Review: Truthwitch

Title: Truthwitch
Author: Susan Dennard
Publisher: Tor Teen
Release Date: January 5, 2016

In a continent on the edge of war, two witches hold its fate in their hands.

Young witches Safiya and Iseult have a habit of finding trouble. After clashing with a powerful Guildmaster and his ruthless Bloodwitch bodyguard, the friends are forced to flee their home.

Safi must avoid capture at all costs as she's a rare Truthwitch, able to discern truth from lies. Many would kill for her magic, so Safi must keep it hidden - lest she be used in the struggle between empires. And Iseult's true powers are hidden even from herself.

In a chance encounter at Court, Safi meets Prince Merik and makes him a reluctant ally. However, his help may not slow down the Bloodwitch now hot on the girls' heels. All Safi and Iseult want is their freedom, but danger lies ahead. With war coming, treaties breaking and a magical contagion sweeping the land, the friends will have to fight emperors and mercenaries alike. For some will stop at nothing to get their hands on a Truthwitch.

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So here's something you won't here (or see) me say very often.

I eat my words.

That's right. You read that correctly.

When I first tried to read Truthwitch, I could not get into it, and I DNF'd it. This was... a long time ago when it was the bigass sneak peak on Netgalley. I wasn't certain that it was the book and not me--I am, after all, a mood reader--so I kept my pre-order.

I picked it up again a while later. After Windwitch came out, I think. And while I got farther through, I still didn't get very far. I ended up giving up again. At this point, I was certain it wasn't me. I was certain this book was just not for me, and as much as I wanted to read it, I would just not get through it.

I was wrong.

Occasionally, I would look back at that book on my TBR shelf and think about picking it up. Finally, I couldn't stop thinking about it, and I picked it up for a third time. Well, third time's the charm, right? Because this time, I couldn't put it down.

Seriously. I'm going to choke up my problems at the beginning to both me being a mood reader and the beginning being kind of slow. But once I got into the story, I loved it. 

Don't get me wrong. This is such a vast world with so many different aspects to it. So I do understand why the beginning was kind of slow. All the world building is kind of thrown at you, and it's either sink or swim. This makes the book read more like adult fantasy than a traditional YA fantasy (which I'm totally okay with).

I know a lot of people have talked this series basically to death, so I'm going to make this short. I found the magic system to be really unique. While it did use some elemental magic, there was so much more. The ability to (duh) always know when someone is telling the truth. Then also the ability to sense moods and basically the aspects of a person's soul. Then of course there's Aeduan, the Bloodwitch. Who can track and control others' blood.

I'm obsessed and curious about Aeduan. I like Safi and Iseult and Merik fine, but Aeduan? Yes, please.

The story was not at all what I was expecting. I'm not really sure what I expected, but a race to get to a particular spot in Nubrevna to make a trade agreement come to fruition was not it. So that was a nice surprise.

Overall

I'm so glad I returned to this series. I'm slowly making my way through Windwitch (slowly, because Sightwitch is coming out soon, but then Bloodwitch isn't until next year), and then I'll probably pick up Sightwitch soon. I really enjoyed the story and the characters, and now that there isn't so much world building thrown at me, it's easier to get into the story.

4 stars