Witch Song

Witch Song by Amber Argyle
Release Date: September 1, 2011
Rhemalda Publishing
ISBN13: 9781936850167

5/5 Stars!

Goodreads Synopsis:
The world is changing. Once, Witch Song controlled everything from the winds to the shifting of the seasons--but not anymore. All the Witches are gone, taken captive by a traitor. All but Brusenna. As the echo of their songs fade, the traitor grows stronger. Now she is coming for Brusenna. Her guardian has sworn to protect her, but even he can't stop the Dark Witch. Somehow, Brusenna has to succeed where every other Witch has failed. Find the traitor. Fight her. Defeat her. Because if Brusenna doesn't, there won't be anything left to save.

Witch Song completely caught me off guard by how much I enjoyed it. I'll admit that the cover didn't really draw me in the way others do, but I was enamoured wtih Amber Argyle's creative world and story laced with adventure and love by the end of the book. The world of witches she created in Witch Song is reminiscent of a fairytale, with appropriate pacing and lovely descriptions, and even lovelier characters.

I am such a huge fan of the love story in Witch Song! I really, really enjoyed Senna and Joshen and all the difficulties they faced. And some of the decisions they made were so difficult, but very brave at the same. And I was glad to see that they didn't narrow in so much on their affection for each other to forget the world circumstances around them. The adventure and upcoming battle remains constant as the plot centrepiece, and it really should seeing as the possible destruction of the world is fairly important. Fairly. ;) And there is just enough heartbreak in there to twist your heartstrings a little bit. It doesn't hurt either that Witch Song has one of my favourite kissing scenes ever! My one teensy little annoyance with the love plot was how irrational Senna's jealousy could be at times. I don't mind a little bit of jealousy (because it is natural and understandable at times) but I just didn't see that she had anything to be jealous of- this was something that she had built up entirely in her head, and even if that is the case I tend to roll my eyes at characters when they do this.

As a character, I did not care for Pogg. At all. I've never been a fan of those quirky, eccentric creature sidekicks. I didn't like Dobby in Harry Potter, and I hated Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars. So needless to say, I didn't think Pogg added anything particularly important to the story rather than some extra magical help which could have been fulfilled by some other forgetful secondary character.

I did enjoy the long ending. I'm aware that some people might feel that the ending drags on for too long, but it actually does give the story a proper explanation and allows Argyle to fully flesh out the reasons behind the events which took place in Witch Song. However, there was one problem with the ending, over the obsession with not allowing marriage... well, it just seemed kind of silly to me. Maybe because it's a little too practical for my taste, but it all seemed like a silly show for nothing. That was disappointing.

I received a PDF copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review; no other compensation was received.

...And I loved it so much that I had to buy a signed copy for myself and one to giveaway! I've already contacted the winner of my giveaway, and she has confirmed her prize. So congratulations to Marie! I'll be shipping that out to you shortly :)