Another must read from Sakura Black
I am doing my very first book review. Please take that into account for my lack of experience.
I've read the two prior books released in the series, Take Me to Hell and Capturing Sin, which I enjoyed, and it prompted me to be part of the ARC group. You don't have to read the other books in the series, but it does help for the back stories of the other characters.
Hellish Witch features Killian, an incubus and Eve who is half demon and half mage. I like that Sakura Black has main characters that are not 'perfect' and are easily relatable. Killian and Eve both have tortured pasts that manipulate the decisions they make. Eve's mage magic is healing , but being a hybrid it fuels her insecurities. She didn't know her mage father and lost her demon mother when she was younger. She was then left into the hands of her mothers sisters, who mistreated her, so she ran away to the hybrid kingdom. Rex, the demon king of this kingdom, becomes Eve's chosen relative, referring to him as her brother while other times as Uncle. Rex's queen, Zoella, is a witch and like a sister to Eve. They lean on each other to learn about their respective magic since neither have any experience, which typically would come from an elder. Killian is an enforcer in the hybrid realm, after being taken in by Rex when he was found malnurished and beaten. Killian and Eve share that bond of both being 'rescued' by Rex within months of each other and living better lives in the hybrid realm with their new chosen family. Eve has harbored feelings for Killian since he is an incubus. Eve doesn't believe that he returns these feelings. Killian flirts and plays at being a sexual incubus, but he has constantly insinuated that they are not friends nor if he want Eve to touch or heal him when injured. These 'rejections' only confirm to Eve that she has no chance of being with Killian.
The story finds Eve as a prisoner of the demon hunters in the human realm. She was lured there by a boyfriend who sold her to the demon hunters. Her brother, his queen, and his enforcers come to her rescue. Little do they know, during Eve's incarceration, her magic change from healing to hurting people. After her rescue, her healing magic is still non-existent, but she finds that under duress, the hurting magic continues to resurrect itself, and those all around her get impacted. She is scared of hurting her family and that her one true reason for living in the hybrid kingdom, being able to heal, is lost to her. Even though Eve lives in the hybrid realm where all kinds are welcome, she encounters bullying from the other members. Some of this comes from her not having any typical characteristics of a mage or demon. Killian gets caught in the cross fire of one of the hurting incidents and forces Eve to go to her queen for help.
Since Zoella and Eve have no proper training in their magic, she would need the help of a coven to see if she can contain the hurting magic and find her healing magic. Rex and Zoella make plans to go with her to the human realm to locate a coven, but Eve doesn't want to endanger them. She decides to go on her own and cross the Bloodwood forest to the portal that will take her to the human realm, which is fraught of dangers. Her lonley trek becomes a duo when Killian comes to her rescue? Or is it duty to his king that makes Killian ingratiate himself on this journey? Another suprise tag along is of the furry kind, a hellcat, that Eve can't make head nor tails if she is a friend or frenemy.
The tension between Killian and Eve is what keeps the reader engaged. But with both of them having their own battered histories and Eve's insecurities of her place in the kingdom as well as not being self assured in herself as a hybrid, will they be able to be together?
I hope that you chose to read Hellish Witch. I highly enjoyed it so much so that I read it twice during the week since I downloaded it. Partly because I needed to work on a review, but mostly because I really liked these two characters and the tension between them.