The Return of the Witch by Paula Brackston
Admittedly, I haven't read the first book in the series, The Witch's Daughter. I received this book as an ARC through NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, which I was very excited for!
In the beginning, I wasn't connecting with the story and it was through no fault of the author's writing. While it wasn't truly important for me to have read the first book, as it often mentions the happenings of the first, it did make it harder to connect with the characters. So I do suggest reading the first if you have the chance to. Now, on top of that for me, although Brackston's writing is highly eloquent, dreamlike and beautiful, the moments where it is full of more monologue than dialogue seemed to grow a little boring for me.
The story didn't pick up for me until part three, which is nearly into 200 pages. From there it is a real page turner and I had to put it down to go to bed, well I ended up having dreams about the book, that's how much it stayed with me.
The characters are well developed, the story is at times a little slow moving, but once it gets going it is action packed and we have a driven protagonist who wishes to concur evil, as well as rescue her beloved friend. A smidge of romance is etched in there and you have a wonderful, beautiful written book.
Paula Brackston is an intellectual writer and someone I will most assuredly look out for in the future.
