Witchlanders by Lena Coakley

3:40 PM

WitchlandersTitle: Witchlanders
Author: Lena Coakley
Publisher: Atheneum
Release: August 30, 2011
Pages: 411
Series: None at this time.
THANKS TO SIMON & SCHUSTER CANADA FOR THE REVIEW COPY.
Synopsis:
 High in their mountain covens, red witches pray to the Goddess, protecting the Witchlands by throwing the bones and foretelling the future.
It’s all a fake.
At least, that’s what Ryder thinks. He doubts the witches really deserve their tithes—one quarter of all the crops his village can produce. And even if they can predict the future, what danger is there to foretell, now that his people’s old enemy, the Baen, has been defeated?
But when a terrifying new magic threatens both his village and the coven, Ryder must confront the beautiful and silent witch who holds all the secrets. Everything he’s ever believed about witches, the Baen, magic and about himself will change, when he discovers that the prophecies he’s always scorned—
Are about him.

Review:
After recently receiving this book for review, I was unsure of how I would feel about the book. Often fantasy books are a hit or miss with me. While I was hoping this book would be on the hit side of things for me, unfortunately it was not.

The cover for this book is intriguing. I love the blue colour and how light it is and then you add the scarlet fabric that seems to be in the wind, you get a very colourful cover. The one part of this cover I didn't like was the sword. I felt the cover would have been just as good without it. I also liked the font used for the title and author name. It looks almost sketched or old. Altogether this cover came together fairly well.

As you may have heard, Witchlanders does not feature a romantic aspect. It purely focuses on the bromance between Ryder and Falpian. Of those two main characters, Ryder was by far my favourite because of how he didn't change his mind easily for others and he would go to any length for his family. Falpian on the other hand, I didn't like as much because of how easily he changed his mind and how spoiled he could be at times. A part of this book I liked quite a bit was the relationship between Ryder and Falpian. They came from such different worlds that their friendship was odd, but it worked well.

One of my biggest issues with this book lies in the plot pacing. For the first half of the book, I found the plot to be much too slow for my taste. But then in the second half, the book picked up speed and ended well. This book had so much originality in it as well. I have never read a book about witches quite like this one and I did enjoy how original this book was. The writing was also good, though some of the terms used and just getting used to the world with the writing could get a little overwhelming at times.

Overall, Witchlanders was not my favourite book, though not the worst. If you enjoy fantasy books, definitely give this one a shot. I give Witchlanders a 3/5 altogether.


 

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