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The Black Witch Chronicles #5
The Dryad Storm
The forthcoming fifth book of The Black Witch Chronicles.
Paperback
First published January 7, 2025
1292 people are currently reading
21546 people want to read
About the author
Laurie Forest
22 books4,290 followersLaurie Forest is a New York Times, USA Today & Internationally Bestselling Author who lives deep in the backwoods of Vermont where she sits in front of a wood stove drinking strong tea and dreaming up tales full of dryads, dragons and wands. She has penned THE BLACK WITCH CHRONICLES including - THE BLACK WITCH, THE REBEL MAGES (a compilation of the prequel novels WANDFASTED & LIGHT MAGE), THE SHADOW WAND, THE DEMON TIDE & THE DRYAD STORM. She is currently working on her first standalone adult romantasy - SILVERLING.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 912 reviews
January 12, 2025
Heartbroken. 😭
I have loved this series, but I'm so disappointed with this book (and the book prior, tbh). The writing fluctuates between overly descriptive, poorly edited, and in general repetitive to the point of nauseum. Despite elloren being the primary focus for so long, it seems like at some point her story got completely muted in favor of telling us about a million other characters who all magically (no pun intended) have the exact same story. There are HEAVY environmental and religious undertones, which isn't a huge deal, but it does produce an eye roll every once in a while.
The author is overall a very good writer, and there are some scenes where I remembered that this was a series I adored - but for the most part it needed huge parts of the book just cut out and implied. Perhaps if she had continued on the side stories being like what she did with the rebel mages, separated into its own side books, it would have been a much better read.
I have loved this series, but I'm so disappointed with this book (and the book prior, tbh). The writing fluctuates between overly descriptive, poorly edited, and in general repetitive to the point of nauseum. Despite elloren being the primary focus for so long, it seems like at some point her story got completely muted in favor of telling us about a million other characters who all magically (no pun intended) have the exact same story. There are HEAVY environmental and religious undertones, which isn't a huge deal, but it does produce an eye roll every once in a while.
The author is overall a very good writer, and there are some scenes where I remembered that this was a series I adored - but for the most part it needed huge parts of the book just cut out and implied. Perhaps if she had continued on the side stories being like what she did with the rebel mages, separated into its own side books, it would have been a much better read.
Want to read
May 3, 2024Controversial opinion... don't bring Lukas back, it dishonors his sacrifice. And if you do, I vote for Yvan x Elloren x Lukas. It's throuple time if you bring him back, Laurie. Do not play with my heart. Elloren's got two hands.
Ultimately, I'm team Yvan but I would be down for a throuple as well. I do like Lukas but I disagree with those that say that Elloren and Lukas had a mature love while Elloren and Yvan had a crush. I think the love between Elloren and Yvan was very much a mature love... they had instant attraction but not instant passion - their passion only came after getting to know one another, seeing each other at their worst and best and after making each other better. That is not a crush. Their relationship took time to build - nothing immature about that.
IMO, Elloren's love for Lukas is like a candle compared to the huge, roaring bonfire that is her love for Yvan.
Ultimately, I'm team Yvan but I would be down for a throuple as well. I do like Lukas but I disagree with those that say that Elloren and Lukas had a mature love while Elloren and Yvan had a crush. I think the love between Elloren and Yvan was very much a mature love... they had instant attraction but not instant passion - their passion only came after getting to know one another, seeing each other at their worst and best and after making each other better. That is not a crush. Their relationship took time to build - nothing immature about that.
IMO, Elloren's love for Lukas is like a candle compared to the huge, roaring bonfire that is her love for Yvan.
January 13, 2025
DNF at 40%. What a disaster. The author mostly abandoned her main characters for an Avengers like tale. Everyone suddenly is super hot and super powerful. And that isn’t even the worst of it. Book 4 was weak but this book … Such a shame.
