Spooktober Recommends: Witches

Hey guys, happy Thursday! 

Last Spooktober Recommends I hit you guys with Vampires...this time I thought I'd go with Witches because like Vampires...what's Halloween without witches! 

I've got a fair few other recommends posts coming up for other themes, which are giving me a headache because some belong in multiple categories but I'm sure it'll work out fine! I've also got a couple of genre ones coming up too! 

Sooooo...let's get Witchy! 

1. Witch's Kiss

Sixteeen-year-old Meredith is fed-up with her feuding family and feeling invisible at school – not to mention the witch magic that shoots out of her fingernails when she’s stressed. Then sweet, sensitive Jack comes into her life and she falls for him hard. The only problem is that he is periodically possessed by a destructive centuries-old curse. Meredith has lost her heart, but will she also lose her life? Or in true fairytale tradition, can true love’s kiss save the day? 

The atmosphere to this book really fits with Halloween, the historical aspects to this book are very well done and a lot of fun, and there's magic...obviously! It's got some serious Sleeping Beauty vibes to it and it's a nice, fun read! 

2. Witch Hunter

Sixteen-year-old Elizabeth Grey doesn't look dangerous. A tiny, blonde, wisp of a girl shouldn't know how to poison a wizard and make it look like an accident. Or take out ten necromancers with a single sword and a bag of salt. Or kill a man using only her thumb. But things are not always as they appear. Elizabeth is one of the best witch hunters in Anglia and a member of the king's elite guard, devoted to rooting out witchcraft and bringing those who practice it to justice. And in Anglia, the price of justice is high: death by burning.

When Elizabeth is accused of being a witch herself, she's arrested and thrown in prison. The king declares her a traitor and her life is all but forfeit. With just hours before she's to die at the stake, Elizabeth gets a visitor - Nicholas Perevil, the most powerful wizard in Anglia. He offers her a deal: he will free her from prison and save her from execution if she will track down the wizard who laid a deadly curse on him.

As Elizabeth uncovers the horrifying facts about Nicholas's curse and the unwitting role she played in its creation, she is forced to redefine the differences between right and wrong, friends and enemies, love and hate... and life and death.

This is such a good read for Halloween, there's the witch hunt element and there's a scene with it at the beginning which is really vivid and gives you chills! There's plenty of magic, and there's a little darkness to it! Not to mention some romance, because I know not all of you want to be terrified for Halloween, it's okay, neither do I! 

3. A Breath of Frost

In 1814, three cousins—Gretchen, Emma, and Penelope—discover their family lineage of witchcraft when a binding spell is broken, allowing their individual magical powers to manifest. Now, beyond the manicured gardens and ballrooms of Regency London, an alluring underworld available only to those with power is revealed to the cousins. By claiming their power, the three cousins have accidentally opened the gates to the underworld.

Now ghouls, hellhounds—and most terrifying of all, the spirits of dark witches known as the Greymalkin Sisters—are hunting and killing young debutante witches for their powers. And, somehow, Emma is connected to the murders…because she keeps finding the bodies.

Can the cousins seal the gates before another witch is killed…or even worse, before their new gifts are stripped away? 

You guys know I love Alyxandra's books and I think this trilogy might just be my favourite! Although I am kinda disappointed the third book is a novella and isn't very long :( ANYWAY, I completely love this book. Historical setting, witches, magic, a nice dose of creepiness and romance that's totally cute! It has such Halloween vibes, it's a great read and it's one that I re-read regularly along with the sequel, but Emma holds a special place in my heart so this first book is my favourite! 

4. Trial by Fire

This world is trying to kill Lily Proctor. Her life-threatening allergies keep her from enjoying experiences that others in her hometown of Salem take for granted, which is why she is determined to enjoy her first high school party with her best friend and longtime crush, Tristan. But after a humiliating incident in front of half her graduating class, Lily wishes she could just disappear.

