Review: Bloodwitch

Bloodwitch 
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review! 

High in a snowy mountain range, a monastery that holds more than just faith clings to the side of a cliff. Below, thwarted by a lake, a bloodthirsty horde of raiders await the coming of winter and the frozen path to destroy the sanctuary and its secrets.

The Bloodwitch Aeduan has teamed up with the Threadwitch Iseult and the magical girl Owl to stop the destruction. But to do so, he must confront his own father, and his past. 

The time is here friends, it's time to focus on Baeduan....*cough* I mean Aeduan. I'm not going to lie,  as much as I love Merik, I didn't quite love Windwitch as much as I loved Truthwitch so as excited as I was for this one...I was a bit wary. As it turns out, I didn't need to worry because Bloodwitch is simply excellent. I would advise you to watch out for that ending though! *screams in to the void* 

Like I said, this time we're focusing a bit more on Aeduan, he has a decision to make and a side to pick, and wow do I ship him with Iseult to the extent my heart hurt when he tried to push her away! Thankfully Iseult can see through him, but he does end up in quite a bit of trouble throughout this book and is it wrong of me to say that I kind of enjoyed seeing him regress back a little to his darker self at one point!? I'm still surprised by how much I've come to like Aeduan over the course of this series, but this book solidified for me that I made the right choice to love his character. We get some heartbreaking insight in to his past, and he'd already come a long way as a character since we first met him...but by the end of this book he's come even further and he's accepted himself and who and what he is and wants to be. 

Of course, just because we're focusing a bit more on Aeduan doesn't mean we don't see any of the other characters or delve deeper in to them. Safiya has a solid plan to deal with her situation, although honestly? Vaness is growing on me and I kind of ship her with Vivia but shh. Anyway, we see Safi struggle a bit in this book as she's using her powers and seeing some very real consequences to them and she has to deal with that, and she has such a natural and realistic reaction to it. But she's still the Safi who won't take any crap from anyone as is evidenced towards the end of the book, I live for the strength she has and how badass she is. I also live for her little bond with Vaness and we do see a more vulnerable side to Vaness. We also have an interesting twist with Safi as she comes up with a genius plan, implements it...and her power is changed, which wasn't quite what she was going for so it'll be interesting to see how this will play out! As well as the whole....Mathew and Habim....thing. I was kind of sad we didn't get to see as much of Caden, Zander and Lev though! 

Meanwhile, Iseult is with Aeduan, of course we had to make the poor guy suffer even more. Obviously Iseult and Safi want to get back to each other, but Iseult is taking care of Aeduan. She's still struggling with some things from the last book, and I had to say she has a few moments when I cheered as she gets her hero on. Although she ends up tangled up with Leopold who I still don't trust further than I can throw him but maybe I'm being overly suspicious. 

She's also with Owl who kind of annoyed me a little? But I did enjoy seeing Iseult coming to understand her and dare I say...bond with her a little? Although much like the Hellbards...not enough of Blueberry this book either! 

Merik...I just...for Gods sake dude, did you have to do the thing and end up having some quality time with Esme?! Speaking of Esme *refers to Windwitch review* Y I K E S. I retract that statement about her entirely. Anyway, Merik is just...suffering. Again. For a good chunk of this book, but there appears to be some hope for a certain character....until it gets torpedoed by that ending. Just....when will his suffering end? 

Vivia...*refers back to Truthwitch review* well....this is awkward. I started to like Vivia during Windwitch and this book solidified my new opinion on her character. While I didn't get to see more of her and Merik working together and repairing their relationship like I'd hoped, I was so proud of Vivia in this book. She's still struggling with her role in leading Nubrevna, which isn't made any easier by her father. He was getting on my last nerve, and the opposition and patronising, derisive characters who don't believe in her ability is something ridiculously relatable to most women, I'm sure. Vivia had me so proud when she stood up to him, and slapped the other crusty old men down in the Council, like the badass she is she says screw them and goes with her own plan and I'm ready to see her save the day and be the hero! 

What got me about this particular book out of all of the Witchlands books so far, is that we have these powerful female characters. Even Esme, as much as I love to hate her, and they're surrounded by men who ignore their opinions, ignore what they have to say, and don't think they're capable of anything and wow is it freaking relatable and infuriating to read about at the same time. I am so ready for the ladies to take over. 

Things are changing in this book, Aeduan as a character changes even more and becomes more resolved, Safi's powers have changed, things have shifted for Vaness and Vivia is striking out on her own. Allegiances have also shifted as well to some extent. 

Bloodwitch steadily builds up towards the final part of the book, showing us more of the world than we'd already seen, and more of the different magics and how everything works, showing us more of Aeduan and his past and letting us get to know his character even better. Building upon what we already know of our characters, bringing in a couple more plot threads and intrigues, before we head in to the final part of the book when things come together. I have to say I was a lot more engaged with this book than Windwitch, sorry Merik. There's lots of excellently written action scenes, and lots of intrigues, one of my ships is sailing, there's a couple of reunions...some more brief than others and as we finish the book the Raider King is launching a new attack. I just have to say though....Safi going to Henrick? Nah. This ain't it. Let's not. 

I was screaming towards the end of this book, screaming and cheering because of all the characters and what they were doing and where they were going and "NO SAFI DON'T DO THE THING! YAAAS ISEULT" and so on. Honestly the last part of the book was pretty insane with the twists, I can't even. We had plot twists throughout the book, don't get me wrong, but the ending of this book blew me away. We've got some seriously epic and intriguing teams up coming to us in the next book, that's all I'm saying, and some characters are heading in to very interesting situations. 

Most importantly, things are all set up to once again move forward and now we've reached a new stage of the story, I feel.