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silkcaramel 's review for:
The Witch Hunter
by Virginia Boecker
“I think, in time, you’ll either be my greatest mistake or my greatest victory.”
The King Slayer is the second and final book in The Witch Hunter duology. After the events of the first book, Elizabeth is hiding in Harrow, along with Peter and John, waiting for the council to deliberate between her stay or her exile and recovering from the events of Yule Ball, where Blackwell arrested the king and took the throne. Without her stigma, Elizabeth is recovering slower than usual and all her previous habilites, granted by the magic, are gone, right when she will need everything she can use to fulfill the mission the council gives her on the day of the dreadfully awaited audience - she will have to kill Blackwell. With soldiers and witch hunters invading the safe place, no one is safe anymore, least of all her. After all, Blackwell is after her again. John has his own problems as well - Blackwell's magic within the stigma is clashing with his own and it's affecting him. War is coming to Harrow and it's result will define Anglia's destiny.
I really like Elizabeth as the MC, she's strong, driven and she doesn't hide who she is or what she's done, but rather tries to atone for everything and get revenge for what was done to her. She's a little bit strong willed and impulsive, and sometimes she lets her emotions get the best of her, but that's what makes her such an interesting and real character. She's super sarcastic and her scenes with Schuyler, Malcom and the mercenary makes for funny moments. Her character development in this book was not as great as in the first installment, and her plot was more centered on John and the loss of the stigma, and how she's dealing with it and how everyone is underestimating her and her abilities because of that (John, Peter and Nicholas included). I like that she's not afraid of doing what she thinks it's right and tries to protect the people she loves, despite what everyone thinks and the consequences it could bring her.
Her romance with John, though, it's the weakest part of the book, for me. Since book 1. I can't connect with John as a character, especially in this book - because he's insufferable during pratically all of it and it's even absent in the most part (despite being a main character) - and their chemistry is uninteresting and the relationship feels kind of forced and flat. Even Shuyler has a better chemistry with Elizabeth than her romantic pairing - in here we don't have the physical and/or psychological dependence that Elizabeth seems to have with him, and all the drama feels too much and unnecessary.
This novel was not as good as the first one, though, I missed the action packed and fast pace of the first novel, the surprising and 'DAFUQ' plot twists (there were some pretty 'OMG WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING HERE' moments in this one, but not as much as in the last book) and interesting characters. Most of the characters that made the first book so good weren't as present in this one and were underused to give way to Elizabeth & John's couple drama, and even the characters introduced in this installment were put aside and not as fully explored as they could have been - shame, because Malcom and the mercenary were one of the best things in the book in the few parts they were present and 'important' and they could have been a very nice addition to the plot and the book if they had more space. Despite that, the relationship between Elizabeth & Malcom was one of the things I really liked in the book and how they developed it and how they ended up when the novel was finished was so well done and satisfying. Also, points for the author for more on revenants and their mythology.
The way things were explained here were sometimes confusing and even a bit...loose? I don't know, it didn't feel right or satisfying to me, I thought it could be more thought out. And the final battle was lacking as well. Overall, a good book, but not as good as the first one or the best way to finish a series. It left me unfulfilled. 3.5 stars.