Elizabeth - Our Witch Hunter
The setting of the book isn't anything new, surprising or special. Our main character is Elizabeth and she happens to be a witch hunter. She is pretty damn good at her job but unfortunately gets accused of witchcraft herself. Whoops.
Luckily she gets rescued! Unfortunately it's by a wizard. That isn't going to do her reputation any good.
I really enjoyed the first 100 or so pages of the book. But I quickly started losing interest after that. I can't exactly explain why. Maybe it's because I had left my hotel in Ohio and I could no longer read by the pool. Maybe the first 100 pages were only made interesting by the fact that I had THIS to look at (via bookishpeach @ Instagram).
I genuinely liked Elizabeth. She was strong, hard-working, and loyal. However, most of the characters surrounding her seemed dull and lifeless. Call me crazy, but it got to the point where I felt that book was seeping energy OUT of me.
Romance
We do have a teensy love triangle in the works. It didn't bother me too much because the two love interests were kept separate from each other and there wasn't a whole lot of mooning on Elizabeth's part. Her first love interest is Caleb. He introduced her to Blackwell and the world of witch-hunting but can't seem to see Elizabeth as anything other than a sister or a dear friend. So we do have some pining to deal with. Luckily it wasn't overwhelming and I found it quite relatable (since I do occasionally find myself in the pining stage as well).
Then we have John, the healer. I liked him, he seemed nice and sweet. But I FELT nothing. I wanted a romance that I could really get behind, something I could root for. All I felt was a lot of 'meh'.Our Crew & Villain
I'm lumping these two categories together because I have the same complaint.
Elizabeth ends up going on a quest with a John, George and some girl whose name I can't remember because of a prophecy. What a wonderful opportunity for me to fall in love with these characters!
Nope. NOTHING. I have NO feelings.
We instead end up at a really bizarre juvenile party that reminded me a terrible YA high school contemporary instead of a fantasy story with real stakes. The change in tone really threw me off and I couldn't make myself recover from that.
Onto our villain, Blackwell. He was SO BORING. Nothing about his character surprised me at all. Apparently, I had guessed the big reveal right after reading the synopsis (which I must say, must be some kind of record for me). He was just a standard villain. There was nothing interesting about him.
There wasn't anything interesting about anyone, really.
I do have the next book, The King Slayer, already checked out from the library. I will probably give it a go in a few days just so I can complete this duology. Maybe it will be a little better than The Witch Hunter.
I know some of my blogger friends out there really enjoyed this one. I'M SORRY GUYS! I really did try, I promise.
PS: There is NO political intrigue. Absolutely none. Don't fall for the Game of Thrones comparison!
