Review: Night of the Witch by Sara Raasch and Beth Revis

Night of the Witch by Sara Raasch
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC of this book via Netgalley, however I did listen to the final published version of the audiobook.  As always all opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this!  I've had a been interested in witch trials since visiting Salem as a teen, so I love a good non-fiction or historical fiction about that time period.  I believe this is set in historical Germany during the time of the European witch hunts.  Fritzi is an actual witch and is the sole survivor of her coven being slaughtered at the hands of the hexenjägers a group of religious soldiers whose purpose is to hunt witches.  Many of those caught by the hexenjägers are innocent people with no powers, however Fritzi and her young cousin Liesel are both powerful witches and the Kommandant has plans for them both.   Otto is a hexenjäger, and he and his group of soldiers capture Fritzi, but Otto unexpectedly turns out to be a friend instead of a foe to the witches.  Otto and Fritzi form a fragile truce to protect the remaining members of their family and fight against the crazed Kommandant.

This was action packed with plenty of twists and turns to keep you engaged.  There is alot going on but I think the authors did a good job brining things together in the end.  I am looking forward to seeing what they have instore for us in the next book.  This end on a small cliffhanger, but you kind of expect it so I don't think it was that big of a shock.    I really enjoyed the bits of lore woven in among the historical aspects of the witch trials and the magical aspects of plot.  This book isn't going to be for everyone.  There is a romance aspect, some brutal and violent scenes, magic and paranormal aspects, action, and more.  I thought the authors did a good job weaving all of those elements together, but some may find it not to their liking.  

This book is classified as YA, but I would say this falls more into into the New Adult/Adult age range.  There are some pretty brutal torture scenes and several other violent scenes when it comes to the battles.  There are a few intimate scenes, but they are fairly tame and not very descriptive but they are there.  The characters and some of the plotlines read more YA though, so I think this will appeal the more mature YA reader as well as a broad range of adults who enjoy fantasy and historical fiction.  Keep in mind that from a historical aspect, those who were tried and found guilty of witchcraft were tortured and maimed in the most horrific ways.  I think from that perspective the authors did a good job keeping in line with the historical nature of how the men and women who were accused were treated during the actual witch trials in Europe and the US.

Overall, i really enjoyed this, and I am very much looking forward to the next book in the duology.  

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August Wrap Up

I can't believe summer is over.  This summer felt really long, but it was over way too soon.  It was a busy reading month with everything being released at the same time.  I got a bit overwhelmed and a little slumpy with my reading.  I'm a little behind with my ARCs but I'm getting there.  I think I still had a pretty good reading month.

Books/Ebooks/ARCs

• The Point by John Dixon
• Review
• This is an urban scifi fantasy.  It deals with troublemaking teens and young adults who have an aptitude for the unnatural.  Each of them has some sort of supernatural ability, but they can't stay out of trouble.  This lands them at The Point, a school within a school at West Point Army Academy.  Here they can hone their powers, while also working towards a career in the military.  It was OK.  The characters were a little too immature for my liking.  I think its a great book for young readers, I just had a hard time connecting to it.
• As Dust Dances by Samantha Young
• Review
• This is a follow on to Play On, but this standalone follows a different couple associated with the arts and music community.  This follows a broken musician and an equally broken record executive as they both try to figure out what they want out of life and how to navigate through fame and success.  If you are a fan of Sam's contemporary writing this is a must.
• The Prince by Jennifer L. Armentrout
• Review
• I was surprised with an ARC of this and I loved it.  I sort of continues where the Wicked Series left off, but it isn't a continuation.  It is a companion to the series, but like the original it left me without closure.  Rumor has it there is another installment coming and I hope it gives us some answers.  Great for new fans of JLA and diehards alike.
• These Rebel Waves by Sara Raasch
• Review
• This is full of political intrigue.  The magical system is based on botanical elements from the plants found on the island setting of the story.  The pirates are stream raiders who harvest and trade the plants on the iland of Grace Loray.  In some places the magic is legal in others it is forbidden.  The 3 main characters find themselves questioning everything they know about loyalty, magic, and peace in an effort to save those they love and their home.  It is fairly slow paced and more political than action packed.  
• Crew by Tijan
• Review
• I wasn't sure if I was going to get an ARC of this one, so I was pleasantly surprised when I was on the review list.  This is a new young adult contemporary series by Tijan.  It is very mature, and follows a group of kids in a crew.  They aren't a gang, but they kind of are in the way they protect each other and don't take crap from anyone.  They are dangerous and violent and it makes for a pretty unique storyline.