Suddenly, Lily is in a different Salem—one overrun with horrifying creatures and ruled by powerful women called Crucibles. Strongest and cruelest of them all is Lillian . . . Lily's other self in this alternate universe.

What makes Lily weak at home is what makes her extraordinary in New Salem. In this confusing world, Lily is torn between responsibilities she can't hope to shoulder alone and a love she never expected. 

Okay, so it's been a while since I read this, long story short, the covers changed and then I fell in love with the US ones, ANYWAY. I loved the angle this book took with everything, I was already a fan of the authors, and I got completely engrossed in this book! I loved the twists it had and it kept me reading until the end! Also, Salem! 

5. Hexed

If high school is all about social status, Indigo Blackwood has it made. Sure, her quirky mom owns an occult shop, and a nerd just won’t stop trying to be her friend, but Indie is a popular cheerleader with a football-star boyfriend and a social circle powerful enough to ruin everyone at school. Who wouldn’t want to be her?

Then a guy dies right before her eyes. And the dusty old family Bible her mom is freakishly possessive of is stolen. But it’s when a frustratingly sexy stranger named Bishop enters Indie’s world that she learns her destiny involves a lot more than pom-poms and parties. If she doesn’t get the Bible back, every witch on the planet will die. And that’s seriously bad news for Indie, because according to Bishop, she’s a witch too.

Suddenly forced into a centuries-old war between witches and sorcerers, Indie’s about to uncover the many dark truths about her life—and a future unlike any she ever imagined on top of the cheer pyramid.

I read this and it's sequel last year, because I got to review the sequel, and these are such fun reads! It had actually been a while since I'd read a witch at school kind of book, Trial by Fire doesn't really count! I think the last time was when I was in school myself because it had like a pink cover and a broom on it, but I can't remember what it was called! This book has a brilliant atmosphere to it, and it's another interesting take on witches! 

6. Grave Witch

As a private investigator and consultant for the police, Alex Craft has seen a lot of dark magic. But even though she’s on good terms with Death himself—who happens to look fantastic in a pair of jeans—nothing has prepared her for her latest case. Alex is investigating a high profile murder when she’s attacked by the ‘shade’ she’s raising, which should be impossible. To top off her day, someone makes a serious attempt on her life, but Death saves her. Guess he likes having her around...

To solve this case Alex will have to team up with tough homicide detective Falin Andrews. Falin seems to be hiding something—though it’s certainly not his dislike of Alex—but Alex knows she needs his help to navigate the tangled webs of mortal and paranormal politics, and to track down a killer wielding a magic so malevolent, it may cost Alex her life...and her soul.

So not a YA, this is my adult/NA contribution to my recommends! It's actually the only one I could think of, or at least the only one I've read! If there are others feel free to let me know in the comments! I stumbled across this at the library the other year and read all three, I've been waiting for the fourth book for what feels like years! I loved the take on witches in this, Alex being a grave witch, meaning she can talk to the dead! I found it kind of hard to pick a category for this, because it's got murder and other stuff too, but Witch is in the title so here we go! This book is a lot of fun, and it's got its creepy parts! It's also got humour and originality to it! 

Hope you guys enjoyed the recs, and if there are any Witchy books that I haven't included let me know below! I've only included ones I've read you see! 

Review: The King Slayer

The King Slayer
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy 
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Former witch hunter Elizabeth Grey is hiding within the magically protected village of Harrow, evading the price put on her head by Lord Blackwell, the usurper king of Anglia. Their last encounter left Blackwell ruined, but his thirst for power grows stronger every day. He's readying for a war against those who would resist his rule--namely Elizabeth and the witches, wizards, pirates, and healers she now calls her friends.

Having lost her stigma, a magical source of protection and healing, Elizabeth's strength is tested both physically and emotionally. War always means sacrifice, and as the lines between good and evil blur once more, Elizabeth must decide just how far she'll go to save those she loves.

