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A review by confessions_of_a_bookaholic
An Intrigue of Witches by Esme Addison
5.0
American history professor Sidney Taylor is on furlough from her job in Washington DC when she gets asked to return to her hometown Robbinsville to search for a historical artefact. If visiting her grandma isn't enough of a reason to go, there's a million dollars on offer if she succeeds. It doesn't take long for Sidney to realise there is more to the story of the artefact than she first thought, and before she knows it she is in the middle of a huge consipracy revolving around ancient bloodlines and secret societies, with the fate of the world at stake.
It took me a while to decompress after reading this and to try and pull together my thoughts and feelings, and settle on a rating. In the end I went with 5 stars, purely and simply because I really enjoyed reading and found it hard to put down. Yes it's a bit of an odd mix of sci-fi, history and fantasy, but it works and the story is engrossing.
I must admit when the story started and the concept of virtual reality was broached I was worried, that wasn't something I was expecting to come across given the blurb. It poses a scary prospect when framed like it is here though, and certainly added a different tone to the book. The history and magic side of things was much more along the lines of what I had expected, and I thought Addison did a good job of weaving the fantasy elements in to the story in what felt like a natural way.
I really liked Sidney, she was a great protagonist and easy to read about. I liked that she wasn't cowed by fear and didn't let others dictate her actions. A lot of the supporting cast were likeable too, even some of the villains early on, which made it hard to pinpoint a suspect. I had suspicions on a lot of characters at stages throughout the book and really wasn't sure who Sidney should trust, which always adds to the tension.
Although there's aspects of this that reminded me of Dan Brown's books, it also felt like something new and different, unusual. I'm looking forward to reading more of this series.
Thanks to NetGalley and Severn House for an arc in exchange for an honest review.
It took me a while to decompress after reading this and to try and pull together my thoughts and feelings, and settle on a rating. In the end I went with 5 stars, purely and simply because I really enjoyed reading and found it hard to put down. Yes it's a bit of an odd mix of sci-fi, history and fantasy, but it works and the story is engrossing.
I must admit when the story started and the concept of virtual reality was broached I was worried, that wasn't something I was expecting to come across given the blurb. It poses a scary prospect when framed like it is here though, and certainly added a different tone to the book. The history and magic side of things was much more along the lines of what I had expected, and I thought Addison did a good job of weaving the fantasy elements in to the story in what felt like a natural way.
I really liked Sidney, she was a great protagonist and easy to read about. I liked that she wasn't cowed by fear and didn't let others dictate her actions. A lot of the supporting cast were likeable too, even some of the villains early on, which made it hard to pinpoint a suspect. I had suspicions on a lot of characters at stages throughout the book and really wasn't sure who Sidney should trust, which always adds to the tension.
Although there's aspects of this that reminded me of Dan Brown's books, it also felt like something new and different, unusual. I'm looking forward to reading more of this series.
Thanks to NetGalley and Severn House for an arc in exchange for an honest review.