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Witch's War: Rise of Witches Book Two
In a world where magic and betrayal intertwine, Tamara's life takes a treacherous turn.
When Tamara makes a choice that costs someone their life, she faces the unforgiving consequences of her actions. The Council of Elders banishes her, casting her aside like a forgotten spell. But when news of an impending attack reaches her ears, Tamara will risk everything to save the people she holds dear, even if that means spending her life in prison.
Now, Tamara must rise from her choices, wield her magic to protect the gifted and confront the consequences of her actions. In a kingdom where trust is scarce, alliances shift like shadows, and power is wielded with ruthless intent, Tamara must embark on an epic quest where survival is a relentless battle, and she must make the ultimate choice - vengeance or salvation.
In Witch’s War, betrayal sets the stage, and courage lights the way as the fate of the kingdom hangs in the balance.
When Tamara makes a choice that costs someone their life, she faces the unforgiving consequences of her actions. The Council of Elders banishes her, casting her aside like a forgotten spell. But when news of an impending attack reaches her ears, Tamara will risk everything to save the people she holds dear, even if that means spending her life in prison.
Now, Tamara must rise from her choices, wield her magic to protect the gifted and confront the consequences of her actions. In a kingdom where trust is scarce, alliances shift like shadows, and power is wielded with ruthless intent, Tamara must embark on an epic quest where survival is a relentless battle, and she must make the ultimate choice - vengeance or salvation.
In Witch’s War, betrayal sets the stage, and courage lights the way as the fate of the kingdom hangs in the balance.
224 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 18, 2024
2 people are currently reading
4 people want to read
About the author
A.K. Stuntz
8 books7 followersA.K. Stuntz is a fantasy and sci-fi author. Her love for writing began at an early age and grew along with her imagination.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 19, 2024
This enjoyable fantasy story has witches, betrayals, conflicts both large and small, and plenty of magic. It moves at a quick pace, with things happening in rapid succession. Although, at times, too rapidly. While there was a reason that witches could swiftly travel great distances, other people seemed to have some unmentioned way to move almost as quickly – that army was able to travel awfully fast, and with a catapult, too.
I liked that some main characters were older, such as one who is 125 years old and another 72 years old. However, they didn't often feel like they were older. Where was some wisdom from life experiences and having lived so long? The writing style seemed new adult and felt like a disconnect with the maturity of the characters. Other distracting disconnects were someone healing when previously it said healing wasn't that character's power; someone wondering how the new king made the special weapon, when he's been king only a few days; and bombing someplace, when bombs had not been in the story before.
Despite these issues, overall, the story was an entertaining read – an interesting fantasy tale with a lot going on.
(3.5 stars rounded up)
I liked that some main characters were older, such as one who is 125 years old and another 72 years old. However, they didn't often feel like they were older. Where was some wisdom from life experiences and having lived so long? The writing style seemed new adult and felt like a disconnect with the maturity of the characters. Other distracting disconnects were someone healing when previously it said healing wasn't that character's power; someone wondering how the new king made the special weapon, when he's been king only a few days; and bombing someplace, when bombs had not been in the story before.
Despite these issues, overall, the story was an entertaining read – an interesting fantasy tale with a lot going on.
(3.5 stars rounded up)
April 14, 2024
I received an ARC copy of this book from the author.
Witch's War is a high fantasy story about a powerful witch named Tamara who is betrayed by someone very close to her, loses everything, and gets caught up in the middle of a war that starts because of a mistake she made when she trusted the person who betrayed her.
Thanks to Tamara's choices, the former beloved king has been killed and a new king has taken the throne. This new king wants to round up all of the gifted and eliminate them because they are a threat to his stolen throne. Tamara barely has time to process the betrayal and the results of it because her home is immediately attacked and lives are being lost. Worse still is the schools for gifted children have been targeted, and a group of gifted children have been kidnapped.
After being shunned by the counsel of elders for her mistake that lead to this war, Tamara is left with only a couple of allies to try to fight and fix this mistake, including a soldier in the new king's army that she isn't sure she can trust.
I enjoyed every moment of this book! It's super fast paced with a lot of action, adventure, magic, and plot twists. There are fight scenes but it's a clean fantasy so it could be appropriate for an older teen/ya reader. The epilogue wraps up the ending nicely so it feels like the story is resolved without a cliffhanger ending, but it sets up the story for the next book, which I definitely want to read!
