●● Book Review / Witchfinder by Ruth Warburton ●●

London. 1880. In the slums of Spitalfields apprentice blacksmith Luke is facing initiation into the Malleus Maleficorum, the fearsome brotherhood dedicated to hunting and killing witches.

Luke’s final test is to pick a name at random from the Book of Witches, a name he must track down and kill within a month, or face death himself. Luke knows that tonight will change his life forever. But when he picks out sixteen-year-old Rosa Greenwood, Luke has no idea that his task will be harder than he could ever imagine.

Published:     2nd January 2014
Publisher:  Hodder
Goodreads :  Click here
Series:  Book 1, Witch Finder
Source:  Review Copy from Publisher

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Book Reviews: A Witch in Love (Bk2) and A Witch Alone (Bk3) by Ruth Warburton (Winter Trilogy)

Below is an extract from the blurb to book 1 in the series, A Witch in Winter.  Please see below links to read the blurbs for book 2 and book 3 (so as not to contain spoilers in this post)
 
 Anna Winterson doesn't know she's a witch and would probably mock you for believing in magic, but after moving to the small town of Winter with her father, she learns more than she ever wanted to about power. When Anna meets Seth, she is smitten, but when she enchants him to love her, she unwittingly amplifies a deadly conflict between two witch clans and splits her own heart in two. She wants to love Seth, to let him love her – but if it is her magic that's controlling his passion, then she is as monstrous as the witch clan who are trying to use her amazing powers for their own gain.

Published:    Book 2, 5th July 2012 - Book 3, 7th Feb 2013
Publisher:  Hodder
Goodreads :  Book 2  Click here - Book 3  Click here
Series:  Book 2 and 3, Winter Trilogy
Source: Review Copies from Publisher
Review:   6 out of 10


As these are book 2 and 3 in the series, there are parts of these stories that I will not mention here as I do not want to spoil the story for those who have not read the trilogy yet.

What I loved about these books...
With the second and third book, I really enjoyed the mystery part of this story, trying to find out more secrets from the past and present and also trying to figure out who is behind certain things that are happening now which Anna has to face.  

What I was not so fond of with these books...
Although I did really enjoy this trilogy, by the time I came to the second and third book the series kind of became a bit 'same old same old'.  The predictability that was in the first book (which I liked) was still there in the second and third book and I did wish that at some point in the story there was going to be something that I was not expecting but that didn't happen.  Anna was a character that I really enjoyed in book 1 and still enjoyed following through book 2 and 3 although she has this tendency to be quite naive and easily led when I would have loved her character to have been stronger in some ways.

In summary...
This is a really good no frills trilogy.  Predictable but has great elements of mystery and action with a hint of history mixed in.

Book Review: A Witch in Winter by Ruth Warburton

Anna Winterson doesn't know she's a witch and would probably mock you for believing in magic, but after moving to the small town of Winter with her father, she learns more than she ever wanted to about power. When Anna meets Seth, she is smitten, but when she enchants him to love her, she unwittingly amplifies a deadly conflict between two witch clans and splits her own heart in two. She wants to love Seth, to let him love her – but if it is her magic that's controlling his passion, then she is as monstrous as the witch clan who are trying to use her amazing powers for their own gain.




Published:    5th January 2012
Publisher:  Hodder
Goodreads :  Click here
Series:  Book 1, Winter Trilogy
Source:  Bought
Review:   8 out of 10


What I loved about this book...
The minute I saw the word witch on the front of the cover, I knew I had to read this book.   I love love love witch books.  First, just want to make a brief mention about the beautiful cover.  What really drew me into the cover and the book was the creepy looking house on the left hand side and the lightning striking it, now that is screaming out to me to be a witch house if ever I saw one!  Match the house with the striking blue and the serious look on the woman's face, the cover seems really cold and I immediately felt like she had been shut out of the house or something.  

I really enjoyed the sense of mystery this book has to offer.  Firstly, there is the mystery of why Anna did not know she was a witch and what would happen next in terms of coming into her powers.  Who would want to stop Anna from finding out who she was.  Secondly, there is the mystery surrounding the town of Winter and who lives in it.  Some people may not be who they say they were and I was very much suspicious of most characters reading this story. 

Although this next point may possibly have been put in the 'not so fond of section', as I was reading through the story I was glad that it was a part of it.  I did find the story to be very predictable and found that very little surprised me in the story.  Normally, I would put this as a 'something I did not like about the story' but with this story in particular, I found the predictability to be some form of comfort.  As I practically knew what was happening next, I could sit back and enjoy the details of the story and concentrate on the characters and their motives etc and I really did enjoy that. 

What I was not so fond of in this book...
The romance part of the story was a bit puzzling for me.  Right from the beginning, it appeared to be a bit of an instant love thing happening and put that together with the love spell Anna put on Seth, it made the whole 'romance' part of the story throughout this book a little bit unbelievable (not completely but there was always a question in the mind as to whether it was real or not).

Summary
A very good start to the trilogy.  Great action, suspense and mystery surrounding Anna and the town of Winter.  I am looking forward to finding out how the story continues.  


Best wishes

Debs