Hexed

This was a fascinating debut novel by Virginia Boecker. This book has magic, deception, plots, and political intrigue. I loved the world and the characters. I was fascinated by the story and loved finding out all the aspects of the plot as they unfolded.

This is one of those stories where magic is illegal and those with magic are against the King and his Inquisitor. I found this aspect of the story great, especially the idea of the Witch Hunters. The witch hunters are trained by Blackwell to capture and bring in those practicing magic so they are burned at the stake. On the other side of this you have the Reformers, who are against the laws forbidding magic.

The characters in this book were extremely well-developed, even the minor characters. As for the main character, Elizabeth, I loved how she was this cute, seemingly innocent girl, who was actually extremely brave, strong, and not at all innocent. I loved this characterization where she was always proving everyone wrong and taking care of things herself. I also loved the quirkiness of Nicholas and a lot of the other Reformers.

One of the things I really loved about this book, was the fact that the romance was not a large aspect at all. Yes it was there but not throw in our face like many other books and that was refreshing. This book definitely focused on the adventure for Elizabeth and her journey toward helping the Reformers and eventually deciding which side she stood with. The side that taught her everything she knows or the side that saved her when she needed saving.

I really enjoyed this book and I'm looking forward to the next one. This book felt very complete at the end, but there are still many loose end that need to be tied up in future books. My only complaint with the book was that it is supposedly an alternate 16th Century England, but to me felt like it could have been present time. There was little world-building to indicate a past time period. There were many mannerisms and saying that felt much more present day then 16th Century. While this irked me, I still really enjoyed the book as a whole. I just would have preferred a more 16th Century feel.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review