January 24, 2025
This series went tits up
January 6, 2025
i literally felt like i was in the 3rd grade at recess playing witches and fairies with my friends and each person is trying to one up each other with what kind of powers they have while reading this book. also the romance made me want to disable my optic nerves via toothpick
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January 21, 2025I think I'm finally ready to talk about this book. First, I want to be clear that I have loved this series and recommended it to everyone I've ever met. The first 3 books and the novellas are amazing, and I honestly even enjoyed Demon Tide. So it is with great regret that I tell you how utterly disappointed I was with Dryad Storm.
I think one of the main problems everyone had with Demon Tide was the number of POVs, and how the story got bogged down with all the couples. This book takes that issue and multiplies it by 100. Fully the first 20% of this enormous tome is spent on characters we didn't even see in Demon Tide. There's also an excess of detail throughout. Laurie talks about colors of magic and lines like Tolkien talks about trees. It's never-ending. And every single character had to be paired up, which resulted in a lot of insta-love. Everyone's magic yearned/sought out/stretched towards/tangled with their partner's magic. Endlessly.
This is also a HIGHLY stressful and intense book. Bad things happen constantly for most of the book. We hardly ever get to catch our breath (unless some characters are taking a horny break). We are just inundated with action. So we never really get to spend a lot of time with our favorite characters, which makes me sad. Also, for HOW intense and bad things get, the resolution seems fast and weirdly tidy.
Now, I'm going to have to spend some time on spoilers, because this is where I wanted to throw the book and nope my way out. These will spoil the book for you, so you've been warned.
This book needed to have hundreds of pages cut. It was much too bloated and unwieldy. We also didn't need an entirely new character introduced for the epilogue. There were already way too many as it is. Sadly, any bright spots in the book were much overshadowed by the things that didn't work. I will always love this series, but I'll imagine this book was very different.
Not to mention, I still don't know how to rate this, so I'll leave it unrated for now.
I think one of the main problems everyone had with Demon Tide was the number of POVs, and how the story got bogged down with all the couples. This book takes that issue and multiplies it by 100. Fully the first 20% of this enormous tome is spent on characters we didn't even see in Demon Tide. There's also an excess of detail throughout. Laurie talks about colors of magic and lines like Tolkien talks about trees. It's never-ending. And every single character had to be paired up, which resulted in a lot of insta-love. Everyone's magic yearned/sought out/stretched towards/tangled with their partner's magic. Endlessly.
This is also a HIGHLY stressful and intense book. Bad things happen constantly for most of the book. We hardly ever get to catch our breath (unless some characters are taking a horny break). We are just inundated with action. So we never really get to spend a lot of time with our favorite characters, which makes me sad. Also, for HOW intense and bad things get, the resolution seems fast and weirdly tidy.
Now, I'm going to have to spend some time on spoilers, because this is where I wanted to throw the book and nope my way out. These will spoil the book for you, so you've been warned.
This book needed to have hundreds of pages cut. It was much too bloated and unwieldy. We also didn't need an entirely new character introduced for the epilogue. There were already way too many as it is. Sadly, any bright spots in the book were much overshadowed by the things that didn't work. I will always love this series, but I'll imagine this book was very different.
Not to mention, I still don't know how to rate this, so I'll leave it unrated for now.
January 13, 2025
I will always ALWAYS recommend this series because the earlier books are excellent... but this was cuckoo bananas y'all 🥲
January 10, 2025
This book was very disappointing for me. This was one of my favorite series until this book. New characters are introduced with multiple POV’s. Was hard to keep up with so many individual stories. Elloren did not end up with the best man for her. I like the author but she killed this series for me when she killed Lukas. I skimmed through most of this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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May 28, 2022After 4 good reads the writer should definitely bring
back Lukas, Yvan was an infatuation, Lukas is her mature love based on all the right things- friendship, trust and bringing out the best in your partner
back Lukas, Yvan was an infatuation, Lukas is her mature love based on all the right things- friendship, trust and bringing out the best in your partner
March 25, 2023
I really hope the author listens to the readers! To see an author single handedly ruin their own series is disappointing. Just read the reviews! We all are saying the same thing!!! LISTEN! This series started off strong… let’s end it the same way.
February 4, 2025
I am so disappointed in this final book its just not funny.
