The Witch Collector (Witch Walker)
The Witch Collector comes to the vale every Harvest Moon.
He is never late.
Until now.
Alexus Thibault, the black-cloaked Witch Collector, travels from Winterhold each year to select a witch for service to the Frost King. But this year is different. This year, something far more dangerous threatens the people on the other side of Frostwater Wood, and it rides fast on the Collector's heels.
Raina Bloodgood despises the Witch Collector, especially since he took her sister away. She has lived in Silver Hollow for twenty-four autumns, and for twenty-four autumns he has passed her by. But why wouldn't he? She's a voiceless witch in a land where magick is created by song. What would the Frost King want with a woman like her?
When Raina and Alexus's lives collide, they face the fury of an enemy hellbent on claiming an ancient magick that will bring irrevocable change to every corner of the continent. That enemy needs one last pawn to tip the balances--the Frost King--and they are determined to have him.
Thrust into an age-old war of fire, ice, and buried gods, Raina and Alexus must become a formidable force of their own, or let the world as they know it, and those they hold most dear, be destroyed.
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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
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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.
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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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