Truthwitch

3 stars, Metaphorosis reviews
Summary
SaSafiya and Iseult are poor thieves - Safi is too impulsive, Iseult too measured. Yet Safi is a Truthwitch, the first for centuries. Iseult is a Threadwitch, most skills of a Threadwitch. A failed robbery brings them into the path of a Bloodwitch. That encounter and the end of the region's Twenty Year Truce bring complications that change their lives.

Review
I enjoyed the worldbuilding of Truthwitch, but the rest of the story left me strangely cold. While earnestly and skilfully written, it all felt a bit formulaic – tried and true – and the characters were too carefully constructed to be engaging. There's also much too strong a lean toward both romance (of the eyes meeting, bosom heaving kind) and politics for my taste.

It's a shame, because the structure of the magical world is interesting, and we meet both it and its characters well into their development. I liked that, and would gladly hear more of it, though I never saw an explanation for why the map, at least, is so very heavily dependent on the map of Europe.

The characters and their evident complications, I could do without; it just felt tired. I can see how a newcomer to fantasy might enjoy this, but for me it just didn't offer enough that was new. I got this first book for free as a giveaway from Tor (probably when a sequel came out), but I don't expect to continue with the series.

My local library did a blind date with a book thingy and i picked this book because it sounded cool and then I unwrapped it and saw it was this book... the book I've been avoiding since it got popular on booktube years ago. I thought I might as well read it.. so I did.
Excellent writing and good characters but it just wasn't for me sadly

3.5 stars.

I think this has such a strong start, the world is so interesting with the different types of magic each type of witch can use. I loved the friendship between Safi and Iseult and liked the storyline with the Bloodwitch.

I just found it slowed down a bit towards the end and started to drag a little so I lost interest.

That said I am still interested in continuing the series, I'm just not dying to carry on immediately. One to come back to.

I wish I had read this sooner. Upside is that I don't have to wait for the next book since it's up to book three. Even better is that I shared my second copy with my own Threadsister and we got to read this together (and we both loved it)

At first I really wasn't sure how I was feeling. I want to say for maybe the first quarter ( take this measurement with a grain of salt...I can read. I can't do math. LoL) it was slow but not slow. I was trying to gather information. The world, the people, the magic system ( which I love btw), But once it kicked into high gear for me...it kept going and did not stop.

The characters are not without flaws (which is fine. I personally don't want to read a book where every character is perfect nor where everyone is a complete fool. I'm looking for flaws but also growth within the characters). Safiya is kind of reckless. She just does things without thinking anything through (being young and reckless is normal. IRL and in fantasy) and it isn't until she sees someone hurt or the mess her actions cause does she really begin to grasp that she is absolutely the cause of half of the messes she's in. Iseult is her best friend and the opposite of Safi. I felt that they balanced each other out. Something that did frustrate me was that neither of these girls really tapped into the potential of their witchery. They could absolutely fight though. I felt that Dennard was heading in the direction of growth through out the book so hopefully that gets expanded in the next books.

I loved the twists and turns. I was also really surprised by a couple of the side characters. I don't need a book for every one of them but I definitely want to see them more or get more backstory on them.

My FAVORITE thing though? All the women were kick ass.

The ending made me think of my rating. At first it was a two-star read for me, but the last five chapters were actually good. So I decided to up my rating to three stars.

The world building is severely lacking. There is no concrete explanation of the threads and what in the hell threadwitches are. The two main female characters act the same and the two male characters act the same. I ended up skim reading because it was so disinteresting.

Ahhh this was so good <3 I need to start the next one right now!

Update: I re-read this book over the past two days, and I really really enjoyed it. I think this series is a top YA series for me. And I still stand by my reasoning behind not giving a full five stars in my original review. Onto the next few books so I can pick up Bloodwitch!!

If I was the type to give half stars, this would be 4.5 stars.

Truthwitch is a fantastic tale of friendship between two young women as they face to save their own lives. And I adored it. I don't really read YA because it doesn't keep me guessing enough, but this book had enough going on that I loved every second.

I have only two complaints. Firstly, there wasn't enough world building for the world to feel clear. I had absolutely no clue what a thread witch was for the longest time or why they needed to keep emotionless. I think the story would be vastly improved if the different aspects of the world and it's history had been introduced more carefully.

Another complaint would be regarding the dramatic use of language. It was not a common occurrence, and I'm quite sensitive to melodrama in my media, so it was a forgivable sin in my case. However, what on earth does “stasis in my fingers and toes” mean? Because stasis means inactivity and unless the character is hoping for paralysis I have no clue what she means.

Look, if you can't keep me interested enough to finish the book... well, you get two stars because it wasn't terribly bad, just not for me?

This book was just so... blah, for a lack of a better word. I felt like this story just dragged on and there was no point to some scenes. The romance felt off to me, which is strange since I usually love romance subplots in most books.

The one thing I did like about this book was the sisterly bond between Safi and Iseult. It was very warming and I believe this would've been enough to not include the romance.

To be honest, I considered not finishing this book many times while reading it. Although I do want to continue on with this series, or at least try to read the next book.

This year I've commited myself to read more fantasy, and this book has been the perfect choice! I heard a lot -a lot- about this book and I thought I might enjoy it, and I was absolutely right. It was very easy to enter in this new world, which is a huge surprise for me because I usually have this problem with this genre. However, the narrative is captivating and I couldn't keep my eyes off the book.

Despite the great story, what I liked the most about this book were the characters. They are so well constructed that they feel real. I loved the way that friendship was the center of the story, and how they faced all the troubles that came ahead.

Even though I'm not very sure about the romance, I still like this book very very much. In fact, I have high expectations for the next book, so I hope not to be disappointed.