Okay so I read Witch Hunter not too long ago and I've been eagerly awaiting this sequel to see what happens next, WH made me feel all the feels but this was so much worse. SO MUCH. So many feels. I can't even. I read the majority of this in one sitting, I only stopped because it was like 4am and I needed to sleep and I had like 50 pages left or something. I couldn't put it down. The book picks up a couple of months later, and there's a council meeting to decide what to do with Elizabeth and my lord Gareth took the piss. I really disliked his character! Anyway, there's that and there's the whole 'we need to deal with Blackwell' thing. This book as a complete rollercoaster of emotions. It made you laugh, cry, it broke your heart, the camaraderie warmed your heart. You legit feel all the feels. 

I liked seeing this new Elizabeth. She wasn't as strong as she was in book one, obviously without her stigma she doesn't heal super fast and she's lost some of her strength and at points she's struggling to deal with that because she feels like everyone placed her value on her stigma. Elizabeth has to learn to fight all over again with the help of Schuyler and Fifer. This added such an interesting dynamic with John. John now has her stigma and he's all super healing and super badass. He's more protective of Elizabeth and it was kind of sweet. There was an odd tension between them because of it all and it was really well done and created an interesting struggle with the romance, or obstacle rather. It was all fine and good until John started acting super shady, and you see his darker side and I wanted to slap him more than once. My adorable romance was being spoiled and my ship was sinking fast with no happy ending in sight! Honestly, I was glued to the book like NO....NO WHAT IS HAPPENING!? MAKE IT STOP! 

The romance had kind of come together in the last book and it was all cute and adorable in this book I was expecting more of it but I think this added tension and this struggle with the romance added a nice layer to the story. It wasn't all smooth sailing and at points it was quite realistic. But then I can say that now because everything worked out fine, when I was reading I did briefly wonder if this was it, if the romance was done and I was unable to carry on reading a couple of times, having to put the book down to digest everything and calm down! 

I completely loved the cast of characters in the first book and in this book we get to see more of them! I love Fifer's friendship with Elizabeth and her relationship with Schuyler. We didn't get to see much of Fifer actually, or George, but he was there at the end! I'd missed him! We get lots of Schuyler in this book and I love him, I genuinely do. He cracks me up. You can see his friendship with Elizabeth, he helps her train, he's there for her when everything goes wrong, he goes with her on her mission, he's so sweet to Fifer, and you kind of see his softer side in this book a little bit. Chime's back and I wanted to like her this book because I hated her last book, and I did kind of like her momentarily she was united with Elizabeth in trying to help John but then she was back to her regular self. I loved seeing Peter and Nicholas and ugh. So many feels. 

We get some new characters in this book. Keagan who completely cracked me up, I loved her and I'm hoping to see more of her if the author writes more books! She was completely brilliant! She understood Elizabeth quite a bit I think and didn't immediately judge her badly for being a former Witch Hunter. We also get a lot of Malcolm. Now I know he's not a new character, but like...we didn't really see much of him in the first book and I had a certain image of him in my mind, I thought he was a bit useless and rubbish, and a complete idiot. In this book we see him a lot and I wasn't sure what to make of him after everything with Elizabeth. He had kind of had his illusions shattered regarding her and realised what kind of person he had been. It was interesting to see the two of them interact as their merry band go off on their little mission. I actually ended up quite liking him. He apologised to Elizabeth sincerely, and he wasn't the useless pansy I thought he was. Don't worry there's no love triangle or anything! There's just love troubles haha. 

The King Slayer was a brilliant sequel and I'm so gutted there are only two books in the series. It's fast paced, with a vivid and authentic feeling setting, there's an epic battle scene, more magic, more romance, more action and more feels. This book is so easy to sit and read in one go because you don't want to put it down and it genuinely makes you feel all the feels. We see all of our favourite characters and get to see a few more and I think things ended well with everything wrapped up smoothly. This is definitely one of my favourite books and Virginia Boecker has become an auto-buy author of mine! I'm hoping she'll write more books for this series but for now I'll have to settle for novellas and re-reading! 

