Truthwitch by Susan Dennard (Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads)Published by Macmillan on January 5th 2016
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Love & Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 384
Format: ARC
On a continent ruled by three empires, some are born with a “witchery”, a magical skill that sets them apart from others.
In the Witchlands, there are almost as many types of magic as there are ways to get in trouble—as two desperate young women know all too well.
Safiya is a Truthwitch, able to discern truth from lie. It’s a powerful magic that many would kill to have on their side, especially amongst the nobility to which Safi was born. So Safi must keep her gift hidden, lest she be used as a pawn in the struggle between empires.
Iseult, a Threadwitch, can see the invisible ties that bind and entangle the lives around her—but she cannot see the bonds that touch her own heart. Her unlikely friendship with Safi has taken her from life as an outcast into one of reckless adventure, where she is a cool, wary balance to Safi’s hotheaded impulsiveness.
Safi and Iseult just want to be free to live their own lives, but war is coming to the Witchlands. With the help of the cunning Prince Merik (a Windwitch and ship’s captain) and the hindrance of a Bloodwitch bent on revenge, the friends must fight emperors, princes, and mercenaries alike, who will stop at nothing to get their hands on a Truthwitch.
The minute I knew that Susan Dennard was going to be writing another book it was on my to be read list. First, I loved her Something Strange and Deadly series. Second, she writes fantastic stories. Third, this book has elemental magic with a wide variety of characters. If I had to guess, this was the most wanted book at BEA and I happened to be one of the lucky ones who got my hands on a copy. I forced myself to hold off on reading it for a few months because I am an impatient reader by which I mean, the second I finished this, I knew I was going to want book two in my hands. I’m fairly positive my review will not do this book justice so if you take one thing from the details below, let it be the fact that you NEED to read it.
Truthwitch opens immediately with action and Dennard carries that throughout the entire book. From the very first page I was pulled into Safiya and Iseult’s story. I loved that both of these character’s points of views were covered and they are equally main characters to this book even though we do get more of one than the other, I thought they were set up to be equally important…if that makes sense.
It is easy to see why these two get along as they truly do balance each other out. Where Safiya tends to act rashly and figure things out when she realizes she’s in trouble, Iseult is the cool headed one that tries to think things through and ultimately helps Safiya get out of tight situations. The friendship between these two is fantastic and it was great to see how these two were willing to do whatever they needed to in order to keep each other safe.
I found the magic in this book interesting. You have a threadwitch, a truthwitch, a windwitch, a bloodwitch…and so many more I am sure. I loved learning about the structure of the world that Dennard has built out here and centered around the magic. The world itself is structured well and the segmentation that Dennard has built out between the types of magic and people made it interesting. Whether the characters were running through a city, floating on a boat, or trekking through unfamiliar territory, the descriptions and world building was fantastic.
There are a number of other characters in this series and I don’t want to say so much but I’m excited to learn more about how all of them will connect. Already in book one there are some paths crossing that I didn’t see coming and some characters that were introduced had limited page time and I can’t wait to learn more about them. It would be remiss of me to not mention the boys in this book…especially Prince Merik. I thought he was fantastic. His introduction to Safiya was perfect and then as the story continued to progress, I couldn’t wait for more of the interactions between them. He is also more than just a potential love interest as he has a motivation and story which I loved.
So I don’t want to say too much about the actual story because I don’t want to give anything away. I think from the first few chapters you will start to see what is going on. I am so excited that Dennard has created another amazing series and I can’t wait to read what she writes next. Take my word for it, this book has something for everyone. There is magic, action, fantastic characters, an intriguing story, and some romantic tension…and, and, and. I could probably go on and on here but I won’t. Instead I will encourage you to get a copy of this book when you can while I sit over here waiting for 2017 to roll around so I can get my hands on book two.
Thank you to the publisher for the review copy!
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