I won this book through GoodReads and I thank to publishers for providing me this copy. My review isn't influenced by this fact

Blech.
It should have just billed itself as fantasy romance because I've read fantasy romance with less romance in it than this book. (And, really, to have a decent romance, you need decent characters to start with.)
Full review to come on my blog.

Sometimes you come across a book that sounds like everything you ever wanted. A book that sounds so perfect for you that you'd swear the author had you in mind when they wrote it. And the book is perfect and wonderful and exactly everything that makes you love a story.

And then there's books like this one.

Truthwitch sounded great. A fantasy story about two girls that are best friends. A unique sounding magic system. And, okay, those were the big things. But it didn't take me long to realize this wasn't the book for me. At all.

The two girls, Safi and Isult, I really didn't like. Safi is the hotheaded one, the sort of girl that never works for me. She never thinks about anything before reacting and she has an unbelievably short temper, with none of the usual qualities that might make me forgive it. And Isult is the sort that always has a tight reign on her emotions - and is in fact, the exact opposite of Safi. I barely tolerated her.

The friendship was a nice idea - especially considering they are so different - but I don't really see that it's the focus of the book. Not like I kept hearing that it was. (No. That was the romance. The totally unpleasant, personally hated, romance. Enjoy.) But, really, I didn't feel that the girls were friends willing to die for the other. Maybe because that's what I was constantly told and the more the creator has to reaffirm a relationship, the less I buy into it. (This book isn't the first to do this to me. I've come across some stories, well loved for the friendship that I could barely see the friendship from.)

And then we have Merik. The male version of Safi. The young man that, as soon as he and Safi met, I knew what the romance - that I was assured was only minor - would be coming from. And, honestly, if this was a minor romance I'd love to know what is a major romance. (Actually, no, I wouldn't.) These are the type of romances I hate: constant bickering and fighting and oh, yeah, btw, they are totally digging each other. (Right from the very start because their ‘romance' hardly changes from the moment they first meet each other to the very end of the book.)

As long as he stayed angry, he wouldn't have to think about the shape of her mouth. The weight of her hips pressing into his.

Blerg.

Seriously, I keep hearing people say that the romance isn't the focus of this book and all I have to say is that I'd hate to read a book where they consider romance the focus. (Because I kept feeling like I was being bashed over the head with the romance. I'd read four pages and have to stop because the romance was everywhere and it was angering me. Greatly.)

So, beyond the romance thinly veiled behind a friendship, the plot is barebones and the world building...actually, the world building reminds me very, very strongly of another book that I've been unable to place. Nothing new or original here, which I could have forgiven had I liked the characters. I didn't. (No, that's a lie. I liked Aeduan. He was fun.)

The book starts off well enough, or maybe I was just holding out hope, but by the halfway point I should have just stopped. Because it just gets worse and worse.

(Originally posted on my blog: pagesofstarlight.blogspot.com)

It took me a while to finish this. I found it really uninteresting until the last 100 pages or so.

Truthwitch seemed captivating and interesting from the book summary, but it didn't pan out as I had hoped. I found Safi kind of unbearable, but I did enjoy Iseult and her story line. Aeduan was also an interesting character and I enjoyed reading his -tiny- portions of the book. I didn't find Safiya's power all that powerful. Really, she can sense the truth. That's it...I can see how that is powerful to leaders like the Empress, but it just fell flat for me. I will read the next installment just because the ending left me wondering what would happen next.

This is my second time reading this. I wanted to refresh my memory before I finally continue on with the series. I'm going to stick with the 4 star rating from the first time. I loved it.

Safi is a truthwitch, Iseult is a threadwitch. They are threadsisters. Everyone is born with a certain type of magic. Safi's is rare and if people found out, dangerous for her. With the Twenty Year Truce getting ready to expire, someone with control of a truthwitch could gain great power. I really enjoyed this book. Magic, magic, and more magic! So many different types of magic, so many fighting for control, and a friendship of a lifetime. I can't wait for the next book!!

THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

For the first book in her series I'm mildly impressed with the overall quality of the story. I've decided to break my review up into three sections: the good, the bad, and what I'd like to see next.

The Good: Overall the story developed really well once it got into the swing of things. I liked to see the development of the main characters and their relationships towards one another. I really like the idea of witchery and the different classification of witches. I feel like while I was reading I could almost see Susan becoming and developing as an author. The progression of the story shows he growth.

The Bad: The first 50 pages were brutal and almost unbearable. I'm pretty sure Safi's name was printed every other word (no really) and it made that part of the book really hard to get through. I was left wanting when it came to the end as well. I know it is going to be a series, but the ending didn't really leave me excited for the next book. I also think that there were some concepts that Susan wrote about that she didn't fully address such as threadsisters/brother, heart threads, or heretic witches. I hope to see more in the next book because I feel like I'm assuming a lot about this world she created.

Next: I really want to see more character development, I feel like certain things were rushed to tie up the end of the book. I really want to see this world expanded upon so I can feel a deeper connection to it and the characters in it.

Again not a bad book by any means and I'll definitely read the next one when it comes out.

4.5 Stars

This was so amazing and I'm so glad I did not have to wait until January to read it. But now I am sad that I have to wait over a year to find out what happens to these characters I fell in love with.

I almost didn't finish reading Truthwitch because I didn't enjoy reading the first quarter of it at all. Although it did get better, I didn't find the world or characters particularly compelling, and I was actually more interested in learning about characters other than the main characters. I went back and forth on my rating because later parts did keep me reading even if I didn't love it, but I ended up deciding on “it's okay” since I wasn't particularly impressed by anything about it.

Full Review: http://www.fantasybookcafe.com/2016/01/mini-review-truthwitch-by-susan-dennard/