Book Review: Witch Song

By: Amber Argyle

Published by: Rhemalda Publishing

Released on: September 1st, 2011

Source: ARC from author/publisher for review, blog tour

3.5 stars- It's A Good Read

Purchase from: Amazon| Barnes & Noble

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 is a debut with an engrossing world full of magic, adventure and romance. It's a story that fascinated me with it's unique witch lore and rich world building, and introduced me to some great in-depth characters. I have been totally intrigued with this book based on the beautiful cover and the storyline, which is centered on witches who's unique powers allow them to control the elements and the world around them.

There are things I really loved about this debut and other things I wanted to like more than I did. I really enjoyed the adventure, I loved the well written, well paced romance between Brusenna and Joshen and I liked the engrossing world the story is set in. Amber's attention to detail with her setting made it so easy for me envision each scene in my mind. Whether it was on the farm, in the woods or on the sea, everything with the setting came alive for me. However, it took me a while to get into the story, because for most of the book I had a very hard time connecting with the main character Brusenna. Not having a connection with any book's main character hinders my ability to enjoy the story as much as I would like to, but luckily there's a lot more to the story than Brusenna, or Senna for short, that held my attention.

Senna is truly an unique character. She's a witch who knows very little about her powers when the story starts, and after a few turn of events she ends up learning a great deal about her ability and the power that lies within her. There's just something about her that frustrated me, and really I can't pin point exactly what it was. She didn't start off as a strong likable character for me at all. There's just something about her character that rubbed me the wrong way, but luckily by the end of the story her character growth surprisingly improves a lot due to the journey she takes. Senna becomes more relatable to me by the end the book, because she's become a courageous young women who learns to embrace her destiny, believe in herself and trust those around her. I feel that allowed her to become more open to be as a reader. Not that it was her fault that she was so naive in the beginning, and didn't know anything about her witch powers or what her destiny was, other than a few songs about nature that her mother taught her to use. When Senna's mother up and leaves, she leaves a journal for her with everything she'll need to know about her journey and along with the company of her faithful, protector Bruke, her rather large wolf-hound no one wants to mess with.

There's a lot of elements and a great cast of characters within the story that I held my attention when Senna didn't. My favorite character is Joshen. He's the strong, realistic, down to earth, good looking guardian to Senna. One of the unique things in this story is the role the guardians have with the witches. They're there to help protect the witch they're assigned to, and Joshen definitely does that and a little more. He just treats Senna with so much love and admiration, that it wasn't hard for me to like him. He really held my interest and I absolutely loved the way Amber wrote the romance and chemistry between the two of them. There's no love at first site, or instant "I've got to have you know" attraction, but a realistic relationship that starts out based on trust, then friendship and progresses from there. That was really refreshing to read and one of my favorite elements of the story.

Despite being torn on my feelings with the Senna, I feel Witch Song is an over all good read. It's a debut that has some great engaging elements to it and it's full of adventure, fantasy, action and romance. It's a good read and I don't think there's anything Amber could change with the storyline. Her writing is solid, the character ARC is well written, and the world building is fabulous. There's just some books I feel like I connect with and immediately fall in love with and other books I like, and maybe the next time I read it I'll love it more than I did the first time I read it. If there's a sequel to Witch Song I'll definitely pick it up, because I want to know what's in store for Joshen and Senna next. This is a clean cut book that I'd recommend to readers thirteen years and older.