This series started out as THE MOST EPIC fantasy read of the last decade. The theme of racism, bigotry, oppression, intolerance and just overall shitty behavior woven into a fantasy world which comprised many different nations, experienced through the eyes of a young girl from the ruling class of the current oppressor in itself was a winning combo. Add in the fanatic religious aspect and dragons (DRAGONS people) and this should have hit the New York Times best seller every single book. People should have been setting the writing and plot build as a standard for fantasy novels, but alas. Ok I know I am being slightly over dramatic, but still. (sobs)
OK so where did this go so wrong in my eyes, well the first 3 books and the novels were nothing short of brilliant. I do think the love interest switch was a good choice, Yvan was the perfect idealistic first love boy for a young girl just opening her eyes to the injustice around her. Lukas was the man who strengthened her as she became a woman and taught her to be a warrior. Note the difference between Yvan and Lukas in my eyes, the one was a boy the other a man.
The fourth book is were the shit show started. Instead of further developing Elloren into a warrior she was a powerless thing and an annoyance. The book focused on all sorts of side characters. Tristans side story with Voth was the only redeeming arc in that book which could easily have been a novel on its own. Also Tierneys side story, again a perfect novel opportunity wasted and in the end this book ended up a huge story of hookups and digressing from the main story line. The underlying theme of love to heal fractions fell flat.
And then this book. I nearly DNF'd this book about 10 times. It took forever to get to Elloren in the book, again a lot of new side characters and their back stories and hookups.
The whole Dryad thing totally overdone, everyone going into the trees and becoming dryads , seriously!. The black witch of prophecy with the power to destroy the world with her flame became a tree girl with LIGHT mage powers. And the hookups, more hookups boring. Now if those "sex" scenes had been a little more adult in nature that might have redeemed the hookups a bit, but no they were all flowery and vaguely obscure.
And then the ending which went on and on, epilogue after epilogue. Some obscure story about a young boy with black with powers growing up with Diana and becoming a shifter to HOOK UP with the little girl from book 1 from the kitchens I forget her name. Its like every character that had at least a sentence in the all the books required a HEA. TOOO MUCH!!!!.
So I do not blame the author for all these F-ups. I blame her editor who should be FIRED!. Essentially if all these side stories had been bundled separate from the books ( from book 4 onwards) and the main books had concentrated on the main story line and she had read some of the critiques and noticed that the kill of Lukas did her no favors and she had made the big battle an actual battle thus given an actual feeling of winning. but alas, it is what it is ( a disappointment in my eyes)
Bring back Lukas
This series started out as THE MOST EPIC fantasy read of the last decade. The theme of racism, bigotry, oppression, intolerance and just overall shitty behavior woven into a fantasy world which comprised many different nations, experienced through the eyes of a young girl from the ruling class of the current oppressor in itself was a winning combo. Add in the fanatic religious aspect and dragons (DRAGONS people) and this should have hit the New York Times best seller every single book. People should have been setting the writing and plot build as a standard for fantasy novels, but alas. Ok I know I am being slightly over dramatic, but still. (sobs)
OK so where did this go so wrong in my eyes, well the first 3 books and the novels were nothing short of brilliant. I do think the love interest switch was a good choice, Yvan was the perfect idealistic first love boy for a young girl just opening her eyes to the injustice around her. Lukas was the man who strengthened her as she became a woman and taught her to be a warrior. Note the difference between Yvan and Lukas in my eyes, the one was a boy the other a man.
The fourth book is were the shit show started. Instead of further developing Elloren into a warrior she was a powerless thing and an annoyance. The book focused on all sorts of side characters. Tristans side story with Voth was the only redeeming arc in that book which could easily have been a novel on its own. Also Tierneys side story, again a perfect novel opportunity wasted and in the end this book ended up a huge story of hookups and digressing from the main story line. The underlying theme of love to heal fractions fell flat.
And then this book. I nearly DNF'd this book about 10 times. It took forever to get to Elloren in the book, again a lot of new side characters and their back stories and hookups.
