The Witch Collector by Charissa Weaks

Every harvest moon, the Witch Collector rides into our valley and leads one of us to the home of the immortal Frost King, to remain forever.

Today is that day—Collecting Day.

But he will not come for me. I, Raina Bloodgood, have lived in this village for twenty-four years, and for twenty-four years he has passed me by.

His mistake.

Raina Bloodgood has one desire: kill the Frost King and the Witch Collector who stole her sister. On Collecting Day, she means to exact murderous revenge, but a more sinister threat sets fire to her world. Rising from the ashes is the Collector, Alexus Thibault, the man she vowed to slay and the only person who can help save her sister.

Thrust into an age-old story of ice, fire, and ancient gods, Raina must abandon vengeance and aid the Witch Collector in saving the Frost King or let their empire—and her sister—fall into enemy hands. But the lines between good and evil blur, and Raina has more to lose than she imagined. What is she to do when the Witch Collector is no longer the villain who stole her sister, but the hero who’s stealing her heart?

The Reason

I came across this book browsing on my library’s catalog. I loved the premise, and I enjoy a good fantasy series, so I thought why not? I also wanted to read a couple of first in series, if I could, before the end of the year.

The Quotes

“Something must always be lost if you’re ever to gain. Don’t fear this. You will never move forward if you never leave things behind.”

“Think of the thing you want most in this world. It’s where true power comes from. We often hold the most will for our strongest desires.”

“There is no victory without sacrifice.”

The Characters

I really like Raina and Alexus as characters. In fact, I quite like many of the characters in this book. Raina is mute, and communicates with her hands, and that’s how she does her magic too. Alexus is the Witch Collector, and he’s an enigma, at least at first, but then we get to know him better. I also really like Helena and Nephele, the Frost King, Colden (love the punny name!), Rhonin, and even the villain Prince. To be clear, I don’t like the villain Prince as a person, but I like the character.

Also to be clear, I’m not sure I like the characters themselves, but rather, I like their backstories and how mysterious they were. There’s still so much we don’t know about many of them, and their backstories that have been told so far in this book have been very interesting. I’m curious to find out more!

My Thoughts

Here’s the funny thing, I don’t think the book was written very well. It goes on too long and there are several parts that made me frustrated because of how slow they were. The story doesn’t flow very well either, there were a lot of non-movements, stalling, back-and-forths, plans and “side-quests” that went awry and didn’t serve the story. Even the ending felt disjointed, it was like the author didn’t know where to end the book, probably because there are sequels, but the bottom line is that it wasn’t written very well. And I think that’s a shame because there’s a good story there, but the storytelling leaves much to be desired.

I should also mention that I listened to this book on audio. I started it on audio and stopped about 40% in because I couldn’t catch some of the low voices. I was going to try to get a print copy instead, but I wanted to finish this before the year was over, so I decided to push through and finish it on audio anyway. I did end up having to repeat a few parts to catch certain details, but for the most part, it wasn’t too bad.

My Feels

I feel ambivalent at this point. I’m still very curious about the characters and the story, and I would like to read more and find out more about them, but I wouldn’t feel the loss if I just never read the next books.

My Rating

3/5 stars. It’s got great elements, but bad storytelling.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?