Witch's War is a high fantasy story about a powerful witch named Tamara who is betrayed by someone very close to her, loses everything, and gets caught up in the middle of a war that starts because of a mistake she made when she trusted the person who betrayed her.
Thanks to Tamara's choices, the former beloved king has been killed and a new king has taken the throne. This new king wants to round up all of the gifted and eliminate them because they are a threat to his stolen throne. Tamara barely has time to process the betrayal and the results of it because her home is immediately attacked and lives are being lost. Worse still is the schools for gifted children have been targeted, and a group of gifted children have been kidnapped.
After being shunned by the counsel of elders for her mistake that lead to this war, Tamara is left with only a couple of allies to try to fight and fix this mistake, including a soldier in the new king's army that she isn't sure she can trust.
I enjoyed every moment of this book! It's super fast paced with a lot of action, adventure, magic, and plot twists. There are fight scenes but it's a clean fantasy so it could be appropriate for an older teen/ya reader. The epilogue wraps up the ending nicely so it feels like the story is resolved without a cliffhanger ending, but it sets up the story for the next book, which I definitely want to read!
May 10, 2024
I received an advanced reader copy of this novel from the author, and I really enjoyed it.
I feel like the pacing was done very well. I was never bored or felt like I wasn't wrapped up in the story. I felt like the main female character was very well done and she was easy to root for. I definitely felt the appropriate feelings for the appropriate characters. I either loved them or hated them. As was, I feel the intention of the author.
The political intrigue was well done, and I absolutely found the ending to be satisfying. I will definitely be continuing reading , the rest of the books in this interconnected series.
I feel like the pacing was done very well. I was never bored or felt like I wasn't wrapped up in the story. I felt like the main female character was very well done and she was easy to root for. I definitely felt the appropriate feelings for the appropriate characters. I either loved them or hated them. As was, I feel the intention of the author.
The political intrigue was well done, and I absolutely found the ending to be satisfying. I will definitely be continuing reading , the rest of the books in this interconnected series.
May 30, 2024
This book had plenty of fun ideas. I guess I’m going to speak about a few — so, slight spoiler warning— but I’ll keep it to a minimum. Also, and this might be important, this is the second book in a series, and I haven’t read the first (I only remembered that fact after I wrote this whole review, and rather than delete everything, I just added this sentence).
Witches in this world are “gifted” people — much closer to super heroes or Jedi warriors than occultists (at least those we meet in this book). The main character, Tamara, draws power from nature, and like an athlete, she can only perform under high demand for finite periods of time before needing to rest and recharge, which is nice, because the author gets to use that for some of the ebb and flow of the reading experience.
Late in the story, Tamara retrieves a locket that helps her perform beyond her natural limitations. This is not only fun for the story and its escalation, but I found the author’s idea for the locket’s power source to actually be quite beautiful.
This is a quick novel that is limited to a small geographic location: we have the King’s castle, the gifted people’s headquarters (castle) and the woods between. Almost everything that happens in the novel happens in one of these locales. The novel seems interested in keeping things quick, so the limited staging makes sense. The desire for quickness results in a character taking over a kingdom in an over-simplified way. Its simplicity keeps the plot moving briskly, but it’s distracting (what? You just have to kill the King to be in charge? Why doesn’t everyone do it?) The usurper is under the spell of an evil witch, and the existing army’s willingness to follow his orders could be attributed to the same type of dark spell, but it would need at least a sentence, early on, to establish the idea (for people who haven’t read the first book, ahem, cough cough).
I enjoyed Tamara as a character. She pushes herself forward, even as she second guesses her plans of action. She’s kind, even at personal costs, and she seems sympathetic to other people’s points of view, even when those people are her adversaries.
The fight scenes are good. The soldiers have an anti-magic weapon that I haven’t seen before - sort of like a hand-held cannon. I’m not sure if it runs on magic or science, or if it is a tool of the dark witch (she seems to be manipulating the humans to get rid of her gifted competition), but the cannon makes all the battle scenes more interesting.
There are cool teleportation devices (stone circles), kids in danger, temptations to the “dark side” and other fun things wrapped in a quick, fast-paced package.
Fans of magic books should definitely check out this series.
Hmm, last idea. I guess this a “good witch-warrior” story. Maybe that’s a sub-genre. If it is, this is an excellent entry into its ranks.
Witches in this world are “gifted” people — much closer to super heroes or Jedi warriors than occultists (at least those we meet in this book). The main character, Tamara, draws power from nature, and like an athlete, she can only perform under high demand for finite periods of time before needing to rest and recharge, which is nice, because the author gets to use that for some of the ebb and flow of the reading experience.
