Witch Hunt: of the Blood, a REVIEW

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Five novellas based on Devin O’Branagan’s bestselling novel, Witch Hunt!

 

You’ve closed the cover on Witch Hunt, but the story isn’t over … yet! Devin O’Branagan has handpicked writers to take up her characters’ stories and explore what happens next.

The anthology begins with O’Branagan’s own novella about Hawthorne matriarch, Vivian. Vivian and her fellow British witches work together to prevent a Nazi invasion during World War II. Then there is Colonial maiden, Bridget, who struggles with the guilt of failing her family in Salem, 1692. Her younger sister, Prissy, mysteriously disappears and finds another magical world. Julia, torn by family loyalties, love, and her spiritual quest, pays a huge price to continue the bloodline. And Miranda uses her powers against the great influenza outbreak of 1918—but finds the ultimate foe is prejudice against her kind.

 

Discover what was left out of Witch Hunt and revisit your favorite characters with these exciting novellas. The story isn’t done until the battle’s lost and won.

 

This anthology contains novellas by Devin O’Branagan, Suzanne Hayes Campbell, Keri Lake, K.L. Schwengel, and Krista Walsh.

 

All five authors of the anthology are available for discussion at Devin’s writers’ forum. This is the link to chat with them: Chat With The Authors!

Witch Hunt: Of the Blood is available in both print and eBook formats and may be found at Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords. (Smashwords provides copies compatible with almost all types of eReaders including Sony, Apple, Kobo, etc.) It is also available internationally via Amazon worldwide!

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Two of the stories in this anthology are bridges to the upcoming sequel, Witch Hunt: Resistance, which will be released in 2013.

 

The original Witch Hunt is an international bestseller first published by Simon & Schuster’s Pocket Books. It has been translated into German and Turkish and is consistently on the bestseller lists. It is the story of 300+ years in the history of a family of witches, from the time of the Salem trials to a modern-day witch hunt. It begs the question: could it happen again?

 

Witch Hunt is available as both a paperback and an eBook. It is available at Amazon,B&N, and Smashwords.

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The Review

You go through life. Sometimes bad things happen, sometimes good things happen. Being contacted about doing a possible review for Witch Hunt was definitely one of the highlights of my week. I don’t do reviews often, and it’s not a matter of preference, it’s a matter of time. Having a full-time job, being a full-time publisher, and being a full-time author takes its toll on the amount of hours in your day. I don’t get to read much for pleasure anymore. It just isn’t a priority. So using the excuse, “It’s for a review,” came in quite handy and you can expect to see a lot more reviews from me in the near future. Now that I travel a lot, I have to do something to keep me occupied on the flights!

I’ve always been a fan of the Paranormal. In fact, other than some steampunk and a smattering of science fiction, it’s all I read. Vampires, werewolves, monsters, you name it. I’ll read it. Witches, vampires, and demons are without a doubt, my three favorite character types. It’s why I jumped at the chance to review Witch Hunt. This is the part where I lay down my honesty clause. I include this in all my reviews: I am an author. I am a publisher. That does not taint or tarnish my review in anyway. If you value my opinion, keep reading. If you don’t, don’t read any further. I was also given this book free of charge in return for an honest review. That will also not taint or tarnish my review in any way, shape, or form.

Now, let’s get down to business, shall we?

Fan boy moment–> LIKE OMG, this book was amazing!

There. Got that part out of the way. Now I won’t sound like an idiot during the rest of the review. But daaaaaaamn  I had to say that. The book itself is actually a compilation of 5 novellas. Don’t groan! I’ll smack you if you do. I am a kindle owner. NOTHING irks me more than to download a book and start reading it and have the percentage drop one percent with each page. You will not have one gripe about the length of Witch Hunt. I laughed maniacally as my “percentage remaining” dropped at a barely noticeable rate! So if you’re looking for a quick read, this book is NOT for you.

Now, for my other peeve when reading an anthology of different authors. Some are awesome, and some are so bad you want to take away their crayons. It’s human nature. Some people like a story…some people don’t. Some people like Twilight, the other 99.9% don’t. I kept looking for the story I was going to hate. When I got to the fifth story, I think I actually rolled my eyes and thought, Here it is. This is gonna be it. By the time I was done, I actually reread it to make sure I liked it. So here’s the bad part of my review. If you’re looking for one story in it that you will hate, this book is NOT for you. There. I said it. Im such a hard ass reviewer, eh?

Okay, now that we got the negatives out of the way, let’s focus on the positives.

Each story was just amazing, and no I’m not blowing smoke up your chimney. The stories themselves range from WWII witches doing all they can to aid in the war effort, witches in the 1700′s, A witch-doctor (hahahahaha, I mean a doctor who is a witch, not a witch-doctor, bing bang walla walla bing bang), and modern witches. The big surprise for me was finding two of the stories that are tied together and a prelude to the next book in the series. And no, I’m not going to tell you which two. I was surprised, you can be surprised! Trust me, you’ll be all like, “OOOOOH,” and stuff. Totally worth it.

Some of the authors truly shocked me. Some are well known, some are not, but all of them wrote with a quality of the most seasoned of veterans. I cannot recommend this book enough and it is truly worth every penny you WILL spend on it. No I’m saying YOU WILL BUY THIS BOOK, for I have commandethed thee. The future ruler of your world has spoken, make it so, number one, so shall it be.

Because I’m nice, here is a list of the stories inside:

Of the Blood of Witches

By Devin O’Branagan

Circle Unbroken

By Krista Walsh

Shadows of Dreams

By Suzanne Hayes Campbell

The Banishing

By Keri Lake

Blood Tells All

By K.L. Schwengel