Scan barcode
carlottag's review against another edition
I know many people have enjoyed this book, unfortunately I wasn't one of them. DNF'ed at page 300.
The world-building was severely lacking. It was confusing and unexplained. I felt it had been thrown together to categorize as fantasy. The story itself was confusing and slow, it wasn't until page 100 that it picked up. The basic premise is that a Super Special Snowflake (Safi) is in danger for some reason and a brooding, mysterious guy is going to help her (Merik). Safi is running away from the Emperor who wants to marry her, but why would he turn her into an Empress and give her power against him instead of making her his slave? And Vivia’s thirst for power I can understand, but the way she goes about obtaining that power didn’t make sense. Am I supposed to think she’s so blinded by her ambition that she makes illogical decisions or just that she’s dumb? All her country has is an army, but they are in desperate need of food and resources, so why would she attack other nation's if her country is about to collapse? The only person who made my skin crawl was Corlant because it was implied that he made Gretchya have some sort of relationship with him. The story is dragged needlessly.
I would've maybe been okay with the lack of world- building if the characters were interesting, but they aren't. The book focuses on Safi because being a Truthwitch is very rare and therefore it's special. Yet Safi's Truthwitchery never really helped her. It let her know when someone lied but not why or whether it was a good lie or a bad one. I didn't understand why the book would focus on her. Safi is also talked up too much as being the best fighter, cunning, powerful yet her actions never reflected this. She always depends on Iseult to get them out of trouble and without her she wouldn't get anywhere.
I didn't understand Iseult and Safi's friendship. Safi screwed up all the plans that Isuelt and Safi had come up with for a reckless mistake on Safi's part and it endangered them, especially Iseult who is already hated by half the country. Their friendship seemed to have started because they didn't have anyone else and because Iseult saved Safi's life. Safi would screw up again and again and she would say she would be better for Iseult but five seconds later she was too invested in Merik's back to be bothered to actually do anything about it.
Merik was SO BORING. His romance with Safi was unfounded by any true feelings, it was a bit insta-love. And why would he let Safi bathe in his room with swords lining the wall and the contract laying on his desk? Does the ship not have wash rooms for the crew? Do they all use his chambers?
The only thing about this book I enjoyed were Iseult and Aeduan. Their characters were the most interesting, but not enough to make me stay. If they had been the focus, then maybe. The scene I liked was when Iseult threw herself out of the lighthouse and Aeduan followed and she used him to break her fall, literally.
I was so disappointed by this book. I will not be continuing this series.
The world-building was severely lacking. It was confusing and unexplained. I felt it had been thrown together to categorize as fantasy. The story itself was confusing and slow, it wasn't until page 100 that it picked up. The basic premise is that a Super Special Snowflake (Safi) is in danger for some reason and a brooding, mysterious guy is going to help her (Merik). Safi is running away from the Emperor who wants to marry her, but why would he turn her into an Empress and give her power against him instead of making her his slave? And Vivia’s thirst for power I can understand, but the way she goes about obtaining that power didn’t make sense. Am I supposed to think she’s so blinded by her ambition that she makes illogical decisions or just that she’s dumb? All her country has is an army, but they are in desperate need of food and resources, so why would she attack other nation's if her country is about to collapse? The only person who made my skin crawl was Corlant because it was implied that he made Gretchya have some sort of relationship with him. The story is dragged needlessly.
I would've maybe been okay with the lack of world- building if the characters were interesting, but they aren't. The book focuses on Safi because being a Truthwitch is very rare and therefore it's special. Yet Safi's Truthwitchery never really helped her. It let her know when someone lied but not why or whether it was a good lie or a bad one. I didn't understand why the book would focus on her. Safi is also talked up too much as being the best fighter, cunning, powerful yet her actions never reflected this. She always depends on Iseult to get them out of trouble and without her she wouldn't get anywhere.
I didn't understand Iseult and Safi's friendship. Safi screwed up all the plans that Isuelt and Safi had come up with for a reckless mistake on Safi's part and it endangered them, especially Iseult who is already hated by half the country. Their friendship seemed to have started because they didn't have anyone else and because Iseult saved Safi's life. Safi would screw up again and again and she would say she would be better for Iseult but five seconds later she was too invested in Merik's back to be bothered to actually do anything about it.
Merik was SO BORING. His romance with Safi was unfounded by any true feelings, it was a bit insta-love. And why would he let Safi bathe in his room with swords lining the wall and the contract laying on his desk? Does the ship not have wash rooms for the crew? Do they all use his chambers?
The only thing about this book I enjoyed were Iseult and Aeduan. Their characters were the most interesting, but not enough to make me stay. If they had been the focus, then maybe. The scene I liked was when Iseult threw herself out of the lighthouse and Aeduan followed and she used him to break her fall, literally.
I was so disappointed by this book. I will not be continuing this series.
venla_reads's review against another edition
2.0
I'm sorry, but this book did nothing for me.
- I loved that there's a strong female friendship, but I couldn't help but feel like it was very romance coded: why not just make them a couple?
- I liked Iseult way better - she was more of a badass, Safi just made dumb choices and had all the men falling for her the moment she walked into a room.
- Tbh the villain was the most (*cough* only *cough*) interesting aspect of the story.
