by Susan Dennard

“Why would you want that?”
“Same as you. I’ll dirty my hands for the people that matter to me. I’ll run as far as I have to and fight as hard as I can. If that’s what it takes to help them, then that’s what I’ll do.”
-Page 398

Title: Truthwitch
Author: Susan Dennard
Publisher: Tor Teen
Book: #1 of Witchlands
Genre: High Fantasy
Found: pre-order
Rating: 4.5 Voodoos

In a continent on the edge of war, two witches hold its fate in their hands.

Young witches Safiya and Iseult have a habit of finding trouble. After clashing with a powerful Guildmaster and his ruthless Bloodwitch bodyguard, the friends are forced to flee their home.

Safi must avoid capture at all costs as she’s a rare Truthwitch, able to discern truth from lies. Many would kill for her magic, so Safi must keep it hidden – lest she be used in the struggle between empires. And Iseult’s true powers are hidden even from herself.

In a chance encounter at Court, Safi meets Prince Merik and makes him a reluctant ally. However, his help may not slow down the Bloodwitch now hot on the girls’ heels. All Safi and Iseult want is their freedom, but danger lies ahead. With war coming, treaties breaking and a magical contagion sweeping the land, the friends will have to fight emperors and mercenaries alike. For some will stop at nothing to get their hands on a Truthwitch.

-Goodreads

I’ve previously read am extended sneak peek of this book – the first 15 chapters / 164 pages / 39%. My First Impressions Friday post about it can be found HERE.

Having previously read the first 39% of the book I simply skimmed that part, which was good because there were many things going on that I’d forgotten about. The dynamics continued to be as engaging as they started out to be, which was excellent. There’s going to be a minimum of 4 books, so it seems, which shows us that this is just the tip of the iceberg. I think that the story hinted at here can easily spread over four books, but it just depends how it’s done. There’s a few possible happenings that I’ve pegged and hope to happen, but I also hope that we can have a rendezvous and they can all go to war together instead of just sort of all flailing about trying to keep their heads above water. I’ll perhaps collect these books and read them all at the end. Probably on a holiday so that sleep isn’t required so much. Or alternatively I might desperately read each one as it comes out. I’ll decide next year when book two is about.

Safi reminds me a lot of Sandry from The Circle series by Tamora Pierce. It might be the name, but some of it’s personality too. Unwilling just to be a noble, she has a fierce streak that gets her into trouble and an honourable side that wont let her leave people in need. She’s in high demand right now, but I’m betting there’s more to her – she’s just beginning to realise this and I hope she pushes herself hard.
I love her chemistry with Merik too and I love seeing it through Iz’s POV because she sees things others can’t. He’s of a similar personality type as Safi and together I’m betting they can make waves. Haha, a sea fairing joke because he’s an admiral and a windwitch! I love that it’s her eyes that captivate him because they’re the colour ‘of the sky after a storm’ too. For some reason, his temper makes me think he has red hair, not sure why, but I’m guessing it means there’s something more to him, which I do hope. Not that there isn’t a lot to him already, but so far all these other guys seem to have big futures, I hope he gets one too.
There’s certainly more to Iseult! Some seems to be known by her mother and I hope she goes and finds her again soon, I hope she doesn’t try to go it alone, that’s always the way to trouble. She has her own story that needs to be sorted and I hope that Safi can help her with that even though she’s a little bit occupied right now.
Then there’s Aeduan. We’re supposed to be on the fence about him I’m sure. Though I’m perhaps a little more on the fence that the facts seem to suggest we should be. I have high hopes for this guy. He better meet every last one of them. And what exactly is with his wounds? We better pick up some back story here! Book 4?
Then there’s the others, Leopold, Safi’s uncle Eron and Kullen…

I got a little concerned towards the end of this book and ended up flipping forwards to see what might be happening. Just so that I could go to bed at a reasonable time, you understand…I like that this book follows more than the one character, we get a nice, beefy story that way. This world and it’s different regions and peoples looks to be highly fascinating.
I’m just sad that they’re ALL separated right now. I don’t like when that happens, this is a second book break on a massive scale! hopefully it won’t be two and a half books long….