Two weeks ago Safi bartered away her freedom and use of her Truthwitchery to try and bring food to a starving Nubrevna but her sacrifice may be for nothing when the Marstoki Empress Vaness’ ship is attacked. Stranded in a land filled with pirates and enemies, Safi and Vaness will have to forge an uneasy alliance if they want to survive.
When his ship is destroyed, everyone believes that the Nubrevnan Prince Merik Nihar is dead. In a way, they are right because the young man who comes out of the wreckage is someone else entirely. Covered in burns that will take time to heal and fueled by insatiable rage, Merik refashions himself into the vigilante he imagines his city needs modeled on Nubreva’s disfigured demigod who fights for the poor and ailing.
Desperate to reunite Safi, Iseult makes the mercenary Bloodwittch an offer he can’t refuse. She will return his stolen money in exchange for his help finding Safi. As their search brings them across the Witchlands will grudging respect and a tenuous deal be enough to stave off betrayal?
With competing loyalties and lies at every turn, it soon becomes clear to all that revenge is rarely the same as justice. But even that may not be enough to justify sacrifices for the greater good in Windwitch (2017) by Susan Dennard.
Windwitch is the second book in Dennard’s Witchlands series which begins with Truthwitch. Be sure to start at the beginning to make sense of the sprawling series and inter-connected character arcs.
Windwitch capitalizes on the urgency and drama found in the start of this series as each character is forced to make difficult choices while trying to protect everything they hold dear. Isolated and injured, Merik realizes that framing his life in terms of that which he has lost of been denied serves no one, least of all himself, in a powerful redemption arc as he tries to make up for past mistakes.
Dennard delves deeper into Safi and Iseult’s friendship as Iseult especially gets more page time. Safi’s physicality in this volume contrasts sharply against Iseult’s introspection and highlights how they balance each other while underscoring their potential to be the fated Cahr Awen. Because of his close proximity to Iseult, readers also see more of Aeduan who remains a bit of a cipher despite tantalizing new hints about his backstory which are almost as intriguing as the gradual shift in his opinion of Iseult.
Windwitch is filled with complex family relationships, brittle alliances, and ever-expanding world building–all of which position this series as one to watch. Recommended for readers looking for intricate plotting, fierce friendships, and characters willing to lean in to their moral ambiguity.
Possible Pairings: Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi, Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard, A Season of Sinister Dreams by Tracy Banghart, Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, Passenger by Alexandra Bracken, Roar by Cora Carmack, The Reader by Traci Chee, The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi, The Never Tilting World by Rin Chupeco, Witchlanders by Lena Coakley, Chasing Power by Sarah Beth Durst, Scarlet by A. C. Gaughen, The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey, The Glass Sentence by S. E. Grove, Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton, The Nameless City by Faith Erin Hicks, Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim, Forest of Souls by Lori M. Lee, Furyborn by Claire Legrand, Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller, Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas, Angel Mage by Garth Nix, The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson, There Will Come a Darkness by Katy Rose Pool, Dreams Lie Beneath by Rebecca Ross, Iron Cast by Destiny Soria, Song of the Current by Sarah Tolcser
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