Reviewed by Nikyta
Title: Witchbane
Author: Morgan Brice
Heroes: Seth & Evan
Genre: M/M Paranormal
Length: 244 pages
Publisher: Darkwind Press
Release Date: February 19, 2018
Available at: Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads
Blurb: Seth Tanner and his brother Jesse’s fun evening debunking local urban legends ends with Jesse’s gruesome murder. Seth vows revenge on Jesse’s killer – too bad the murderer has been dead for a hundred years. Seth uncovers a cycle of ritual killings that feed the power of a dark warlock’s immortal witch-disciples, and he’s hell bent on stopping Jackson Malone from becoming the next victim. He’s used to risking his neck. He never intended to risk his heart.
Review:
It’s hard for me to write this review because I wanted to like this story. In fact, it started off very strong and I loved the direction the story was heading in. However, about halfway through the book, I grew really frustrated with the pacing, the characters and their actions, which just about killed me because I was loving the book up until then.
With that said, I liked Seth and Evan as characters. I enjoyed the fact that Seth was attracted to Evan from the start and couldn’t help himself with getting closer to Evan even though he wasn’t who Seth thought he needed to protect. It was interesting to see Seth deal with that fact and then come to terms with just who Evan really was. I also liked that Evan was a bit frightened of what he’d been dropped into. I really liked how they were forced together and the connection they had.
Now, what I didn’t like about the story, far outweighed what I did like about it because about 50% into it, Seth and Evan had as much sex as I could take. Add to that, the doubts started to set in and I was extremely aggravated with how gullible Evan turned out to be. For someone who had been skeptical and on their guard, he was quick to believe his enemies and quick to go with them. I was so annoyed with him, I just could not take it anymore. Add to that, I hated that Seth was treating Evan like a child and thinking he couldn’t handle anything or take care of himself. I get that Evan was in danger but leaving Evan alone to go research and leaving him with his thoughts just made things worse and he could tell Evan was distancing himself but didn’t try to do anything, or at least be forthcoming on what he could, to make things better.
Plus, I felt like the villain and his acquaintances were so predictable, I was nowhere near shocked when it was revealed who they were. ALSO, it really bothered me that Seth could do a locating spell on the villain but he couldn’t do it on Evan when he needed to? Like WHY? He had ALL of Evan’s personal items but yet never thought to find Evan that way. Instead, he just ‘guessed’ where Evan might be and happened to be right? I couldn’t believe that.
Overall, this was an okay story for me. I loved the first half but then had major issues with the second half. I did like Seth and Evan as characters but their actions and how they handled things, really put a bug up my butt. This story had major potential but I felt the author could have handled it differently so it wasn’t so predictable. Still, readers should give this a go anyway because you might not have the same issues that I did.
Overall Impression: It was okay
*I received a copy of this book from the author in return for a fair and honest review.*
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