Book Talk: Witch Hunter

Hey guys, I'm back with another book talk! 
As I have more time now to read books off my TBR, and I have a strong need to fangirl after most of them, I'm thinking of making this a regular thing because then we can all fangirl together, even if I'm ya know....a bit late to the game with some of them! 

Today I'm going to be talking about Witch Hunter, because OH MY FREAKING GOD HOW DID I NOT READ IT SOONER?! I wanted to read it so badly, but I didn't get around to reading it until the other day. I bought it finally because I was like "Oh I may as well buy it because ya know...Halloween!" so I FINALLY bought it but it's taken me this long to read it and I kinda wanna smack myself for taking so long to read it but then at the same time....the wait until the next book is less I suppose?! 

I don't know how the hell I'm going to wait until June for the next book because I'm so eager to get back to the world of the book. I freaking love original and different books and this is one of those fo sho guys! 

This is the point when I should mention this won't be spoiler free because I can't avoid spoilers while freaking the hell out! 

I'm reading and I'm reading and I'm like "yep, yep, loving this" I wasn't too sold on shipping her with Caleb because I was like "dude you're being a douche" with the whole leaving her in prison thing and everything. I wasn't sure if it was gonna be a love triangle or what and it wasn't and I'm kinda glad the book went that way because it ended up SO AWESOME and the romance was SO CUTE. Although with what went down with Caleb, my heart freaking broke for Elizabeth! BUT BUT BUT, like.....he can't be dead right?! I'm feeling like Caleb is alive because Blackwell probably saved him but then maybe that's what the author wants us to think and really he is actually did or I don't even know! 

I got so completely sucked in to the world and attached to all the characters it was insane, Elizabeth is my new fave, not gonna lie. Badass, strong, freaking awesome. Not to mention funny! Completely my fave, her narrative gave me life and I miss her already, I got way too attached to her considering she's a fictional character not gonna lie. 

I shipped her and John to another level, like in the beginning I wasn't sure who the romance was gonna be with because for a while there was always a chance it could be Caleb but then that got nipped in the bud. But like once I saw her and John together I was like "yaaaaaaaasssss!" because like he so obviously liked her from the beginning and it was SO CUTE! There where so many warm and fuzzies all up in the book guys. Seriously. PERFECT FREAKING ROMANCE AND I WANT THEM BACK TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS WITH THEM NEXT. 

OH OH OH and Schuyler and Fifer....ARE YOU A THING?! YOU'RE A THING RIGHT?! YOU ARE YOU ARE I SWEAR! Like I wasn't sure for ages. They where all kind of coupley and bantering with each other and I was like "you two had better be together" and then I wasn't sure and he was all flirty with the nymphs. But then as the book went on I was like "YOU TOTALLY ARE A COUPLE OH MY GOD YOU'RE ALL CONNECTED AND HE CAN HEAR YOU FROM AGES AWAY OMG CUUUUUTTTEE" damn am I hoping for more of those two in the next book! 

I freaking loved Fifer as well, I was waiting for her to warm up to Elizabeth and when she saved Fifer's life, I freaking loved the friendship that started forming. Fifer defending her, comforting her when she was all upset, being all buddy buddy the next morning and then insisting on going with her along with John and George. I freaking LOVED IT. Not to mention Elizabeth's friendship with George. Like, perfect friendships, perfect group. I love all of them together guys, so much. 

I loved the dark twists to this book and I was so surprised by the thing with the King, I didn't see that coming, honestly I didn't. That was the last thing I was expecting when reading the blurb. Although I'm kind of intrigued, like not in a weird way, but like it just seems like the two of them had a lot of little conversations. I'm SO not here for him being one part of a triangle between her and John in the second book, like the thought did cross my mind when Blackwell was like "he likes you" or whatever, like it's not out of the realm of possibility that he could be but I'm hoping not! ANYWAY. Many surprises guys. 