The whole Dryad thing totally overdone, everyone going into the trees and becoming dryads , seriously!. The black witch of prophecy with the power to destroy the world with her flame became a tree girl with LIGHT mage powers. And the hookups, more hookups boring. Now if those "sex" scenes had been a little more adult in nature that might have redeemed the hookups a bit, but no they were all flowery and vaguely obscure.
And then the ending which went on and on, epilogue after epilogue. Some obscure story about a young boy with black with powers growing up with Diana and becoming a shifter to HOOK UP with the little girl from book 1 from the kitchens I forget her name. Its like every character that had at least a sentence in the all the books required a HEA. TOOO MUCH!!!!.
So I do not blame the author for all these F-ups. I blame her editor who should be FIRED!. Essentially if all these side stories had been bundled separate from the books ( from book 4 onwards) and the main books had concentrated on the main story line and she had read some of the critiques and noticed that the kill of Lukas did her no favors and she had made the big battle an actual battle thus given an actual feeling of winning. but alas, it is what it is ( a disappointment in my eyes)
Bring back Lukas
February 27, 2025
I don't give one star reviews to books that I actually finished.
I am devastated that I don't feel like I can rate this book better. First off. Some 50% of the book is spent getting people baptized by trees. This was annoying to me, but something I shrugged off until Jules was tree baptized. He didn't want to do it, he was pressured into it, and afterwards he said all of history had to be rewritten to reflect the new knowledge gained from the trees. People were coming out of the tree magically healed and speaking in tongues. I respect a nature theme, I LOVE a nature theme. But this nature theme was deeply steeped in religious imagery, and it gave the feel of "The reason religion caused oppression and war is because we just all needed to join the right one!" After that I was pissed.
I'm disappointed Lukas didn't come back. Thematically I understand why he didn't, but I felt like the closure we were given as fans was very shallow.
Do not even get me started on the pregnancy.
The plot was almost entirely people arguing about whether they want to get tree baptized or not, ultimately deciding to get tree baptized, and then speaking for a few pages about how glad they are to have done it and how everyone needs to.
The other books in the series are some of the best I've ever read. I loved them, I plan to read them again and again. I just can't believe the ending went this way. It feels like a total loss of narrative integrity could have been an email.
I am devastated that I don't feel like I can rate this book better. First off. Some 50% of the book is spent getting people baptized by trees. This was annoying to me, but something I shrugged off until Jules was tree baptized. He didn't want to do it, he was pressured into it, and afterwards he said all of history had to be rewritten to reflect the new knowledge gained from the trees. People were coming out of the tree magically healed and speaking in tongues. I respect a nature theme, I LOVE a nature theme. But this nature theme was deeply steeped in religious imagery, and it gave the feel of "The reason religion caused oppression and war is because we just all needed to join the right one!" After that I was pissed.
I'm disappointed Lukas didn't come back. Thematically I understand why he didn't, but I felt like the closure we were given as fans was very shallow.
Do not even get me started on the pregnancy.
The plot was almost entirely people arguing about whether they want to get tree baptized or not, ultimately deciding to get tree baptized, and then speaking for a few pages about how glad they are to have done it and how everyone needs to.
The other books in the series are some of the best I've ever read. I loved them, I plan to read them again and again. I just can't believe the ending went this way. It feels like a total loss of narrative integrity could have been an email.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 8, 2025
I started this series six years ago, so needless to say, I was anxiously waiting for its conclusion. I'm disappointed to confess that it did not meet any of my satisfaction.
In terms of the narration and pace of the book considering it is a multiple POV it's gonna be messy and even at times confusing. There were many instances where I felt a chapter was unnecessarily descriptive. The book is split into five parts to narrate different parts of this final war. The first half (prelude, part one & part two) was not needed at the length it was written, if anything some of these details and even characters should've been introduced in " The Shadow Wand " and " The Demon Tide" when we fully moved away from the college campus environment.
On a positive note, I commend the author for concluding the book with the same themes and messages introduced in "The Black Witch." The emphasis on love and kindness towards others as a means to build a stronger society, as well as the importance of community for future generations, was a meaningful aspect of the story.
In terms of the narration and pace of the book considering it is a multiple POV it's gonna be messy and even at times confusing. There were many instances where I felt a chapter was unnecessarily descriptive. The book is split into five parts to narrate different parts of this final war. The first half (prelude, part one & part two) was not needed at the length it was written, if anything some of these details and even characters should've been introduced in " The Shadow Wand " and " The Demon Tide" when we fully moved away from the college campus environment.
On a positive note, I commend the author for concluding the book with the same themes and messages introduced in "The Black Witch." The emphasis on love and kindness towards others as a means to build a stronger society, as well as the importance of community for future generations, was a meaningful aspect of the story.
January 16, 2025
Talk about a let down 🫠 This didn’t need to be as long as it was and 50% of it was the same shit on repeat and could’ve been cut. Also this is prime example of why pregnancy trope is the fucking worst because wtf do you mean you’re using your barely there embryo’s power to save the world??? And to announce it like a day after conception in the middle of the “big” war we spent the entire series gearing up for is so stupid. Also every big bad’s death was so underwhelming and over so quickly and it made everything feel pointless. Like Vogel and Fallon were that over powered the entire time and yet they were somehow so easily over powered and killed? Don’t get me started on killing off Lukas, who was easily the best and most well written character in the series, just so you had a convenient way to have Yvan and Elloren end up together when it was clear Lukas was simply the better choice. Idk, whole thing was just a major disappointment.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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April 9, 2022Bring back Lukas!🥺❤️🔥♥️
July 8, 2025
I was left feeling rather underwhelmed by this book and found myself having to push myself to keep going. I LOVED the first three books in the series and the accompanying novellas. I really loved where Elloren's character was going in The Shadow Wand, then The Demon Tide... I feel like the author lost the thread of the story somewhere and just totally changed the direction of the journey of the characters. There are moments in TDT and this book at spark that initial feeling of this story. There were too many new characters and pov's introduced and the same was done with this book too. I feel that perhaps the last two books were very much fantasy romance rather than the romantic fantasy that it started as.
Don't get me wrong I love romance in fantasy but as long as the story is still carried well.
I still love this series but I was left feeling disappointed. I'm sorry to feel this way. I feel bad that I feel this way but there it is. I suppose too, I felt betrayed by a certain character's death in TDT and it changed my feelings about the series too.
Don't get me wrong I love romance in fantasy but as long as the story is still carried well.
I still love this series but I was left feeling disappointed. I'm sorry to feel this way. I feel bad that I feel this way but there it is. I suppose too, I felt betrayed by a certain character's death in TDT and it changed my feelings about the series too.
January 18, 2025
DNF at 50%. Did she forget how to write?
January 16, 2025
This was SUCH a struggle to get through!!! Honestly, if it wasn’t the last book in the series I wouldn’t have pushed through it. It’s disappointing because I LOVED the first three books in this series! However, after that everything went downhill for me. I feel like the series completely changed directions. The main character got pushed to the background and a million side characters entered into the storyline. This last book had everything I hated about the fourth book but worse! It was slow and incredibly repetitive. The prelude was ridiculously long and there was way too many different points of view happening yet again. Really the only thing I enjoyed about this book was Gwynn and Mavrick in the very beginning.
February 24, 2025
ISPOILERS! DO NOT CONTINUE UNLESS YOU GENUINELY WANT ME TO RUIN THIS BOOK FOR YOU. CUZ I PROMISE IT ISN'T WORTH YOUR TIME!!
I'm a terrible writer. Thats why I leave it to professionals. But I have to leave a review for this book. It isn't okay that it has such a high rating. Did the same author even write this book as wrote the novellas and first 4 books? Seriously???
I struggled with Demon Tide because of the multiple POVs. Well get ready because this one multiplies that by 1000. You're reading about characters you don't care about! Or if you haven't read the novellas you won't know who they are!
Literally it took 174 pages before we ever get a chapter on Elloren. The "prelude" to this book is way too long. We read about Gwyn and her new fastmate basically just Lusting after each other and finally doing it and they have this new gold twinning power? That just comes magically from gwynns photographic memory? What? And like Wynter is there but basically does nothing.
