Review of Witchlanders

Witchlanders by Lena Coakley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Source: Simon and Schuster Galley Grab
Genre: Fantasy


Description from Goodreads: High in their mountain covens, red witches pray to the Goddess, protecting the Witchlands by throwing the bones and foretelling the future.

It’s all a fake.

At least, that’s what Ryder thinks. He doubts the witches really deserve their tithes—one quarter of all the crops his village can produce. And even if they can predict the future, what danger is there to foretell, now that his people’s old enemy, the Baen, has been defeated?

But when a terrifying new magic threatens both his village and the coven, Ryder must confront the beautiful and silent witch who holds all the secrets. Everything he’s ever believed about witches, the Baen, magic and about himself will change, when he discovers that the prophecies he’s always scorned—

Are about him.

My thoughts:
Ryder is a farmer on a rocky terrain. He is trying to get the crops in before the winter freeze and take care of his sisters and his drug addicted mother. She uses a plant to enhance her ability to cast bones and see the future.

The future she sees is grim. It foretells disaster and death. In an attempt to let her coven know, a message is sent using fire to call her coven to her. Her message falls on deaf ears and disaster ensues.

This takes Ryder on an adventure that he didn't want. Leading him to a future that was foretold, that he was unaware of.

In a parallel plot line, Falpian is a young man from a neighboring country. His country has a tenuous peace with Ryder's. It appears that was is brewing. It is through the efforts of Ryder and Falpian that it will be averted.

This book reminded me of the stories that I read growing up. It is fantasy at it's best. I enjoyed the plot that Lena Coakley created. She has taken witchcraft into a different form and I loved it. The cover is misleading.  This is not a book about a girl.  There is not romance in this book.  It is a pure adventure story.

It is told from the point of view of  two young men.  To me that is refreshing.  Most of the books on the market are geared to girls.  I think that this is a story that boys will like.  I know that my teenage son pretty much  shuns the world of YA Literature for the fact that it is too girly.  Thank you Lena, for creating a story that boys will like as well.

The message is wonderful.  It takes two enemies who become friends.  It shows how misunderstanding rent two different cultures and made them enemies.  I definitely recommend this book and best of all I can recommend it to everyone, it is a clean read.

I received this book to review from Simon and Schuster's Galley Grab. This book is scheduled to be released on August 30th.