Off the charts. Beautiful chaos. Lots of puzzle pieces coming together BIG reveals and realizations. Witchshadow is first and foremost Iseult’s book, but it also feels a bit like Stix’s and Vivia’s.

Nothing is as it may seem but you can’t say you weren’t warned! Heavy foreshadowing is something I love about this series and thoroughly continues. I’m so excited to see where these new (and very old) paths lead!

The Witchshadow audiobook is performed by Cassandra Campbell and the character accents are ON POINT!! It’s so cool to hear the geography of the Witchlands throughout the story, and the words (spoken and written) were so fluid and smooth! I highly recommend the audiobook for the dynamic performance and the impeccable winter vibes (seriously it’s like hearing a story around an old castle fire).

I actually can’t wait at all.
I just finished Bloodwitch and I just realised that I have to wait until 2020. You should one million percent read the first three if you haven’t already. I cannot wait to read Iseult’s book at last!

I want to say I really enjoyed this. But really, it just wasn't as good as Bloodwitch. Witchshadow has its high points, which had me reading right to the end.

This was a buddy read with Marguerite!

So, a brief review:

High points, and the things that I did enjoy
- I love Iseult and Aeduan. These two. Can't even.
- I did really like seeing Iseult's progress, and her process of character development (just as I enjoyed the others in the previous books - Aeduan is still my favourite). Her character has always interested me, especially as she's got a phenotype that I can relate to more than the bright Safi.
- I do still really love the world, and Dennard builds it further in this book. It's so much more complex now with Old Ones and Paladins.
- The relationships that are developed/developing are all wonderful.
- Safi's side of the story is intense, but I enjoyed seeing more of Caden, the Hell Bards as a whole, and most of Leopold.
- Prince Leopold has developed so much since the beginning, and now I'm really curious about his story.

Sort of low points
- I'm not usually one to complain about how long it takes me to recall a series when I jump into the sequel a year later. But this one begins really chaotically. And I was very confused initially about why Iseult was where she was, where was (my darling) Aeduan, why is Safi married, and where is Merik? But once I started treating this as a very connected 'standalone', it made it easier to settled into the story. And of course, I did live for the moments when Iseult encountered Aeduan again, among all the highlights mentioned above.
- While Merik and I have always been in the up and down, I will point out here that Merik doesn't appear at all but for 1-2 pages towards the end. Just in case you're looking for him.
- There's a lot of development happening in this book that somewhat makes it difficult to follow at times. Nonetheless, I did like the development, I dunno, I guess I was wanting something little more like Bloodwitch but in Iseult's style? Perhaps a little more pacing to just absorb the high moments - of which there were many!

Overall
I did still enjoy Witchshadow, even if it wasn't exactly what I expected!

i've read this book so fast that i don't remember a single thing in it. review to come after a reread!

I still like all the characters, but something about this book felt more confusing to me. Even though I believe we were following fewer characters, it was still hard to remember where everyone was and what they were supposed to be doing. I’ve got a note on my phone now trying to keep track of which Paladin is which. And I’m still not totally sure how the Cahr Awen fit in…?

Overall, it felt like basically nothing happened in this book. I still liked it, but I didn’t really feel like we took a step forward plot wise. And how was the Raider King barely mentioned in this book?