White Witch

Haven #1

by Lil Hamilton

Ray is the fae ambassador to the human city of Haven. Haven is a place where humans can interact with the various creatures of Faerie, another realm whose inhabitants remained hidden from humans until “the lifting of the veil.” Haven is not only a place where the fae can visit earth, but is also home to vampires, demi-demons, faelings, and other hybrid creatures, along with human witches. Ray is herself a hybrid, but a forbidden hybrid between a Seelie fae and a demon–none other than the King of the Hells himself. Faerie’s cruel Queen has forbidden dilution of “pure” Seelie fae blood by mixing with “lesser” races, especially demons, with whom Faerie has an uneasy truce following a bitter war. Ray’s position as the fae ambassador is valuable in that it gets her out from directly under the thumb of the Queen, who enjoys tormenting Ray because of her heritage but keeps her alive for leverage against the King of the Hells. Ray’s position also means she cannot have contact with her demon family. Aside from her ambassador duties, Ray runs a private detective agency. This side job allows her to skirt the law and even the Accords which govern relations between races when need be. However, it also causes her an enormous headache when the white witch, Lily Storm, goes missing, because it forces Ray to choose between loyalty to her family or her Queen. Lily, it turns out, is mated to one of Ray’s demon cousins–and demons mate for life. Taking a job for her father searching for a missing witch is bad enough, but Ray’s father has other plans for her which could place Ray into direct conflict with the Queen if they are discovered–placing Ray in danger of death or worse. As Ray hunts through various suspects in an effort to find the missing white witch and keep her position as fae ambassador, she realizes that more fae and faelings are going missing and it all might be connected. But with tensions between demons and fae so fragile, it’s up to Ray to figure out what is going on and return the witch to her demon cousin while saving the others. If you enjoy 'White Witch' Book 1 then check out book 2 'Where art thou?'

354 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 18, 2016

About the author

Hello! I'm a Canadian fantasy fiction writer living in the Arctic tundra. Wait, no, it is Alberta, Canada. Close enough. I live with my common-law spouse of 20 years and our three cats.

Reviews

[Kevin Reinholz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book! Whereas most authors borrow or tinker with existing mythology, the visionary who created this work of art literally created her own rich, infinitely complex mythology, which she teased the reader by revealing a little at a time. She not only created entire worlds/dimensions with their own accompanying rules of physics that differ from our own, she created a rich and fascinating assortment of creatures--some reimagined takes on existing folklore staples such as vampires, pixies, dryads, witches and demons, but others completely new and created from nothing. Seelie fae, Unseelie fae, and a near-infinite variety of half breeds with interesting and surprising traits!

I did not feel bogged down by the rich backstory and mythologies, however. Several smart and suspenseful plot arcs weaved together to form a compelling narrative. I felt such empathy with the heroine, Ray, and her friends, who were hilarious, witty, and relatable, and such hatred and disgust for the villains. All I can say is this is brilliant and I enjoyed reading White Witch immensely! I do not want to risk any spoilers, but there was a twist I did not see coming and it just made the narrative all the more compelling and the read that much more rewarding. I can't wait to read the second book in the Haven series, and hope this wonderful series is continued to a logical conclusion (maybe 3-4 books at least?) Well worth the read!!

[Katie Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this first book in the series. At times, in the beginning, it felt like so much was intro as to how the magic worked in this world and why our characters were being fleshed out for the reader, so about halfway through the book the story really got interesting and I definitely want to follow the characters through the next plot twists and turns. I found myself thinking about how creative the storyline was as well as the world elements.