Beautiful, Powerful, Brutal // REVIEW: Windwitch by Susan Dennard (The Witchlands #2)

Title: Windwitch (The Witchlands, #2)
Author: Susan Dennard
Publication Date: January 12th 2017
Publisher: Tor Teen
Part of a Series?: Yes, Book 2/4 of The Witchlands Series
I Got A Copy Through: Pan Macmillan India
Blurb Description: Sometimes our enemies are also our only allies…
After an explosion destroys his ship, the world believes Prince Merik, Windwitch, is dead. Scarred yet alive, Merik is determined to prove his sister’s treachery. Upon reaching the royal capital, crowded with refugees, he haunts the streets, fighting for the weak—which leads to whispers of a disfigured demigod, the Fury, who brings justice to the oppressed.
When the Bloodwitch Aeduan discovers a bounty on Iseult, he makes sure to be the first to find her—yet in a surprise twist, Iseult offers him a deal. She will return money stolen from him, if he locates Safi. Now they must work together to cross the Witchlands, while constantly wondering, who will betray whom first?
After a surprise attack and shipwreck, Safi and the Empress of Marstok barely escape with their lives. Alone in a land of pirates, every moment balances on a knife’s edge—especially when the pirates’ next move could unleash war upon the Witchlands.
“After all, pain was her lesson for dreaming big.”
In short, though I had a rocky start to this book, it turned out to be THE BEST THING EVER!

My heart is currently aching for the beautiful, dark souls of Iseult and Aeduan because they are my new OTP and I LOVE THEM TO THE VOID AND BACK. I’m SO EXCITED that the third book is called Bloodwitch because that just means that Aeudan will still be in it and also, did I mention HOW MUCH I LOVE THESE TWO?

I picked up my copy of Windwitch the MINUTE after I closed my review document of book one, Truthwitch (THANK YOU PAN MACMILLAN INDIA FOR MY COPY!) and the first thing that hit me was:

a)      That the entirety of Truthwitch had taken place in days
b)      It was two weeks later and well, EVERYTHING HAD CHANGED.

Going into Windwitch right after Truthwitch felt… different.
Image result for truthwitch quotes Image result for truthwitch quotes

Image result for truthwitch quotes Image result for truthwitch aeduan
What I LOVED:

1.       ISEULT AND AEUDAN: Everytime I saw their names on the pages I did a tiny happy dance because Windwitch told the story from BOTH their perspectives and it was FREAKING ADORABLE. AND BRUTAL. AND AMAZING. I loved how they saw each other, how the fact the Aeduan had no threads freaked out a generally stoic witch and the fact that Iseult had no blood scent got to Aeduan.
I LOVED READING about how they saw each other, and how they dealt with the feelings of wrongness when they were apart. IT WAS F**KING BEAUTIFUL.
Truth be told, THERE WAS NOT A SINGLE TRADITIONAL ROMANTIC THING THAT HAPPENED BETWEEN THEM, but HOLY GOD Susan Dennard made me fall for them anyway.

2.       The Storyline: The Story went SO MUCH DEEPER in this instalment, showing you more secondary characters, most inevitable betrayals, more DARK/ VOID MAGIC and well, I LOVED IT. Even though Safi and Iseult and Merik and Safi remained separated through the book, there wasn’t pining of the dreadful sort and that was definitely a plus point too.

Image result for windwitch quotes3.       THE ENDING: While it wasn’t a cliffhanger, I closed the book DESPERATE FOR MORE. I NEED MORE Iseult and Aeduan in my life, also maybe Safi and Vaness (who SERIOUSLY reminds me of Manon from Throne of Glass) and the rest of the cast. Oh, and Owl and the Mountain Bat. (READ IT.)

4.       AEDUAN: HE. IS. FREAKING. AWESOME. AND RUTHLESS. AND POWERFUL. AND CARING. AND HE RESCUED A GIRL FROM PIRATES. AND HE HAS A TORTURED PAST. And he was easily my favourite part of the book.

What I didn’t LOVE:

I couldn’t shake the feeling that it had missed something more than the time – that it was a very abrupt beginning and I didn’t know what to do with it. For a while.

So for about the first third of the book, the ONLY SCENES I was looking forward to were those that contained my lovely Iseult and Aeduan. Merik felt like he was LITERLLY stomping around the place, claiming he was a forgotten God and DID NOTHING. Although I did like Safi and him in book one, I really didn’t like what his character did in this ENTIRE book – which was NOTHING.
It did take me a while to get into this book, and I put it down for a while to read Frostblood, but when I picked it back it, I FELL IN LOVE.


A dark, BEAUTIFUL, POWERFUL Fantasy with characters that make you feel all wrapped up in one of my favourite fantasies since A Court Of Mist and Fury. 4.5 stars. 
Susan DennardSusan Dennard has come a long way from small-town Georgia. With a masters degree in marine biology, she got to travel the world—six out of seven continents, to be exact (she’ll get to Asia one of these days!)—before she settled down as a full-time novelist and writing instructor.

She is the author of the Something Strange and Deadly series (from HarperTeen) as well as the forthcoming Witchlands Series (Tor, 2015). When not writing, she can be found hiking with her dogs, exploring tidal pools, or earning bruises at the dojo.

You can learn more about Susan on her websiteblognewsletterTwitter, or Pinterest.
HAVE YOU READ ANY SUSAN DENNARD BOOKS YET? 
Have you had the chance to dive into this series yet? Who is your favourite character? Your strongest ship? WHAT DID YOU THINK?
Leave me your links and I'll definitely hop on over to your lovely blogs.

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