Elle
Usually, I most enjoy romance as a subplot if I enjoy it at all, but it was my favorite thing about The Witch Who Trades With Death. As someone who’s been through years of SA and has a lot of trauma, Khana isn’t ready to jump into a romantic relationship with anyone, and the kind and gentle understanding of Sava gave me butterflies in the way hot MMCs with muscles never do (though to be clear: I’m pretty sure Sava is hot as well). I loved Khana and Sava’s interactions, that they weren’t always flirty but I still knew that it was going somewhere. Khana’s inner turmoil was well-written and Sava’s willingness let her lead was sweet and endearing. When a Khana/Sava scene began, I was always excited.
I felt that while Khana’s friends/found family were a fun bunch, they were a bit one-dimensional. They had more personality when they started training for battle and then sort of faded into background characters that I couldn’t really tell apart. For example, when the unit first got together, one of them was grumpy and unfriendly. Once the unit bonded and everyone became friends, the grump was basically never grumpy again and I confused him with other members of the unit several times because his biggest character trait was gone now that he liked everyone. Most of the others were also defined by one or two simple traits: the married one who likes animals, the young shy one, etc., and I wish that as Khana’s besties who were integral to the story, they’d had a little more depth.
When I started the book, I didn’t realize there would be war and battle scenes. There’s quite a bit of them between training for battle and going to war with the emperor who forced Khana to be his concubine. I’m not a big fan of long battle scenes and luckily for me, Khana and her unit spent their downtime back home rather than at a camp or something, but I found myself less interested in the action scenes even though they did include some exciting moments.
The magic system, âji, was interesting. I like the idea of witches who draw life force from one living thing to transfer to another as a way to heal them, it’s very cool. I’m a bit torn on it though as there were other parts of the magic that were conveniently mentioned only when they were needed in the moment, like suddenly Khana could do something with the âji that she hadn’t brought up or done a single time before.
So while my overall enjoyment of the book was a bit lopsided, I think it would be a good match for anyone who likes a lot of tense fighting scenes on a grand(ish) scale alongside stories of found family and a bit of slow burn romance.
I received an ARC of this book from Angry Robot via Netgalley.
Usually, I most enjoy romance as a subplot if I enjoy it at all, but it was my favorite thing about The Witch Who Trades With Death. As someone who’s been through years of SA and has a lot of trauma, Khana isn’t ready to jump into a romantic relationship with anyone, and the kind and gentle understanding of Sava gave me butterflies in the way hot MMCs with muscles never do (though to be clear: I’m pretty sure Sava is hot as well). I loved Khana and Sava’s interactions, that they weren’t always flirty but I still knew that it was going somewhere. Khana’s inner turmoil was well-written and Sava’s willingness let her lead was sweet and endearing. When a Khana/Sava scene began, I was always excited.
I felt that while Khana’s friends/found family were a fun bunch, they were a bit one-dimensional. They had more personality when they started training for battle and then sort of faded into background characters that I couldn’t really tell apart. For example, when the unit first got together, one of them was grumpy and unfriendly. Once the unit bonded and everyone became friends, the grump was basically never grumpy again and I confused him with other members of the unit several times because his biggest character trait was gone now that he liked everyone. Most of the others were also defined by one or two simple traits: the married one who likes animals, the young shy one, etc., and I wish that as Khana’s besties who were integral to the story, they’d had a little more depth.
When I started the book, I didn’t realize there would be war and battle scenes. There’s quite a bit of them between training for battle and going to war with the emperor who forced Khana to be his concubine. I’m not a big fan of long battle scenes and luckily for me, Khana and her unit spent their downtime back home rather than at a camp or something, but I found myself less interested in the action scenes even though they did include some exciting moments.
The magic system, âji, was interesting. I like the idea of witches who draw life force from one living thing to transfer to another as a way to heal them, it’s very cool. I’m a bit torn on it though as there were other parts of the magic that were conveniently mentioned only when they were needed in the moment, like suddenly Khana could do something with the âji that she hadn’t brought up or done a single time before.
So while my overall enjoyment of the book was a bit lopsided, I think it would be a good match for anyone who likes a lot of tense fighting scenes on a grand(ish) scale alongside stories of found family and a bit of slow burn romance.
I received an ARC of this book from Angry Robot via Netgalley.