Windwitch (The Witchlands, #2)

by Susan Dennard

Filled with magic, heart-wrenching romance and high-stakes adventure, Windwitch is the second fantasy novel in the Witchlands series, and is the action-packed sequel to Truthwitch.

Sometimes our enemies become our only allies . . .

The Windwitch Prince Merik is presumed dead after a lethal explosion. However, he's scarred but alive. Determined to expose his sister's treachery, he haunts the streets of the royal capital as the Fury, a mysterious vigilante fighting for the weak.

Meanwhile, Iseult is cornered by the Bloodwitch Aeduan. She proposes a deal: she’ll return what was stolen from him if he locates Safi, the Truthwitch. Yet unknown to Iseult, there’s a bounty on her head – and Aeduan intends to claim it.

Meanwhile, Safi and the Marstoki Empress become entangled with ruthless brigands after surviving a shipwreck. And their captors plan to unleash a brutal war upon the Witchlands . . .

Praise for the series:

'Susan Dennard has worldbuilding after my own heart. It’s so good it’s intimidating' – Victoria Aveyard, author of the Red Queen series

'This book will delight you' – Robin Hobb, author of The Farseer Trilogy

• ISBN10: 1447282329
• ISBN13: 9781447282327
• Publish Date: 18 October 2018 (first published 10 January 2017)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Imprint: Tor
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 480
• Language: English

Reviews

[Ele.ments]

4,25 ⭐️

[vagasker]

I really liked this one!! It went differently than expected and it surprised me how I changed my opinion about quite a few characters that I didn't think I would like. I really enjoyed the different dimensions to certain characters. It's not all that black and white.

[Kate (Blogging with Dragons)]

Review to follow!

[Quirky Cat]

I received a copy of Windwitch through BookishFirst in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Truthwitch was the first novel I read by Susan Dennard, and if that novel hadn’t sold me on her writing, Windwitch absolutely did! I’m going to have to go back and read through the rest of her novels asap.
Windwitch is the second novel in the Witchland series, and it is amazing. The covers for this series have been SO amazing (seriously, if you haven’t seen the cover for Bloodwitch yet, go check it out) and the writing behind them even better.
Like Truthwitch, Windwitch follows all of the characters we’ve grown to love. Having read two novels now, I think I can say that it appears that each novel focuses on one character a bit more than the others. The character hinted at in the title, of course. Truthwitch had a leaning towards Safi, just as Windwitch had a leaning towards Merik. I think we all know what that’ll mean for Bloodwitch! I seriously can’t wait.
The next in the series is Sightwitch, which is technically 2.5 in the series, and it’s an illustrated novella. I’m lucky enough to have that book sitting on my shelves waiting to be read. Because I’ll be honest with you – I don’t think I could wait.
The next full novel in the series is Bloodwitch, and it’s due to release in February. I’ve been hearing nothing but positive things about it. Also, bonus: if you preorder the book you’ll get two free pins (but you have to submit the receipt for your order within a certain amount of time. That time may have passed by now, I’m not sure).



