Witchborn Book Review

Witchborn by Nicholas Bowling

Synopsis: The year is 1577. Queen Elizabeth I is struggling to prevent the scheming Mary Queen of Scots from stealing her throne, despite her rival being imprisoned in the Tower of London. But Alyce, on the run after her mother is brutally killed by witch hunters led by the nefarious Matthew Hopkins, is not aware of the political forces gathering around her. Soon, she is embroiled in a secret battle between two rival queens which will alter the fate of England, and Alyce is forced to confront the dark magic running through her own veins.

This book came to me as an ARC in a book box in September, but with one thing and another, it was always at the bottom of my tbr list and I didn’t get around to it until long after the release date had come and gone. The ARC copy was a little odd, and I really feel like I need to mention it. The book came in a simplified form, with a plain cover to be revealed. However, it was accompanied by a jacket of the actual published copy design [which is super pretty], but without any sleeves or wings or anything to connect it together. In the end, I was forced to blu-tack it, which makes the book bumpy and I’m a little let down by that [not to mention confused.] It is a really awesome cover though, and I’m glad in a way that I didn’t just get the plain grey and white title cover. So yeah, mixed feelings there.

The actual book was quite a fun read. I’ll admit, I was a little nervous coming to it, especially having studied both witch hunting and Elizabeth I for A-Level History a few years back. Obviously, not everything was historically accurate, but I found I could be quite forgiving of Bowling’s novel simply because it is an alternative history, and since he’s gone and thrown magic into the mix, it is a lot easier to deviate from the facts without cringing. I found the whole thing quite entertaining, mostly because I enjoyed seeing recongizable names pop up. The settings were always intriguing too, and I thought Bowling brought them to life quite well. I read the book quite quickly, over two or three sittings, but I thought for all the intriguing ideas it was let down a bit by the magic and the characters. The magic could have been explained a bit better. At times, I struggled to understand what was going on and why, and it doesn’t help when magic is at the centre of the whole thing.

Same with the characters. Alyce was okay, I suppose. She’s not very memorable though, and at times she was lost to the plot and pace. Solomon I liked, but again I thought he could do with a little fleshing out. I suppose Mary, the main antagonist, will be more involved in the next book [I’m about 80 percent sure there’ll be a sequel] but if not, she proved to be a bit of a letdown. My preference is for complex, multi-layered villains, and with Mary all she seemed to boil down to was the desire to have the throne from Elizabeth and by doing so, allow witches to ‘come out of the closet.’ I wasn’t entirely sold on the motivation, and I suppose it makes sense that she didn’t do the old villain trope of explaining her whole plan just before everything went wrong for her, but still, it seemed a bit naive of her to assume she could sort of transform England overnight and make them want to let witches live and thrive. It was a bit of an abrupt ending, I almost found myself flicking through the last few pages to see if there was more. I suppose this means there will be a sequel, but if not it was quite an entertaining and fun book on its own. I probably wouldn’t re-read it anytime soon, but I did enjoy it, and it was quite refreshing amongst all the fantasy novels I’ve been reading lately.

Overall, I gave Witchborn 6/10 stars. It was a really interesting concept for a book, and I liked seeing some of the people and settings and events I learned about in History class, but the plot didn’t always make sense and there could have been more development of the magic to help readers understand what was going on.

Want to read this book for yourself. You can purchase a copy through Waterstones, Amazon UK or Book Depository. I have recently become a Book Depository affiliate which means I receive a small commission each time someone purchases a book from them using my link. This allows me to buy more books to blog about, and you get free shipping through them, so everyone is a winner!

As always, if you’ve already read this book and want to talk about it, or you’re considering putting it on your TBR list, feel free to leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts 😀