Audiobooks

I got through several audiobooks I've been waiting on

• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• This totally lived up to all of the hype.  This isn't normally the type of book I go for, but I throughly enjoyed it.  It was a captivating memoir, or atleast it felt like you were listening to a memoir about a real woman.  It was wonderful, highly recommend.
• The Diviners and Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray
• This was another unexpected surprise.  I didn't realize this was a paranormal read.  I loved it.  I loved the historical aspect to it.  I loved The Diviners so much I quickly went on to continue the series.
• War Storm by Victoria Aveyard
• I've been waiting for this for quite a while.  It picks up shortly after King's Cage with Cal and Mare forming alliances to fight Maven.  I'm really happy that I chose to finsih off the series on audio.  This is quite long, and a bit slow paced but the audio really helped me stay engaged.  There are several persepectives that add to the flow of the story that would have taken away from my reading experience but on audio they were quite good.  It kept me engaged and I'm quite happy with how the series ended.
• The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
• I really enjoyed this.  It is full of political intrigue and has a couple of twists and turns that I didn't see coming.  It is a great follow up to The Thief and I'm looking forward to continuing the series.  
• Final Girls by Riley Sager
• I've been on a thriller kick lately and this book has gotten alot of hype lately.  I see why, it was quite good and I really enjoyed it.  It was one of those books where you weren't quite sure where it was headed until the very end and I surely didn't see the end coming.  I love that in my thrillers.  

Review: These Rebel Waves by Sara Raasch

These Rebel Waves by Sara Raasch
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review.  This came out on August 7th, and I am horribly late with getting my review up.  To be fair I just finished it today, I got really behind at the beginning of the month with my reading.

This took me a while to get into, the story is slower paced than Raasch's previous series but I eventually got engaged in the storyline and there were quite a few plot twists towards the end that I really didn't see coming. I tend to have a hard time with books that follow more than one perspective and this was no different. This is a 3 person narrative, which is not my favorite. This also wasn't what I was expecting. I was expecting a super action packed pirate story, filled with magical abilities. There are some pirates but they aren't doing pirate stuff. Most of the story takes place on land. The magic system is based on plants and when ingested they give the person abilities for a time. The plot is full of political intrigue and mainly focused on the the characters trying to keep the peace between the warring factions. Overall, I liked the story, enough to continue the series. It ends on a pretty major cliffhanger and I'd like to know what happens to the characters and where the plotline ends up.

The story follows Lu, she is a politician, and a former soldier and spy of the Grace Loray revolution. Her parents were revolutionaries and turned her into a tool for their war. Now they sit on the council of Grace Loray, an island once ruled by a harsh religion, but is now a port full of magic, trade, and commerce where people of all nationalities are free to come and go as they please. Well atleast that is what the council tells themselves. Today Grace Loray is overrun with factions of pirates who helped the rebels win the war against Argrid. The council made the pirates promises that they feel aren't being kept and the pirates aren't happy. Lu doesn't want to see the island come to war again, but the council is working on a treaty with Argrid to mend their former differences and it is causing unrest with the pirates and within the council.

Vex, aka Devereux Bell, is a stream raider kind of like a pirate but where most raiders have allied themselves with a faction or syndicate based on their nationality, Vex is allied to no one but himself and his crew. Vex like many other raiders deals in the magical plants that can be found in an around Grace Loray. Vex finds himself a pawn in several different schemes and he must finally choose a side.

Benat is the prince of Argrid, where magic is evil and life is dictated by their religion. The religion is centered around the Pious God, and the King who dictates the Pious God's desires on the human plane. Benat watched his beloved uncle and cousin burned for the use of magic as a child, and when his father asks him to use magic to cure the sick, he feels like a heretic. Basically every misstep is punished in Argrid, and the wrong-doer must be cleansed to gain favor of the Pious God. As Benat works on a cure for the sickness, he realized there is a much more sinister plot afoot and he's not sure who's side he wants to be on any longer.

There isn't much to the magic system, it comes from the plants which are harvested from the waterways of the island.  The abilities of the plants are fairly well explained.  The world building was decent, and the characters atleast in the case of Lu and Vex were well developed.  I thought Benat could have been a bit more developed, his perspective eventually tied in nicely but it felt unnecessary in the beginning.  I did want a bit more on some of the side characters and the religion of Argrid.


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August TBR

I'm starting to get caught up on my ARC list, unfortunately several of them are releasing on the same day.  I was doing really well until June hit then I got a bit slumpy and behind schedule.  All of my TBR is ARCs because I committed to having reviews posted by release day.

Books/Ebooks/ARCs

• The Point by John Dixon
• Netgalley recommended this to me because I reviewed something else, Nyxia I think.  This looks really interesting.  Future military cadets with superhuman powers, sounds amazing right?  I'm also a sucker for a female hero.  This comes out on August 7th.
• As Dust Dances by Samantha Young
• This is a follow on to Play On, but this standalone follows a different couple associated with the arts and music community.  The synopsis promises a tragic ending to a successful music career, a sexy record exec, and Sam always writes amazing romances and dialogue between her characters.  This comes out August 7th, I have and ARC and will be reading this next.
• These Rebel Waves by Sara Raasch
• I loved Raasch's Snow Like Ashes series and can't wait to read this.  It also comes out August 7th.  This promises pirates, magic, and rebellion.  Sounds awesome!
• Ruin of Stars by Linsey Miller
• I've had the ARC of this forever.  This is the sequel to Mask of Shadows, and follows a gender neutral assassin.  Sal is now one of the Queen's elite assassins, but she also wants to find out what happened to her family.  Book 1 was action packed and I'm looking forward to seeing where Sal's adventure takes us.  This is out on August 28th.

There are a couple of more books I want to get to in August but lets get through these ones first.  Jennifer L Armentrout's 1001 Dark Nights The Prince comes out in August as does Tijan's Crew.  I'm hoping to get to those and maybe some challenge books.  

Audiobooks

I'm still waiting on a bunch of these at the library, so we'll see what we get to this month.  Most of these are holdovers from July,

• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• Everyone keeps talking about how good this book is so I grabbed it on audio.  I had no intentions of reading this, but some of my favorite reviewers loved this so I thought I'd take a chance.  
• The Diviners by Libba Bray
• I keep hearing great things about this one as well.  I already started this and so far it is really interesting.  It started out a little slow, but I'm invested now.  I'm liking the paranormal spin to things and 
• Repeats from last month, still on the waiting list
• War Storm by Victoria Aveyard
• The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
• Circe by Madeline Miller
• Warcross by Marie Lu

Review: Frost Like Night by Sara Raasch

Frost Like Night by Sara Raasch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This post is long overdue.  I read this book a while ago, but the post never went up.  Not sure why I never posted it.  I really enjoyed this series, and it is one that I would definitely read again.

This was an excellent conclusion to the series.

I'm not a fan of multiple personalities telling a story, that's more of a personal preference than a dig on any author that does it to tell a story. In Raash's case it was necessary to wrap up the many storylines she had outstanding, and I think she did a pretty good job wrapping up any loose ends by using the 3 characters to tell the story and keep things moving along. The pacing was well done and the story closed nicely.  This is one example of multiple perspectives done right.  I didn't find it confusing or overwhelming.  I always knew who was speaking and which plot line we were following.

I loved that I couldn't figure out how it was going to end until it ended. I usually figure out how a book or series is going to end early on. I had no idea what was going to happen until the end, and I loved that. Miera discovers she needs to destroy magic but you have no idea if she's going to go through with it or how she's going to do it.  I loved watching it unravel.

I loved the addition of Rares and Oana from Paisley. They are from the Order of the Lustrate and if you've read the previous book, Miera was looking for the Order.  Rares finds Miera and takes her away to help her learn to control her magic. Miera accepts her fate and deals with it.  She's always been strong, but we see her and the other characters really grow into the roles they must play.  While the Winter Queen is off learning about magic, Mather and Ceridwen are fighting new and old enemies. Angra's dark magic has infected much of the land, and those willing to fight are rallying against him in the hopes the Miera can figure out a way to stop him in time.  To say more would spoil the book.  Overall, I'm really happy with the series and I really enjoyed it.


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