school. I started reading this book months before but due to my STUPID reading slump I couldn't quite hold my attention. But when I decided to pick it up again after a long time, I flew through it.
This book was a solid fantasy that I been missing for the longest time! It was entertaining and yet wasn't lacking in depth at all. I really enjoyed the storyline overall and how the author led her story. There were some aspects that could have been dull and ordinary but it was well developed and didn't feel repetitive. I enjoyed our female main character but I was really fond of our male lead, Josh.
Josh wasn't your typical fantasy male character with sarcasm and sass written all over him. He wasn't the brooding fighter I was expecting as well. But he was the far opposite. Josh, who is a healer, is soft and gentle with kind heart. I loved how I could see his softness seeping through his every action and I was definitely swooning!
Overall this book had solid story line with awesome characters that I look forward to meeting again in the next book!
This book was a solid fantasy that I been missing for the longest time! It was entertaining and yet wasn't lacking in depth at all. I really enjoyed the storyline overall and how the author led her story. There were some aspects that could have been dull and ordinary but it was well developed and didn't feel repetitive. I enjoyed our female main character but I was really fond of our male lead, Josh.
Josh wasn't your typical fantasy male character with sarcasm and sass written all over him. He wasn't the brooding fighter I was expecting as well. But he was the far opposite. Josh, who is a healer, is soft and gentle with kind heart. I loved how I could see his softness seeping through his every action and I was definitely swooning!
Overall this book had solid story line with awesome characters that I look forward to meeting again in the next book!
This book reminded me a lot of the movie, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. I don't think that was the intent, and that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. That movie was good and this book was even better. The characters were fun to get to know, and the world was well built. Elizabeth was a really likable character but John was the character that the reader really wanted to know how it was all going to turn out for. He deserved a book and a happy ending all of his own. And I guess that would be my one beef with this whole book, Elizabeth was so terrified of being alone through the whole thing but in the end when she finally ends up with John and his family, she's just kind of "meh" about it. Believe me, I hate insta-love as much as the next girl, but this wasn't going to be insta-love and Elizabeth's character had been waiting her whole life for it. So why the "meh"? Not sure but all in all, this book was a fun read, and I would definitely recommend it.
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
"...your greatest enemy isn't what you fight but what you fear."
In all honesty, I bought this duology out of order and without having the tiniest clue what they were about. I've had them just sitting on my shelf for at least a year now- this seems to be a common occurrence for me. Though, I know I'm not alone in that problem. In fact, Ash and I even created a whole reading challenge for the year in order to tackle some of the ones we've got.
Definitely glad to have finally picked this one up!! I absolutely loved this book from start to finish. I've always been a sucker for things that involve witch hunting (such a horribly tragic time in human history) and when one like this includes actual witchcraft and an interesting take on Magic and everything that goes along with it, I can't help but love it. Ugh.
The storyline was super unique but very easy to follow, though not without its twists. And the book as a whole flowed so seamlessly. I was hooked while reading this entire book- there was so much depth to all aspects of the storyline and the characters.
I loved watching Elizabeth develop as a character throughout this book. Her growth was amazing and seeing how she worked through her fear(s) was such an incredible thing to witness. Such a good book!
In all honesty, I bought this duology out of order and without having the tiniest clue what they were about. I've had them just sitting on my shelf for at least a year now- this seems to be a common occurrence for me. Though, I know I'm not alone in that problem. In fact, Ash and I even created a whole reading challenge for the year in order to tackle some of the ones we've got.
Definitely glad to have finally picked this one up!! I absolutely loved this book from start to finish. I've always been a sucker for things that involve witch hunting (such a horribly tragic time in human history) and when one like this includes actual witchcraft and an interesting take on Magic and everything that goes along with it, I can't help but love it. Ugh.
The storyline was super unique but very easy to follow, though not without its twists. And the book as a whole flowed so seamlessly. I was hooked while reading this entire book- there was so much depth to all aspects of the storyline and the characters.
I loved watching Elizabeth develop as a character throughout this book. Her growth was amazing and seeing how she worked through her fear(s) was such an incredible thing to witness. Such a good book!
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes