Windwitch (Witchlands, 2); Susan Dennard

It’s been a while since I read the first book in the Witchlands series, and as such, a lot of the fine details were lost to me when I started “Windwitch”. Silly me thinking there would be some kind of recap in this book to start. “Windwitch” starts pretty much the moment that book 1 ended, so we’re being plopped right back into the center of a really explosive (heh) scene. If you’re like me and can’t remember a lot, will be left to play catch up for a while in terms of remembering all the various characters and their political alignments. Good news is, not much gets progressed in terms of the overall series plot that was semi established to begin with. “Windwitch” felt like its own contained story separate from everything else in this series, which I have… mixed feelings about.

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I really prefer Dennard’s writing in this series then I do the "Luminaries", let me say that up front. Is it enough to get me to keep going? Maybe, because the book I am most interested in is next and I do love me the Bloodwitch. But with the story being so fragmented between Merrick, Safi, Iseult, Aeduan, and Vivia this book seemed to fall into the trap of not much actually happening. Oh, don’t get me wrong, a lot of THINGS happen, but not in a way that moved much of the story forward. All the characters seem to be constantly scrambling to get something, to find or discover some secret, but WHY or what that thing is, is never really clear. No new answers really get established from where things are left in book 1, very few of the mysteries around certain characters powers get progressed, even if all the characters face a lot of action and dire consequences while they each, individually, go about their business. Was I entertained? Yes. But I feel like not much of this book is really going to stick out in my memory, either.

“Windwitch” is a lot more fast paced then “Truthwitch” which definitely helped in terms of keeping me reading even when nothing was really coming together in a cohesive way. But the strength of the first book wasn’t here except for Iseult and Aeduan’s chapters. You don’t get the banter with Safi and Merik, or Safi and Iseult. Which contributed a lot to the feeling I got that this book just lacked a cohesive thread (heh) that tied what each character needed to do together. The only time that wasn’t the case is with Aeduan, who is still one of the strongest characters to me. Which is, again, why I will probably get the next book and then see if this is really a series I want to continue or not. So, while I did enjoy this book, it didn’t really improve overall that much from how I felt about “Truthwitch”, hence the 3 stars. C’mon Aeduan, it’s up to you to save this series for me now!