This book was freaking full OF INTRIGUE AND FEELS. SO MANY FEELS. Couldn't stop reading and I finished it at like 3am, kinda feels. Especially the saying bye to Caleb and then being on the bad guys side and then getting slashed by the sword. LOVED the legend to the sword by the way. 

We need to talk about page 397 though guys. That bit DESTROYED ME. Like Elizabeth I still thought she was in the illusion and then the leg stabby bit happened and like all of that was going down and I was still half thinking she was in the illusion and none of it was real, and then when the thing with Caleb happened, I realised it was all real and I genuinely had to throw the book down on the bed and sit and have a breather before carrying on. I can't even with that bit of the book, seriously. I CAN'T EVEN. Genuinely couldn't handle it! 

I can't even with the next book either and I've only read the freaking synopsis for it because clearly Elizabeth is going to be sent to assassinate Blackwell and like clearly there's going to be danger to her and probably John and everyone else. Then there'll be a showdown with Caleb if he isn't dead and I can't even. I loved how Witch Hunter ended it was kind of wrapped up but with threads for the next book and the possibilities for the next book are endless and I just can't even wait. GIVE IT TO ME NOW OH MY GOD PLEAAAASEEE! 

SO, I am once again calm, please, for the love of GOD.....let me know in the comments what you thought of the book and what your theories for book two are! I need to fangirl and I need you guys to fangirl with! 

Wishing For Wednesday #39

Okay so, this week I have two again, the first one I'm very intrigued about because I loved Maze Runner and it seems to have a similar vibe, but with a twist!
The second book...well....it's so me it's not even funny, it's literally right up my street and I'm SO EXCITED for it it's ridiculous!

The Cage

When Cora Mason wakes in a desert, she doesn't know where she is or who put her there. As she explores, she finds an impossible mix of environments—tundra next to desert, farm next to jungle, and a strangely empty town cobbled together from different cultures—all watched over by eerie black windows. And she isn't alone.

Four other teenagers have also been taken: a beautiful model, a tattooed smuggler, a secretive genius, and an army brat who seems to know too much about Cora's past. None of them have a clue as to what happened, and all of them have secrets. As the unlikely group struggles for leadership, they slowly start to trust each other. But when their mysterious jailer—a handsome young guard called Cassian—appears, they realize that their captivity is more terrifying than they could ever imagine: Their captors aren't from Earth. And they have taken the five teenagers for an otherworldly zoo—where the exhibits are humans.

As a forbidden attraction develops between Cora and Cassian, she realizes that her best chance of escape might be in the arms of her own jailer—though that would mean leaving the others behind. Can Cora manage to save herself and her companions? And if so . . . what world lies beyond the walls of their cage?

The Cage is out May 26th, pre-order your copy...here! 
Add it to your TBR...here! 

Witch Hunter

Sixteen-year-old Elizabeth Grey doesn't look dangerous. A tiny, blonde, wisp of a girl shouldn't know how to poison a wizard and make it look like an accident. Or take out ten necromancers with a single sword and a bag of salt. Or kill a man using only her thumb. But things are not always as they appear. Elizabeth is one of the best witch hunters in Anglia and a member of the king's elite guard, devoted to rooting out witchcraft and bringing those who practice it to justice. And in Anglia, the price of justice is high: death by burning.

When Elizabeth is accused of being a witch herself, she's arrested and thrown in prison. The king declares her a traitor and her life is all but forfeit. With just hours before she's to die at the stake, Elizabeth gets a visitor - Nicholas Perevil, the most powerful wizard in Anglia. He offers her a deal: he will free her from prison and save her from execution if she will track down the wizard who laid a deadly curse on him.

As Elizabeth uncovers the horrifying facts about Nicholas's curse and the unwitting role she played in its creation, she is forced to redefine the differences between right and wrong, friends and enemies, love and hate... and life and death.

The first book in an incredible new series set in a fantastical medieval world. 

Witch Hunter is out June 4th, pre-order your copy....here!

Add it to your TBR...here!