Windwitch was everything I had expected and hoped for, and so much more. Susan Dennard builds these beautiful worlds full of expressive and unique characters. It’s impossible not to fall in love with her series.
What I love in particular about the Witchland series is that there is so much going on at any given time. Even when all of the characters are together (which is rare) they have their own goals and agendas, as well as reasons for being there. When separate those agendas evolve into full-blown plots.
Even better, the plots seem to occasionally weave into one other, or split off in different directions. For example, I know that Safi and Iseult’s plots will always have an undertone of trying to get back to one another. They’re threadsisters and thus they will always be concerned with each other, as well as with each other’s goals. Thus their plots will always tie together. The rest of the characters may find reasons to care as well, such as Merik in the previous volume.
What I’m trying to say is that I love how complex the plots and relationships are in this series. There’s never one perfect and easily attainable solution. Instead, these very human characters have to work incredibly hard to get what they want out of life. It doesn’t help that most of them have pretty grand goals.
I’m so happy that all of the characters made an appearance in this novel. I don’t know why, but I was a bit worried that we’d only see Merik (who is one of my favorites, so I wouldn’t actually be upset about that). It was a silly fear, considering the way Truthwitch was set up.
The character development in this novel was spectacular. Finally, I understand the obsession with Aeduan (I’m sorry to say that I wasn’t quite there before). Each character went through so much in this novel, and in most cases what they faced forced them to do some soul searching. That’s not easy in the best of times, so I don’t envy them that. Though I have no doubt that it made them stronger people for it.
I love that some secondary characters were rounded out during this novel. Characters that had more or less been background pieces in Truthwitch really stepped to the forefront here. Suddenly they were actual people with motivations and opinions. Sure, I didn’t always agree with the way they did things, but it was great to actually see their thought processes. It even changed my opinion on one character in particular. I’m hoping we’ll see some more character development for her (yes, I’m being vague) in Bloodwitch.
I’m looking forward to Bloodwitch, though at the same time I’ll confess that I hope it isn’t the end to the series. In the meantime at least I have Sightwitch to get through. I’ve been really looking forward to that one. It’ll be interesting to read a novella by Susan Dennard, and the fact that it’s illustrated is pretty fantastic as well.


For more reviews, check out Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

[tweetybugshouse]

This is one of the novels that you almost need a chart to keep track of what going on with who.  It was easier to follow for me at least as an audio book as the narrator gave you a different voice to listen to so you could tell where you where at in the story.  It a second book so it takes a bit for things to progress with the multiple characters.  I think it sets us up well for the next book which is a bridge book between this one and the bloodwitch book.  With all the mysterious that are opened the series has lot of places to go so we shall see what develops with Sightwitch and then Bloodwitch. 

[Sam@WLABB]

Not as good as the first book, but still very good.

Review to follow.

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[Stephanie]

It's been 84 years... No, seriously. This took me so long to read. I'm not sure why. It was good. I always like the characters. Still confused a bit about the world and who hates what ruler/country/etc. I think it was better in the second half than the first, but I still don't understand what a Threadsister/brother is and how you become one and that is really grating on my nerves, man.

[bookishzelda]

I didn’t think I could love a book more than Truthwitch but Windwitch does it. It manages to top the first book which is such a fantastic thing because you often have that sophomore slump. If you follow Susan on social media outlets you know that the she struggled with writing this story but I saw none of that as a I read. Windwitch is executed beautifully and is an absolute perfect second book for the Witchlands series.

One of my favorite things about Windwitch is that it takes all the things you know about the characters and shows you the other side of the coin. Every story has two sides or even more depending on the how many people are involved. You find yourself feeling for characters you didn’t expect and look at characters you love with a side eye. I love love when a story gives me that.

Audean and Iseult were my two favorite characters in Truthwitch and continue to be so in Windwitch. I loved every scene they were in, it didn’t matter if they were alone or with other people. They just play off one another so well! I need more! More!!

I felt like Safi was sidelined a little bit so we could really get Merik’s story. Not that she didn’t have big parts because she did. I also loved the introduction of Vaness. I hope to see some of the story told in her perspective in future books but Merik needed to grow. Which meant he needed space to grow. He changes so much in this book, some for the better some for the worse. We really see how is relationships with other people have influenced and of course that other side of the coin scenario again. We do get to see Vivia’s perspective and I was ready to hate her. Seeing their story play out I am more intrigued with everyone now instead of hating them. I want to know both “good” guys and “villains” better.

The plot pacing was perfect, the world was perfect and the story was addicting. I’m still waiting for the awesome amazing video games and manga based off this series because their needs to be video games and comics for it. Maybe some action figures, legos, funkos…….Oh yes so back to the back. It has my heart as does this series. I can not wait to see what happens next.