I would like to thank NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing me with an eARC of this book to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
Witch and Hunter, who will win? Otto is a hunter, finding witches and burning them to rid society of their presence. But there's more to him than anyone around him knows; he's a rebel. Fritzi is a witch, hiding among her coven until she makes a grave error and lets the enemy in. When Otto and Fritzi's world collides, the wheels are set in motion for the world to know just exactly who the witches are and what their powers can do.
I truly enjoy a good witch story. So the blurb for this book drew me right in. Plus I love the simplicity of the cover. And I know Beth Revis is a writer I've enjoyed in the past but I have not read Sara Raasch before. I'm not usually one for historical fiction but when it's mixed with fantasy, I have been known to enjoy it.
Let's start with the characters. I really like Otto and his cause. I was happy to see he was more than just the hunter I thought he might be. I love that being such was a cover for him and he has such a good heart wanting to save people and expose the Kommondant for who he truly is. Otto's character is fairly well fleshed out. I definitely felt for his cause and wanted him to prevail. Fritzi, for me, was just ok. She's a witch, but not one with any special powers I've not seen before. She's also determined to live and right the wrong she has caused, which is noble. She's a bit stubborn but it does take her until about 80% into the book to truly see herself. The side characters we meet along the way are nice but not as fleshed out as the FMC and MMC. There was a lot of missing back story.
The plot was fun but I felt like the pacing was off. The way the authors revealed information was very slow and I honestly struggled a bit and had to push to get to the last 25% where the main action takes place and so much is revealed. I wish we had some snippets along the way. I was honestly kind of bored. And I felt like it was all over the place at times. Some of the mystery revealed a bit to keep me wanting more. I also had some issues with the actual voice of the story. This is set in the late 1500s, but does not feel that way to me. I wanted more of the history, which isn't really included in the book but is given in the note from the authors at the end. The world building was just poor given its use of history. Where was that history in the book? Tell me about Germany at that time. Tell me the background of witches during that time. But it just was not there.
I really didn't like the romance. It felt forced to me and had an insta-love vibe. Like they had to fall in love because why else would we have these two POVs in a book? I wanted it to be a true enemies to friends trope, but it wasn't. I just didn't feel the chemistry. I was waiting for it but it just didn't come. Suddenly they were just in love. I need a better build up. More tension. Plus the one love scene seemed over the top for YA. I was surprised at what I actually read as it felt more like a romance book scene.
Overall, I'd give this one 2.5 stars but would round up to three for the ending. That's when all the good stuff happens. The ending is a bit of a cliffhanger and introduces a new POV, which I assume will be utilized in the nextz book. But I had a lot of expectations and for me this book did not live up to them and it's doubtful I will move on to future books in this series. If you enjoyed Serpent and Dove, you may like this one. As soon as I started reading, that was the first vibe I got.