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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
Miles better than the first in the series, Virginia Boecker's sequel to Witch Hunter is well worth a read for anyone who enjoys a bit of action/fighting, romance, tragedy and cliffhangers and shocking plot twists.
Elizabeth Grey makes for a wonderful heroine, humble (but not too humble), determined and courageous; but with traits every ordinary human has, to make her seem more real and she connects strongly with the reader.
Elizabeth Grey makes for a wonderful heroine, humble (but not too humble), determined and courageous; but with traits every ordinary human has, to make her seem more real and she connects strongly with the reader.
While I didn't quite enjoy this as much as the first book, it was still an enjoyable story! I love the world that Boecker has created, full of magic and deception.
I love the magic in this book, despite the fact that it left me wanting more. I did quite enjoy the deception at the end and the final part of the plan. It all came to a good conclusion with a nice clean, tied-up ending. No loose ends here!
"If you'd left me alone, I'd be nothing to you. But by pursuing me, you created your own worst enemy. And for that, for what you did to them, to all of us, I'm going to pay you in kind."
Like the first book, Elizabeth and John were kind of just there for me.
Spoiler
They actually had a rough time with their relationship in this book, but it never really felt dire. I guess this was one that I just knew would turn out alright in the end, I guess?The main drawback this book had for me was my lack of ability to connect to much of anything at all. I wasn't invested in the characters - not to say that I didn't like them, but I didn't particularly care what happened to them one way or the other. I felt very detached while reading this book.
Spoiler
Actually, John died, and Nicholas died, and I didn't feel a thing. Not even a blip. To tell you the truth, I didn't believe for a minute that John was dead, and I didn't think Nicholas actually would be either. So, I ended up being robbed of any emotion I should have felt at the fact that Nicholas actually died, and I ended up rolling my eyes when - surprise! - John was not actually dead. Sigh.Not to say that I didn't enjoy it - it's still an enjoyable read. It's the kind of book that is enjoyable while I'm in the process of reading it, but it may not necessarily stick with me.
Favorite quotes
"Nicholas hasn't dismissed me since I was twelve." [Fifer] goes on, "Since the time I was angry at him and cursed him and made his eyebrows fall out. He looked ridiculous, he was furious with me but it was so funny..."
Did I mention that Fifer was my favorite character?
There are different kinds of strength, I know that now. The kind that wields swords and slays monsters but there's another kind, too; one that comes in quiet but in the end is stronger and harder and more powerful: the kind that comes from inside.
I am what I am: A killer and a traitor, a sometime liar and a forever troublemaker, but he somehow found a way to love me anyway.
This review was originally posted on Novel Heartbeat. To see a breakdown of my assessment, please visit the full review here.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Book #86 Read in 2016
The King Slayer by Virginia Boecker
This book is a sequel to The Witch Hunter, a YA historical/paranormal book. Elizabeth is still after evil magician Blackwell but without her stigma to protect her she is vulnerable and mortal. John and she are still trying to figure out their romance. Add a war and overthrowing a king to the mix and you have an action-packed read. This book picks up right where the first book leaves off and ends in a way that it could be the end and it could have more to come. A good read, I recommend it for both girls and boys in high school and adults.
The King Slayer by Virginia Boecker
This book is a sequel to The Witch Hunter, a YA historical/paranormal book. Elizabeth is still after evil magician Blackwell but without her stigma to protect her she is vulnerable and mortal. John and she are still trying to figure out their romance. Add a war and overthrowing a king to the mix and you have an action-packed read. This book picks up right where the first book leaves off and ends in a way that it could be the end and it could have more to come. A good read, I recommend it for both girls and boys in high school and adults.
I almost didn't read this one. After having such a hard time connecting with the story in The Witch Hunter, I was hesitant to read it in the first place. However, I like to finish a series once I start it, so I grabbed a copy from my local library and added it to my to-read stack, and I am so glad that I did. The King Slayer was so much better than The Witch Hunter!
We begin our story just about where The Witch Hunter left off, with Elizabeth facing the consequences of the people of Harrow finding out that she was a witch hunter. After that, the story takes a little bit of time to take off, but once it did, I had a hard time putting the book down. The plot of the first book seemed a bit aimless to me at times, with the characters unsure of which direction they were trying to take. Also, much of the first book happened inside of Nicholas's house, which also seemed to stifle the story a bit. In this book, on the other hand, the plot is more direct. Elizabeth and the others are on a mission and they know how they need to execute it. They travel more, they see more, the world around them is fleshed out. It helped me connect with the story so much better when there was more of a point to what was going on.
Also, the characters were more developed from their bland beginnings. I believe that this is the real change that made me like the book more than its predecessor. We see more sides of characters, feel more emotion from them. Without this, I would have felt apathetic toward them, as I did for most of the first book. Elizabeth and John are also a much more serious couple in this installment, and though they face some serious challenges, I really enjoyed their relationship.
And then there was the ending, which really pulled the whole thing together. It was big, it was epic, it was completely unexpected, and, ultimately, it was a very satisfying conclusion to the series. I am happy to say that I am now a fan of a series that until recently I didn't care about. Well done, Ms.Boecker. Well done.
