The Witch Collector (Witch Walker)
Every harvest moon, the Witch Collector rides into our valley and leads one of us to the home of the immortal Frost King, to remain forever. Today is that day-Collecting Day.
But he will not come for me. I, Raina Bloodgood, have lived in this village for twenty-four years, and for all that time he has passed me by.
His mistake.
Raina Bloodgood has one desire: kill the Frost King and the Witch Collector who stole her sister. On Collecting Day, she means to exact murderous revenge, but a more sinister threat sets fire to her world. Rising from the ashes is the Collector, Alexus Thibault, the man she vowed to slay and the only person who can help save her sister.
Thrust into an age-old story of ice, fire, and ancient gods, Raina must abandon vengeance and aid the Witch Collector or let their empire-and her sister-fall into enemy hands. But the lines between good and evil blur, and Raina has more to lose than she imagined. What is she to do when the Witch Collector is no longer the villain who stole her sister, but the hero who's stealing her heart?
The Witch Collector is book one in a thrilling romantic fantasy trilogy, perfect for fans of Naomi Novik, Sarah J. Maas, and Jennifer L. Armentrout.
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Community Reviews
Favorite Quote from the book:
"Mother used to say that grief always strikes when we least expect it, and that we rarely realize how those we love inhabit even the most seemingly inconsequential parts of our lives. ItΓ’ΒΒs in those moments that the pain of their absence strikes so much deeper, because the time we took for granted suddenly shines in sharp relief." -Raina Bloodgood
This was a book that came across one of my social media feeds as a suggestion and I'm glad it did! I decided to give it a go after reading a few reviews under the thread and I'm glad I did as I truly enjoyed the story line.
While I did read some of the book myself, I mainly listened via the Libby App as life is a bit crazy having kiddos. It is one of the best narrated books I've listened too in a while and the narrators did an amazing job at bringing the story alive for the listener.
Raina is a twenty-four year old mute woman who speaks with her hands "in a language her mother taught her." She is missing the witches marks that everyone else in the village has on their skin and is not magical in the slightest.... or at least that is what she lets everyone believe, including her mother. She actually holds more power than even she really is until someone unexpected helps her begin to unlock her true potential...
***Side Note***
If you are looking for something spicy this particular book in this series isn't it until the very last chapters and then it is some light spice. The second book in the series, however, I am 38% through the audiobook and have had to fast forward a few time because of the spice level. In one chapter I hit that little "fast forward 15 seconds" book at least 5 times in a row
"Mother used to say that grief always strikes when we least expect it, and that we rarely realize how those we love inhabit even the most seemingly inconsequential parts of our lives. ItΓ’ΒΒs in those moments that the pain of their absence strikes so much deeper, because the time we took for granted suddenly shines in sharp relief." -Raina Bloodgood
This was a book that came across one of my social media feeds as a suggestion and I'm glad it did! I decided to give it a go after reading a few reviews under the thread and I'm glad I did as I truly enjoyed the story line.
While I did read some of the book myself, I mainly listened via the Libby App as life is a bit crazy having kiddos. It is one of the best narrated books I've listened too in a while and the narrators did an amazing job at bringing the story alive for the listener.
Raina is a twenty-four year old mute woman who speaks with her hands "in a language her mother taught her." She is missing the witches marks that everyone else in the village has on their skin and is not magical in the slightest.... or at least that is what she lets everyone believe, including her mother. She actually holds more power than even she really is until someone unexpected helps her begin to unlock her true potential...
***Side Note***
If you are looking for something spicy this particular book in this series isn't it until the very last chapters and then it is some light spice. The second book in the series, however, I am 38% through the audiobook and have had to fast forward a few time because of the spice level. In one chapter I hit that little "fast forward 15 seconds" book at least 5 times in a row
4.5
This was a lot of fun! If you are in the mood for a winter fantasy romance, here you go. A large chunk of this book takes place in a colder climate, and there is much mention of a "frost king," so this is a well timed book to read during winter, or late fall in my case. There is a lot of action and drama, the world building is pretty easy to grasp, and the exposition heavy spots don't feel too drawn out. The choice to make the female MC only able to communicate in sign language was intriguing, and I think handled well. The romance I would say is more forced proximity focused than enemies-to-lovers, but it does have that element to it. I will say that the writing is not particularly breathtaking and there are some cliche/predictable fantasy tropes, but there is enough creativity for the story and world to feel fresh, and the characters were really engaging and easy to get invested in. It reminded me of how much fun I had reading The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd-Jones, although I'd say this book is a bit less lighthearted.