- The narrator for some reason made the choice to try and make each of the characters sound different, and they all ended up sounding annoying. Especially Safi and Iseult sounded like they were whining, constantly almost crying. It just made it so hard to focus and it didn't go hand in hand with how the girls are described being tough and badass fighters.
- There was zero world building, just some name dropping. I liked how I was just thrown in the middle of the action from the very first sentence, it's better than pages of info dumping before the story actually starts. But I think there needs to be a middle ground here. At some point you have to explain the world and the magic system to your readers.
- Maybe it's the audiobook and the narrator, but I did not feel a single thing while listening to this. Zero emotion, I couldn't care less, and I have a hard time imagining it would've been any different with a physical book. I couldn't for the life of me connect with any of the characters, and besides Iseult and the villain, they all felt one dimensional.
I'm confused by all the 4 and 5 star reviews.
- I loved that there's a strong female friendship, but I couldn't help but feel like it was very romance coded: why not just make them a couple?
- I liked Iseult way better - she was more of a badass, Safi just made dumb choices and had all the men falling for her the moment she walked into a room.
- Tbh the villain was the most (*cough* only *cough*) interesting aspect of the story.
- The narrator for some reason made the choice to try and make each of the characters sound different, and they all ended up sounding annoying. Especially Safi and Iseult sounded like they were whining, constantly almost crying. It just made it so hard to focus and it didn't go hand in hand with how the girls are described being tough and badass fighters.
- There was zero world building, just some name dropping. I liked how I was just thrown in the middle of the action from the very first sentence, it's better than pages of info dumping before the story actually starts. But I think there needs to be a middle ground here. At some point you have to explain the world and the magic system to your readers.
- Maybe it's the audiobook and the narrator, but I did not feel a single thing while listening to this. Zero emotion, I couldn't care less, and I have a hard time imagining it would've been any different with a physical book. I couldn't for the life of me connect with any of the characters, and besides Iseult and the villain, they all felt one dimensional.
I'm confused by all the 4 and 5 star reviews.
brysonsmommie84's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
ethangray's review against another edition
Picked up during a reading slump, will come back to it at another point.
lyraggs's review against another edition
4.0
Susan Dennard nos ha traído una historia repleta de aventura y magia. Truthwich nos adentra al mundo de Witchland un país repleto de naciones donde existen las brujas, personas con diversos poderes.
Siendo brujas nuestros cuatro protagonistas: Safiya la bruja de la verdad, Iseult la bruja de los hilos con muchos enigmas, Merik el príncipe y almirante de un país que se cae a pedazos y nuestro brujo de sangre, un personaje que toda su vida lo han tratado como un moustro al punto de creérselo, Aeduan; juntos serán amigos-enemigos girando al rededor de la Guerra que está apunto de estallar y la incesante persecución por poseer la bruja de la verdad.
Me ha encantado la historia aunque al principio me sentí un poco fastidiada por los tantos "Wich" que se mencionaban, fuera de eso fue entretenida, con un par de momentos románticos de dos de los protagonistas, tristemente no fueron mis favoritos. La confianza y lealtad de Safi y Iseult me gusto bastante, aunque la unión de hermanas que posee con Safiya no puede superarse.
De los chicos me quedo con Aeduan, Merik me saca de quiso y simplemente no me lo trago y él tiene muchos más capítulos que mi brujo de sangre.
Siendo brujas nuestros cuatro protagonistas: Safiya la bruja de la verdad, Iseult la bruja de los hilos con muchos enigmas, Merik el príncipe y almirante de un país que se cae a pedazos y nuestro brujo de sangre, un personaje que toda su vida lo han tratado como un moustro al punto de creérselo, Aeduan; juntos serán amigos-enemigos girando al rededor de la Guerra que está apunto de estallar y la incesante persecución por poseer la bruja de la verdad.
Me ha encantado la historia aunque al principio me sentí un poco fastidiada por los tantos "Wich" que se mencionaban, fuera de eso fue entretenida, con un par de momentos románticos de dos de los protagonistas, tristemente no fueron mis favoritos. La confianza y lealtad de Safi y Iseult me gusto bastante, aunque la unión de hermanas que posee con Safiya no puede superarse.
De los chicos me quedo con Aeduan, Merik me saca de quiso y simplemente no me lo trago y él tiene muchos más capítulos que mi brujo de sangre.
lavendermarch's review against another edition
Made the decision to DNF Truthwitch. I've owned it for a year now, and had about three short spurts of progress (April, July, March), making it to page 152, or 35%. There's nothing completely awful or terrible about it, but I (obviously) found it really easy to put down. Like, months at a time easy. I liked the friendship between the two main female characters, but the random third character (the prince) wasn't the most interesting, and after 152 pages, I didn't have the greatest grasp on the overall political or magical situation. I just feel like it maybe wasn't the right time, and after a whole year of "not the right time" I think it's better if I just add it to the library giveaway pile. Also, the series isn't even finished, so it's not hurting me too hard. Maybe I'll find this book again in a few years. 2 stars.
ashlikes's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
pratimav's review against another edition
4.0
Weak first half, but I really liked it by the end. There are some weird inconsistencies, and I'd find myself wondering how people knew certain bits of information. But the overall plot gets really fun by the end, and it's just a good time.