Late in the story, Tamara retrieves a locket that helps her perform beyond her natural limitations. This is not only fun for the story and its escalation, but I found the author’s idea for the locket’s power source to actually be quite beautiful.
This is a quick novel that is limited to a small geographic location: we have the King’s castle, the gifted people’s headquarters (castle) and the woods between. Almost everything that happens in the novel happens in one of these locales. The novel seems interested in keeping things quick, so the limited staging makes sense. The desire for quickness results in a character taking over a kingdom in an over-simplified way. Its simplicity keeps the plot moving briskly, but it’s distracting (what? You just have to kill the King to be in charge? Why doesn’t everyone do it?) The usurper is under the spell of an evil witch, and the existing army’s willingness to follow his orders could be attributed to the same type of dark spell, but it would need at least a sentence, early on, to establish the idea (for people who haven’t read the first book, ahem, cough cough).
I enjoyed Tamara as a character. She pushes herself forward, even as she second guesses her plans of action. She’s kind, even at personal costs, and she seems sympathetic to other people’s points of view, even when those people are her adversaries.
The fight scenes are good. The soldiers have an anti-magic weapon that I haven’t seen before - sort of like a hand-held cannon. I’m not sure if it runs on magic or science, or if it is a tool of the dark witch (she seems to be manipulating the humans to get rid of her gifted competition), but the cannon makes all the battle scenes more interesting.
There are cool teleportation devices (stone circles), kids in danger, temptations to the “dark side” and other fun things wrapped in a quick, fast-paced package.
Fans of magic books should definitely check out this series.
Hmm, last idea. I guess this a “good witch-warrior” story. Maybe that’s a sub-genre. If it is, this is an excellent entry into its ranks.
May 6, 2024
Witch's War is a clean fantasy suitable for children and young adults. The novel is fast paced with short chapters and that keeps you reading and engrossed in the story. A.K. Stuntz's writing is good, although sometimes lacking description of the world. My personal feelings are, if you're introducing the reader to a new world, then it's important to describe the places, after all, what sets them apart from our world?
The story focuses mainly on a witch, Tamara. At the start she is betrayed by her husband, who murders the king and takes the throne. He then turns on her and she barely escapes with her life. The rest of the novel follows her as she attempts to right her mistake. The new king obviously wants her out of the way, using the resources of his kingdom to do this, while also hunting down other gifted (magic users) who might be a danger to him in the future.
The other characters are also returnees from the first book. Tristan is another POV, Janelle also plays an important part of the story. There is another character named Drew, who at first seems to be an ally to Tamara, but also holds a secret of his own which you discover slowly as the story unfolds. On the whole, the characters are interesting and engaging. Janelle being the one with the humour, while Tamara seems cold due to the betrayal.
The main issues I tended to have were regarding plot. The author sets up the premise where anyone who kills the king can become king, but there's nothing regarding political infighting or political intrigue in the palace. In this story, a man can kill a king, take his place and then anyone under him follows his command, even though they hold no allegiance to him. How and why? What happened to the people at court? Are they happy with this? why is the new king not under threat? How is he able to cement his position with no one attempting to kill him? He needs to sleep at some point, surely it's pretty easy for a well-connected person at court to slip into his chambers and stab him through the heart while he sleeps! Yes, it's true, he does have the company of a very powerful dark witch and he can also perform magic, but she's not with him all the time. Instead we're told that this is the system and we just have to accept that everyone follows his command without question. I just wished this political side was fleshed out, seeing as we do spend some time with the new king, however his POV is mostly wasted to tell us that he's going after Tamara.
Overall, the story is inoffensive and clean, lacking blood, sex, violence and if this type of fantasy is your thing, it's an entertaining way to spend a weekend.
The story focuses mainly on a witch, Tamara. At the start she is betrayed by her husband, who murders the king and takes the throne. He then turns on her and she barely escapes with her life. The rest of the novel follows her as she attempts to right her mistake. The new king obviously wants her out of the way, using the resources of his kingdom to do this, while also hunting down other gifted (magic users) who might be a danger to him in the future.
The other characters are also returnees from the first book. Tristan is another POV, Janelle also plays an important part of the story. There is another character named Drew, who at first seems to be an ally to Tamara, but also holds a secret of his own which you discover slowly as the story unfolds. On the whole, the characters are interesting and engaging. Janelle being the one with the humour, while Tamara seems cold due to the betrayal.