We begin our story just about where The Witch Hunter left off, with Elizabeth facing the consequences of the people of Harrow finding out that she was a witch hunter. After that, the story takes a little bit of time to take off, but once it did, I had a hard time putting the book down. The plot of the first book seemed a bit aimless to me at times, with the characters unsure of which direction they were trying to take. Also, much of the first book happened inside of Nicholas's house, which also seemed to stifle the story a bit. In this book, on the other hand, the plot is more direct. Elizabeth and the others are on a mission and they know how they need to execute it. They travel more, they see more, the world around them is fleshed out. It helped me connect with the story so much better when there was more of a point to what was going on.
Also, the characters were more developed from their bland beginnings. I believe that this is the real change that made me like the book more than its predecessor. We see more sides of characters, feel more emotion from them. Without this, I would have felt apathetic toward them, as I did for most of the first book. Elizabeth and John are also a much more serious couple in this installment, and though they face some serious challenges,
Spoiler
The change in John from Elizabeth's stigma was so well executed! I had some serious feels when he turned against his genuine goodness, like Peeta in Suzanne Collins's Mockingjay all over again.And then there was the ending, which really pulled the whole thing together. It was big, it was epic, it was completely unexpected, and, ultimately, it was a very satisfying conclusion to the series. I am happy to say that I am now a fan of a series that until recently I didn't care about. Well done, Ms.Boecker. Well done.
adventurous
fast-paced
This is the sequel to "The Witch Hunter," so if you haven't read that one, I suggest not reading this review. SPOILERS WILL BE ABOUND!! Like seriously. Go and read the first book.
In fact, I had the pleasure of meeting this lovely woman FOUR DAYS BEFORE THE RELEASE OF THE FIRST BOOK at the wonderful Books of Wonder (18 West 18th Street in NYC for those who want to know... like go and support them. They are absolutely fabulous) and you know what she did? She released it FOUR DAYS EARLY TO SIGN IT FOR US. It was magical.
And I devoured the first book. The second book...?
Well.
Although I did devour it, I feel like it wasn't as good as the first.
I feel that way about a lot of things actually.
But this is a bit different. Because it had nothing to do with story line and EVERYTHING to do with character.
(Honestly this will be a short review, considering that it is a sequel and everything I had to say about this series is in my review of the first book, which I'm sure is up on Goodreads somewhere. Actually it is not. I guess I didn't have much to say about it.)
This book is a low 4 Stars.
There.
That's all you get.
The reason why?
There's not much I can say without spoiling ANYTHING.
So read the blurb above and know my rating and then, after reading it and thinking about it yourself, you can come back and read the rest of this review.
________________________________
Spoiler
Okay. The reason this review is short is because, like I stated above, there isn't much for me to gripe about except for character development.Yup.
That's about it.
So what was it about the characters that I didn't like?
1 - Elizabeth was just SO WHINY. That's right, I said it. The strong witch hunter of the first book just goes bleh. Like one minute she's beating people up, she loses her stigma and then BAM. All of her badass qualities go along with it. Even the final battle at the end is kind of flat because I had expected her to act that way since the beginning. Like come on already!
Ugh.
2 - John REALLY pissed me off. Like SUPER pissed me off. Like jump-off-a-bridge-and-kill-yourself pissed me off. (Don't do that though, because we need you.) I was so annoyed with him by the end that even HE didn't redeem himself.
3 - Fifer and Schulyer were so much more assertive in the first book and they kind of fell flat in this one. They ended up being wall characters, where they are there but not important. Schulyer had ONE MAJOR SCENE. THAT WAS IT. Like WTH?! And Fifer I felt like wasn't important at all!
That's my only problem, honestly.
I enjoyed the plot, because, well, Blackwell NEEDED to just go away already. I hated that dude. And I guess I felt bad for Malcolm. A little.
The writing was gorgeous like it was in the first book, with a world that was definitely unique. Although I still don't understand how magic works in this book and who's got it, it's okay because I accepted it. It worked for the people who actually had it.
I also thought that the way it progressed made sense, although I REALLY wanted to slap Elizabeth across the face to wake her up from her pining and self-pity.
Throughout the entire book.
But whatever.
I enjoyed this ending to this series, a duology. I want another book, just to see what happens next, but it's okay. I enjoyed where it ended.
BUT WHAT HAPPENED TO CHIME??? That little witch. Maybe she fell into the river and went away. Hopefully.
Anyway, that's about it.
Told you it would be short.
I just can't think of anything else to say.
Like I said, a low four stars for this book. I can't exactly rate it like I would other books properly, because if this was a stand-alone it would've gotten three and a half stars, but since the first book was worth the five stars I gave it, I have to bring this down a star.
This was a great sequel and an amazing conclusion to The Witch Hunter series
I was so excited when I got it in the mail and now it's already finished. I am in a great big book coma and all I can think about is that it's all over. These 2 books are definitely up there on my list. To be honest I don't know which book was better. There was definitely great character development from the first book, which I very much appreciated. The only problem I had with this was the sentence structure that kind of threw me off because it was used so much. Ex. Blah blah- blah blah blah- blah blah. Other than that the story was great and I cried very much and now my heart hurts. Thank you Virginia for a wonderful story.