Holy crap! How is Forest a newbie author?! I DEVOURED this book in a little under 5 hours and will definitely now be re-reading The Black Witch. Forest is an instant buy for me now.

This book starts out with a bang...like dragons fighting a witch trying to stop a genocide type bang! It eventually dies down but I didn't ever feel or notice a lul in the pace. There is always something happening and I understood that everything being brought up was either a comment on an issue we have in our society and/or was a mirroring of events and the world/time in The Black Witch.

While the characters and plots are not unique (there's some good fluff romance), Forest does an amazing job of showing how we tend to repeat history by using hate to guide our actions. They also bring up so many modern issues: homophobia, access to healthcare, sexism, gender roles and racism.

READ IT!

UPDATE FROM REREAD:

Omg I am such a moron ROFL
I didn't connect this Gareth or Vivianne or Tesla's brother to them in The Black Witch the first time I read it! So many dots connected!