Genre: Paranormal, Romance
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Tony
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About The Book
Nick Adore has been in hiding for six years. He does his best to pass himself off as human and only wants to be left alone. But one day, he walks in on a robbery. Instead of quietly walking away, he reveals himself as a blood witch, and now the werewolf king demands to see him.
Conri Biast is king. He has been the king of Norbridge for eleven years, but someone is trying to take him down. For months, he’s known there’s a blood witch in his territory who refuses to pay his respects, and that puts him on the top of his list of suspects. But when he goes to confront the witch, things don’t turn out the way he’d planned. The witch is his mate.
Nick doesn’t want to be anywhere near Conri. Being close to kings always ends with him getting hurt, but he finds himself sucked into the power struggle. Conri doesn’t know who he can trust, but he knows he needs Nick by his side. Together, they’re strong, but are they strong enough to keep the throne?
The Review
The Blood Witch is set in a world where paranormal beings and humans live alongside each other on very unequal terms. Shifters, witches and vampires are third class citizens. They cannot own their own business, and they can be beaten by the police without provocation. Added to all these ’benefits’ are the politics of the paranormal community. When I say politics, I’m talking about the knife-in-the-back variety.
Nick Adore is a witch in hiding, a blood witch who can control the blood flowing around his own and other’s body, in good and bad ways. He is on the run from just about everyone, after having escaped from the clutches of a vampire king. He trusts no one, but he has a sense of fairness. He reveals his ability when he comes to a shifter’s aid. Now he has the king of the shifter pack on his case too.
Conri Biast is the king, the leader and an alpha wolf, and he wants Nick to meet with him and explain his presence in his kingdom. The kingdom consists of a number of different interacting shifter packs and some vampires.
Conri is a king with a problem. Not everyone is happy about his rule, and the police are just itching for an excuse to raid his night club and rough up a few shifters who will not be able to retaliate, even though they are more than able to look after themselves. The consequences for the paranormal community would be extreme if they did defend themselves, as they are outnumbered by those human monsters. But there is no such limitation within the paranormal community.
Conri forces the issue with Nick and persuades him to deal with him. This all takes place as other shifters make a move on Conri’s rule. Neither of them have many people they can trust, and they have to work together. They find out that they are so much stronger when they do, plus there are other benefits that come from being fated mates.
It took me a while to get to grips with the society being described here. The unfairness of the paranormal situation really had me railing against it all. Damn humans!
Then it ended just when I was really enjoying it all. The characters are good, and they really grow as a result of their interactions.
There had better be more to come, or I might just have to howl even louder.
The Reviewer
Tony is an Englishman living amongst the Welsh and the Other Folk in the mountains of Wales. He lives with his partner of thirty-six years, four dogs, two ponies, various birds, and his bees. He is a retired lecturer and a writer of no renown but that doesn’t stop him enjoying what he used to think of as ‘sensible’ fantasy and sf. He’s surprised to find that if the story is well written and has likeable characters undergoing the trails of life, i.e. falling in love, falling out of love, having a bit of nooky (but not all the time), fending off foes, aliens and monsters, etc., he’ll be happy as a sandperson who has just offloaded a wagon of sand at the going market price. As long as there’s a story, he’s in. He aims to write fair and honest reviews. If he finds he is not the target reader he’ll move on.