The main issues I tended to have were regarding plot. The author sets up the premise where anyone who kills the king can become king, but there's nothing regarding political infighting or political intrigue in the palace. In this story, a man can kill a king, take his place and then anyone under him follows his command, even though they hold no allegiance to him. How and why? What happened to the people at court? Are they happy with this? why is the new king not under threat? How is he able to cement his position with no one attempting to kill him? He needs to sleep at some point, surely it's pretty easy for a well-connected person at court to slip into his chambers and stab him through the heart while he sleeps! Yes, it's true, he does have the company of a very powerful dark witch and he can also perform magic, but she's not with him all the time. Instead we're told that this is the system and we just have to accept that everyone follows his command without question. I just wished this political side was fleshed out, seeing as we do spend some time with the new king, however his POV is mostly wasted to tell us that he's going after Tamara.
Overall, the story is inoffensive and clean, lacking blood, sex, violence and if this type of fantasy is your thing, it's an entertaining way to spend a weekend.
May 28, 2024
This is a tale of witches, magic, and kings and their soldiers. The story is pretty straightforward, but readers will need to be able to believe in magic, and the power of magic, the weakness of magic, and the difference between good magic and bad magic, and the people (witches) who practice the various kinds of magic.
So it will help if you like reading tales involving magic. Other aspects of thee story that are appealing are of course the initial betrayal, the consequences of the betrayal, and the struggle by the various characters to avoid capture and death.
I had a hard time with the premise of the betrayal, and the blind loyalty of the new King's soldiers, and their willingness to enact some pretty harsh edicts, and I wasn't satisfied with the grand finale which really just seems to be a set-up for the next book.
But... If you like stories of Kings and witches, knights and warriors, and believe in magic, then you will probably find this story to be quite entertaining!
So it will help if you like reading tales involving magic. Other aspects of thee story that are appealing are of course the initial betrayal, the consequences of the betrayal, and the struggle by the various characters to avoid capture and death.
I had a hard time with the premise of the betrayal, and the blind loyalty of the new King's soldiers, and their willingness to enact some pretty harsh edicts, and I wasn't satisfied with the grand finale which really just seems to be a set-up for the next book.
But... If you like stories of Kings and witches, knights and warriors, and believe in magic, then you will probably find this story to be quite entertaining!
July 24, 2024
I read Book Two before Book One, making it more difficult to track the entry to this installment’s storyline. Beyond that, I would give Witch’s War a thumbs up for its creative fantasy world construction. In the vein of Tolkien and other fantasy novels, Witch’s War relies on extensive journey and travel across a make-believe world to expose its plot, its characters, and its important places, reminding me of my enjoyment of this genre from when I was young.
However, I struggled with elements of the writing. The dialogue was a bit clunky throughout, especially during intense action scenes where unrealistic, long-winded conversations often broke out between characters as they fought for their lives. I believe other mechanisms could have been used to explain what was happening and why. I also struggled with following the emotional states of the main characters. They would often go quickly from a warm smile to tears or from warm memories of someone to a desire to destroy them.
However, I struggled with elements of the writing. The dialogue was a bit clunky throughout, especially during intense action scenes where unrealistic, long-winded conversations often broke out between characters as they fought for their lives. I believe other mechanisms could have been used to explain what was happening and why. I also struggled with following the emotional states of the main characters. They would often go quickly from a warm smile to tears or from warm memories of someone to a desire to destroy them.
May 20, 2024
Nice but Predictable Witch Fantasy
A.K. Stuntzs Witch's War: Rise of Witches Book Two was a fast paced and action packed page turner about warring witches and betrayal. The characters of Tamara, Janelle, Freya, Tessa, Drew, Ernest, and Tristian were well developed. While a well written tale, my only quip is that a substantial portion of the middle of the work is one big chase in the woods with everyone seeming like they are going back and forth in the community. It was also fairly predictable. However, if you like a story about magic and witches battling each other, this will be a pleasant read.
A.K. Stuntzs Witch's War: Rise of Witches Book Two was a fast paced and action packed page turner about warring witches and betrayal. The characters of Tamara, Janelle, Freya, Tessa, Drew, Ernest, and Tristian were well developed. While a well written tale, my only quip is that a substantial portion of the middle of the work is one big chase in the woods with everyone seeming like they are going back and forth in the community. It was also fairly predictable. However, if you like a story about magic and witches battling each other, this will be a pleasant read.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews