Review: Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker

Title: Witch Hunter (Witch Hunter #1)
Author: Virginia Boecker
Publisher: Orchard Books
Release date: June 4th 2015
Source: Netgalley
Format: eARC

Rating: 4/5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

Sixteen-year-old Elizabeth Grey doesn't look dangerous. A tiny, blonde, wisp of a girl shouldn't know how to poison a wizard and make it look like an accident. Or take out ten necromancers with a single sword and a bag of salt. Or kill a man using only her thumb. But things are not always as they appear. Elizabeth is one of the best witch hunters in Anglia and a member of the king's elite guard, devoted to rooting out witchcraft and bringing those who practise it to justice. And in Anglia, the price of justice is high: death by burning.

When Elizabeth is accused of being a witch herself, she's arrested and thrown in prison. The king declares her a traitor and her life is all but forfeit. With just hours before she's to die at the stake, Elizabeth gets a visitor - Nicholas Perevil, the most powerful wizard in Anglia. He offers her a deal: he will free her from prison and save her from execution if she will track down the wizard who laid a deadly curse on him.

As Elizabeth uncovers the horrifying facts about Nicholas's curse and the unwitting role she played in its creation, she is forced to redefine the differences between right and wrong, friends and enemies, love and hate... and life and death.
The first book in an incredible new series set in a fantastical medieval world.

Witch Hunter is on my Top Ten Most Anticipated Debut Novels For 2015 list, so I could not wait to read it, I had high expectations and it didn´t disappoint me, it's a good book with paranormal elements.

Elizabeth Grey lives in a world where there have always been witches, wizards, necromancers, healers, etc. but some years ago when she was young there was a plague created by magic that killed half of the inhabitants of Anglia and so the king decree that anyone who was found practicing witchcraft will be sentenced to the stake.

Elizabeth is a 16 years old girl of small in stature and have the appearance of someone weak, but her appearance is misleading, since she´s strong, fast and the only female on the elite group of witch hunters and the second best witch-hunter of the kingdom, only surpassed by her best friend Caleb. So when Elizabeth is accused of witchcraft due that she possess prohibited items, is immediately accused of treason and sent to prison where she will wait for her execution at the stake, but the day she should be burned, she´s rescued by Nicholas Perevil, - the most powerful wizard and leader of the Reformists (those that are opposed to the laws and persecution of witches) - to which a seer told him that he must rescue Elizabeth Grey, because only she could save him from a curse that is killing slowly.

So Elizabeth makes a deal with Nicholas to help each other and they must hide from all their allies that she´s a witch hunter, and knowing that her life would be in danger. And now Elizabeth is on the other side of the law, fleeing her friends and fellow witch-hunters and helping to break the laws of their king, she must do everything to survive, since she initially believes that all magic is harmful, but as she spends more time with Nicholas (a wizard), John (a healer), Fifer (a witch) and George (a reformist), realizes that not all is black and white, as there are good and evil in both sides and she must do what´s right and not necessarily what the law says, the one that she followed religiously when she was witch hunter.

Witch Hunter is a fantasy book, but the atmosphere is very similar to medieval England at the time of witch hunts in that country. With good and likable characters,- I specially liked John - and a good villain. This novel has a lot of intrigue, mystery and betrayal. I am pleased that Elizabeth is not all-powerful, as on occasion she need to resort to the help of her new fellow wizards/witches to survive and how is revealed whom the real villain is. It has a good ending and I want to know that more about Elizabeth Grey and her friends, can´t wait for its sequel.

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