witchborn review

this is not the first book i read so far in 2018 but you just have to start with a book.

witchborn by nicholas bowling follows a girls at the age of 14 (or 15?) whos mother is a witch. she is the witness at the murder of her mother. now she flees from the witchhunters and you as a reader follow her adventure and the power growing within her.

Here is the official description of the book

now... to be honest. i chose the book because of its cover. i really like the illustration of XY. but after reading the story i had to give it 4/10 stars and this is why:

the idea with witches and witchhunters in the 16th century was great, also i liked the dark theme through the hole book. setting historical figures in this novel queen elizabeth I and mary stuart is also a huge plus. my favorite character was by far solomon who is an actor but you never know how good he really is which i liked. not that typical superboy who saves the girl and is good at (almost) everything. the fact that there's not a big romance story was also a huge plus. no teenie drama (even though i should have contained one bc both are 14) was interesting. what i like most about the novel is the two side story. on one hand you follow alyce through her adventure on the other hand you see the perspective of the witchhunter john which was fantastic and really exciting.

and now what i didn't enjoy. all the characters in the book felt really flat. there was nothing deep in it. especially alyce. at first i wasn't really sure if she even knew her mother or talked to her. it felt like she knows nothing and doesn't lear from her mistakes and she never felt anything it seemed. in the hole book was never a character developement not for one person. i was confused with the big "plot" at the end. queen elizabeth I (the real mother of alyce it turns out) did no care shit about alyce. as a reader i couldn't even feel sorry i just didn't care about them. the second plot that alyce let solomon reborn with dark magic didn't feel like a problem at all (even though it was clearly portrait as one).

at the end i would not read a prequel of this novel but i did not regret reading it. it was easy to follow and quite entertaining. i recommend it to all readers who enjoy dark themes and the story of witches. i also believe that young readers would enjoy this book more. plus people who are not into romance fantasy stories.