We also get a chapter on Gareth and Marina. Who can "join" together and now share powers. She gets his light magery, he gets gills and can now live underwater. SORRY NOT SORRY, BUT IF THAT WAS A THING HIS FATHER WOULD HAVE HAD THAT HAPPEN. OR GARETH WOULD HAVE BEEN A MAGICALLY MIXED BABY BEFOREHAND NOT A MAGICALLY STUNTED SELKIE UNTIL HE HAS SEX WITH SOMEONE.
We also get like one chapter on Tierney. I LOVE Tierney. She's bitter, she's strong, she's stubborn. But all she can think about is her 3 guys.
Finally we get to part 1. And there are 5 parts to this book AFTER the prelude. And honestly they all run together. Why it needed to be so many parts I will never know. All they are is people binding to the forest and mating.
We finally come to elloren. Who has like kindred now? Which is something we have NEVER heard of in the other books but every dryad has one. So prepare yourself for another 500 pages of this:
We have to unite! This fighting is what Vogel wants! Unite with the trees! And once you Unite with the trees you'll have this purple tinted animal bestie! Yay!
No. Not yay. I'm all for a war where these factions need to come together. But that's ALL this book is. Genuinely in 723 pages I think we get MAYBE 20 of actual war.
Parts2-4?? Again Idk why the parts were necessary. So. Wynter and gwynn and her new fastmate are basically not part of the story anymore. Now we just have chapters of elloren and her group of basic strangers fighting with another group that just kind of shows up? And convincing them to MERGE WITH THE TREES. So they finally convince them and they all become bark ensconced and come out sobbing and saying they're wrong and will they ever be forgiven. Blah blah blah. Then they mate up and everyone has sex. Literally that's it.
Then somewhere in there fallon is being touted as the REAL black witch and she'll have to battle Yvan. Marcus is doing evil shadow stuff that eventually ends with him fasting to Fallon who is just drooling over him. They fast, he ties her up and reveals his true self. Here's the only surprise I had in the book. He is the Icaral of prophecy.
Pan to whatever part of the book happens here. Elloren and Yvan finally have sex. Over and over and over again. But they still don't do the whole weird wyvern biting thing that merges them together. So they lose their connection. So they go have sex again and he bites her. She wakes up later and is in search of norfur flowers weirdly cuz suddenly she remembers she has a passion for apothecary things! And vogel shows up disguised as Yvan and spirits her away. She finds out he's an icaral and she is the "true black witch!" NO WAY! WE HAVENT READ 4.5 BOOKS PREPPING US FOR THIS WE'RE SO SURPRISED!!!. He starts to overcome her and her hoard that's kind of been in the book some. And magically she realizes she's. You guessed it. The worst trope in the world.
Shes pregnant. Okay. Well we knew this from the novellas that sanjire root doesn't work with wyvern fire. Of course.shes gonna end up pregnant. But the timeline here is 2 days MAX. How does she know? Who cares? But this baby and his connection to this ever present tree forest thing gives her the strength to strike down marcus and win. Yay. Who cares at this point. I'm just reading to be DONE with this travesty.
Finally the war is "over" and they have to unite all the nations
But somehow magically so many people have already been drawn in by the forest and are magically marked! Que HEA for EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE BOOK. It's not a true war if everyone ends up in love with kids named after their deceased family and no one has to deal with the loss.
All that and I didn't even mention that all these tree marked people just have to put their hand in the soil for new trees to grow, so they can take over the shadow.
This book just was soooooo poorly done. And I repeat, if I didn't follow this author I'd think someone else had written it. Shame on her, shame on her editor, and shame on her publishers for letting this book be done. I'm so sad. Because I loved the first 3 books. Liked the novellas and demon tide. But hated this book .
If you made it this far good job, as I stated above I'm not a writer nor do I pretend to be one. But people need to know how bad this was.
I'm a terrible writer. Thats why I leave it to professionals. But I have to leave a review for this book. It isn't okay that it has such a high rating. Did the same author even write this book as wrote the novellas and first 4 books? Seriously???
I struggled with Demon Tide because of the multiple POVs. Well get ready because this one multiplies that by 1000. You're reading about characters you don't care about! Or if you haven't read the novellas you won't know who they are!
Literally it took 174 pages before we ever get a chapter on Elloren. The "prelude" to this book is way too long. We read about Gwyn and her new fastmate basically just Lusting after each other and finally doing it and they have this new gold twinning power? That just comes magically from gwynns photographic memory? What? And like Wynter is there but basically does nothing.
We also get a chapter on Gareth and Marina. Who can "join" together and now share powers. She gets his light magery, he gets gills and can now live underwater. SORRY NOT SORRY, BUT IF THAT WAS A THING HIS FATHER WOULD HAVE HAD THAT HAPPEN. OR GARETH WOULD HAVE BEEN A MAGICALLY MIXED BABY BEFOREHAND NOT A MAGICALLY STUNTED SELKIE UNTIL HE HAS SEX WITH SOMEONE.
We also get like one chapter on Tierney. I LOVE Tierney. She's bitter, she's strong, she's stubborn. But all she can think about is her 3 guys.
Finally we get to part 1. And there are 5 parts to this book AFTER the prelude. And honestly they all run together. Why it needed to be so many parts I will never know. All they are is people binding to the forest and mating.
We finally come to elloren. Who has like kindred now? Which is something we have NEVER heard of in the other books but every dryad has one. So prepare yourself for another 500 pages of this:
We have to unite! This fighting is what Vogel wants! Unite with the trees! And once you Unite with the trees you'll have this purple tinted animal bestie! Yay!
No. Not yay. I'm all for a war where these factions need to come together. But that's ALL this book is. Genuinely in 723 pages I think we get MAYBE 20 of actual war.
Parts2-4?? Again Idk why the parts were necessary. So. Wynter and gwynn and her new fastmate are basically not part of the story anymore. Now we just have chapters of elloren and her group of basic strangers fighting with another group that just kind of shows up? And convincing them to MERGE WITH THE TREES. So they finally convince them and they all become bark ensconced and come out sobbing and saying they're wrong and will they ever be forgiven. Blah blah blah. Then they mate up and everyone has sex. Literally that's it.
Then somewhere in there fallon is being touted as the REAL black witch and she'll have to battle Yvan. Marcus is doing evil shadow stuff that eventually ends with him fasting to Fallon who is just drooling over him. They fast, he ties her up and reveals his true self. Here's the only surprise I had in the book. He is the Icaral of prophecy.
Pan to whatever part of the book happens here. Elloren and Yvan finally have sex. Over and over and over again. But they still don't do the whole weird wyvern biting thing that merges them together. So they lose their connection. So they go have sex again and he bites her. She wakes up later and is in search of norfur flowers weirdly cuz suddenly she remembers she has a passion for apothecary things! And vogel shows up disguised as Yvan and spirits her away. She finds out he's an icaral and she is the "true black witch!" NO WAY! WE HAVENT READ 4.5 BOOKS PREPPING US FOR THIS WE'RE SO SURPRISED!!!. He starts to overcome her and her hoard that's kind of been in the book some. And magically she realizes she's. You guessed it. The worst trope in the world.
Shes pregnant. Okay. Well we knew this from the novellas that sanjire root doesn't work with wyvern fire. Of course.shes gonna end up pregnant. But the timeline here is 2 days MAX. How does she know? Who cares? But this baby and his connection to this ever present tree forest thing gives her the strength to strike down marcus and win. Yay. Who cares at this point. I'm just reading to be DONE with this travesty.
Finally the war is "over" and they have to unite all the nations
But somehow magically so many people have already been drawn in by the forest and are magically marked! Que HEA for EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE BOOK. It's not a true war if everyone ends up in love with kids named after their deceased family and no one has to deal with the loss.
All that and I didn't even mention that all these tree marked people just have to put their hand in the soil for new trees to grow, so they can take over the shadow.
This book just was soooooo poorly done. And I repeat, if I didn't follow this author I'd think someone else had written it. Shame on her, shame on her editor, and shame on her publishers for letting this book be done. I'm so sad. Because I loved the first 3 books. Liked the novellas and demon tide. But hated this book .