This was a lot of fun! If you are in the mood for a winter fantasy romance, here you go. A large chunk of this book takes place in a colder climate, and there is much mention of a "frost king," so this is a well timed book to read during winter, or late fall in my case. There is a lot of action and drama, the world building is pretty easy to grasp, and the exposition heavy spots don't feel too drawn out. The choice to make the female MC only able to communicate in sign language was intriguing, and I think handled well. The romance I would say is more forced proximity focused than enemies-to-lovers, but it does have that element to it. I will say that the writing is not particularly breathtaking and there are some cliche/predictable fantasy tropes, but there is enough creativity for the story and world to feel fresh, and the characters were really engaging and easy to get invested in. It reminded me of how much fun I had reading The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd-Jones, although I'd say this book is a bit less lighthearted.
I don't know what to make of this book, first of I had such a hard time getting into it. Mainly because the pacing is slow, too slow. The author also uses this word salad to describe everything in an attempt to be unique, it comes off as an unnecessarily heavy read. This makes the pacing go slower, and some of the sentences don't make sense;
"After a pregnant moment,"
I spent 5 minutes wondering if this was a typo or the author did intend to use this wording, which frankly irritated me. Its a shame because the idea of the book is unique, and the magic system is new but its contradictory. The author goes on to explain how our MC is sooo unique because shes a healer, and a seer, and a resurrectionist ...and, you get the point? But then contradicts themselves by explaining that magick can be learned, and our wonderful MC learns firemagick on top of it.
I find the MC just plain stupid and short sighted (ha) she intends to kill both the collector and the King, without a real plan or any solid reasoning other than "they took from me" as if the world revolves only around the MC. Its plain childish how she acts, on top of having this on-going somber monologue and a snails crawl explanation for everything. It made the book tedious at times and I was very close to DNF'ing and refunding the rest of the books.
On I dragged, because the setting is beautiful and I do believe the author has a lot of potential. I enjoyed some of the smut, although the bit at the end seemed excessive considering at that point, I just wanted the book to end.
I don't really like the Witch Collector or any of the males in the series because they come off as rip offs from other stories, it seemed fan servicy and the MC was just a very boring Mary Sue who was very *very* stupid. I found parts of it repetitive, even some parts straight up copy paste a whole paragraph, and the descriptions were trying to be unique but ended up just repeating themselves. Some of the book was fluff, even for such a short book. Most of it was spent on some sort of construct, really just seemed like 70% of the book was all the same snowstorm with events happening that made no sense.
In fact, a lot of the book made no sense and was contradictory. I think at some point the author gave up on checking back and editing, because the beginning was perfect and beautiful. I do believe theres still a lot here to unpack and see with the rest of the books, so I will be giving it another chance by continuing the story.
Overall, not terrible but its no masterpiece. On to the second book.
"After a pregnant moment,"
I spent 5 minutes wondering if this was a typo or the author did intend to use this wording, which frankly irritated me. Its a shame because the idea of the book is unique, and the magic system is new but its contradictory. The author goes on to explain how our MC is sooo unique because shes a healer, and a seer, and a resurrectionist ...and, you get the point? But then contradicts themselves by explaining that magick can be learned, and our wonderful MC learns firemagick on top of it.
I find the MC just plain stupid and short sighted (ha) she intends to kill both the collector and the King, without a real plan or any solid reasoning other than "they took from me" as if the world revolves only around the MC. Its plain childish how she acts, on top of having this on-going somber monologue and a snails crawl explanation for everything. It made the book tedious at times and I was very close to DNF'ing and refunding the rest of the books.
On I dragged, because the setting is beautiful and I do believe the author has a lot of potential. I enjoyed some of the smut, although the bit at the end seemed excessive considering at that point, I just wanted the book to end.
I don't really like the Witch Collector or any of the males in the series because they come off as rip offs from other stories, it seemed fan servicy and the MC was just a very boring Mary Sue who was very *very* stupid. I found parts of it repetitive, even some parts straight up copy paste a whole paragraph, and the descriptions were trying to be unique but ended up just repeating themselves. Some of the book was fluff, even for such a short book. Most of it was spent on some sort of construct, really just seemed like 70% of the book was all the same snowstorm with events happening that made no sense.
In fact, a lot of the book made no sense and was contradictory. I think at some point the author gave up on checking back and editing, because the beginning was perfect and beautiful. I do believe theres still a lot here to unpack and see with the rest of the books, so I will be giving it another chance by continuing the story.
Overall, not terrible but its no masterpiece. On to the second book.
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