Guest Review: Truthwitch by Susan Dennard

Truthwitch 

Author: Susan Dennard

Published On: 01/05/16

Page Count:416

Synopsis:

In a continent on the edge of war, two witches hold its fate in their hands.

Young witches Safiya and Iseult have a habit of finding trouble. After clashing with a powerful Guildmaster and his ruthless Bloodwitch bodyguard, the friends are forced to flee their home.

Safi must avoid capture at all costs as she's a rare Truthwitch, able to discern truth from lies. Many would kill for her magic, so Safi must keep it hidden - lest she be used in the struggle between empires. And Iseult's true powers are hidden even from herself.

In a chance encounter at Court, Safi meets Prince Merik and makes him a reluctant ally. However, his help may not slow down the Bloodwitch now hot on the girls' heels. All Safi and Iseult want is their freedom, but danger lies ahead. With war coming, treaties breaking and a magical contagion sweeping the land, the friends will have to fight emperors and mercenaries alike. For some will stop at nothing to get their hands on a Truthwitch.

Overall Rating: 3.5 / 5

I found this book to be pretty interesting most of the way through, though a bit repetitive at times. It had good character development and a plot that moved along well but it still ended up taking me awhile to finish.

Cover: 3/5

The cover is very pretty and the art is well done, but it has 2 things that I strongly dislike for book covers; Quotes, and a character’s face. I really don’t like quotes from reviewers or anywhere else on book covers, and I also very much prefer to have the main characters left mostly to the imagination of the reader. Both of these things vary in importance to each reader, but I couldn’t grade the cover any higher than a 3 because of these things.

Characters: 4.5 / 5

The character development was the strongest part of this book for me. I found them to be interesting and enjoyable the whole way, with lots of depth.

Safiya: A truthwitch and one of the two main characters of the story, Safi is headstrong and confident. She complements her sister in many ways, and controls one of the most potent and rare magics / witcheries in the world.

Iseult: She is a threadwitch, and close friend / sister to Safi. She is much more timid and sort of the opposite side of the coin to Safi. I found her past very interesting and as the story develops and you learn more about her family, her character gets a lot more depth. She can see the ties that bind people to each other, and so gets to make a lot of discoveries about other characters.

Aeduan: The Bloodwitch who is chasing down the two sisters. This guy is an extremely dangerous individual who is hired to hunt down Safi and Iseult. He too has an intriguing back story, and reasons behind his actions. He starts as an obviously antagonistic character but starts to change as the story moves on.

Plot: 3.5 / 5

The plot is action packed and always has something new going on. I enjoyed the story and the world the author built around these characters. The main gripe I had with the story was what I felt was overuse of the ‘witch’ powers that seemed to govern everything in the story. If there is an element, a metal, even an idea, there is probably a ‘witchery’ for it in the story. I felt that if there was ever any need for a device to move the plot forward, a random new witch power would surface. Everything from water, wind, earth, steel, truth, thread, blood, and fire, there was someone with witch control over it. I think that limiting the use of this magic would make the story a bit more believable and relatable, and it got to be frustrating for me when a new witch was around every corner.

~Brian