If you made it this far good job, as I stated above I'm not a writer nor do I pretend to be one. But people need to know how bad this was.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
June 23, 2022Hope this is better than the last two books. Can’t believe a series that started out so strong has spiraled like this.
January 7, 2025
I waited multiple years for the Black Witch equivalent of JK Rowling’s fanfic ending to Harry Potter.
Incredibly disappointed.
Incredibly disappointed.
February 6, 2025
I am so disappointed with this one. I waited with anticipation for it to come out, had such high hopes of loving it, only to have to push myself and struggle to finish it. 3/4ths of the book, in opinion, was totally unnecessary. There was a lot of repetition between characters with the whole finding their "forever loves" deal, Lukas really is dead (much to my chagrin), the realization of Vogel's true self and his death was anticlimactic...I could go on and on.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 13, 2025
Disappointing
There isn’t much to say about a book that didn’t say much. There were a lot of words and a lot of two-dimensional characters. The only important death of a major character took away the wrong individual. It was an unrewarding read.
There isn’t much to say about a book that didn’t say much. There were a lot of words and a lot of two-dimensional characters. The only important death of a major character took away the wrong individual. It was an unrewarding read.
Want to read
May 24, 2020Oh man, does this mean we're gonna have to wait two years to know how the story ends?!
I'm excited for the fifth book😍, but sad about the wait😢.
I'm excited for the fifth book😍, but sad about the wait😢.
January 17, 2025
Update: 1 star. I’m so angry at how bad this was.
2.75
Where do I begin? This was a complete let down. To the point where I have told friends not to continue or start the series after I had begged them to read it.
Laurie is a good writer and all the material was there for The Black Witch to be a great series, so for this to have flopped as bad as it did...it's incredibly frustrating. I have personal beeeef with her "editor" because wtf. YA doesn't mean repeat things to me like I'm a 4 year old with zero attention span. Me the whole book: If these mother fuckers don't stop looking at each other with heated gazes while litcherally watching everything around them crumble a;lsdkgjal;ksdj
Now for some spoilers :)
It truly makes me sad because there were moments when I caught a glimpse of the story I fell in love with but was immediately hit in the face with a 2x4 by a horny teen. Nobody talk to me for 3-5 business days.
2.75
Where do I begin? This was a complete let down. To the point where I have told friends not to continue or start the series after I had begged them to read it.
Laurie is a good writer and all the material was there for The Black Witch to be a great series, so for this to have flopped as bad as it did...it's incredibly frustrating. I have personal beeeef with her "editor" because wtf. YA doesn't mean repeat things to me like I'm a 4 year old with zero attention span. Me the whole book: If these mother fuckers don't stop looking at each other with heated gazes while litcherally watching everything around them crumble a;lsdkgjal;ksdj
Now for some spoilers :)
It truly makes me sad because there were moments when I caught a glimpse of the story I fell in love with but was immediately hit in the face with a 2x4 by a horny teen. Nobody talk to me for 3-5 business days.
January 21, 2025
Dnf. Awful.
Want to read
April 30, 2020The White Wand... The Shadow Wand... The Green Wand...
Book 6: The Red Wand
Book 7: The Purple Wand
Book 8: The Transparent Wand
HAHA JUST KIDDING
I'm excited for this book!
Book 6: The Red Wand
Book 7: The Purple Wand
Book 8: The Transparent Wand
HAHA JUST KIDDING
I'm excited for this book!
January 13, 2025
After years of waiting for this final book, I am very sorry to say that it was simply disappointing, repetitive, and had too many characters. Although the message against prejudice and in favor of love and community work is an important one, the story just gets tiresome after a while and falls short when it comes to narrating the final battle.
January 16, 2025
This gutted me in all the best ways. I can’t wait to talk about this with other readers.
Yes there is multiple POV, and if that’s your complaint then you’re missing a major point in this book.
This series is a gift and I will always sing its praises.
Yes there is multiple POV, and if that’s your complaint then you’re missing a major point in this book.
This series is a gift and I will always sing its praises.
Want to read
August 8, 2020Only if Lukas is still alive and Yvan.
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