A criminal and a royal guard are drawn into the hunt for a dangerous witch—and an unexpected romance—in this YA enemies-to-lovers romantasy, the first in a duology. Perfect for fans of Heartless Hunter.
This gorgeous first edition features stunning, flower-patterned stenciled edges and designed endpapers!
In Gadore, the Witch is feared above all else. Reborn into each generation, she is the only person with magic running innately through her veins, able to wield that magic with a single thought.
So when guards across the city begin to drop dead, gruesomely murdered by violent and vicious magic, everyone knows the Witch has returned—and no one will be safe until she’s killed.
Toran is the Prince’s Crown, the most highly skilled fighter in the King’s Guard. Tasked with the responsibility of leading the hunt for the Witch, Toran tries to focus on his assignment to forget the ghosts of his past. And after he learns of Nes, a thief with an uncanny ability to sniff out magic, he forcibly recruits her into joining his hunt.
As the two face deadly magic and otherworldly threats, their mutual dislike soon turns to something more electric, and they find themselves drawn to each other in ways they’d never imagined. But the Witch is always a step ahead of them, and with bodies piling up, secrets threaten to come to light—secrets that could destroy everything from the fragile trust between them to the very city of Gadore itself.
Opposites attract in this witch hunt with twists
"Book rating: 3/5 ⭐️ Genre: YA romantasy Themes: witch hunt, forced proximity, magic, kings guard 📖 Read if you like: Heartless Hunter, Serpent & Dove With murders, magic and a witch hunt there is a lot to like in this story. Add in a kings guard and a criminal locked into an agreement and it makes for an entertaining ride in an interesting landscape. The Ditch reminded me a bit of Ketterdam with an underground world and ruthless policing, while the plot itself is vaguely familiar though the characters were refreshing. The mystery of the witch kept me ensnared and it was relatively fast paced with lots of twists and turns. I would say it is more of an allies to lovers versus enemies. They work together for their own reasons, but the attraction seems present from the start. It takes time to grow into something more, and Nes was sharp enough to create some fun banter along the way, while Toran was far more open hearted. I liked that there were barriers in the relationship from trust to a lost love, though these were told rather than experienced at critical junctures. The magical system was confusing and by the end I still wasn’t sure how it worked or why the witch had limitations. With the sigils, the consumption of magic and the witch herself there were a lot of avenues for magic that played into the story, but how they worked or why remained a mystery. The plot was engaging and there was an easy style of writing, so I was able to push this logic to the back of my mind until the end. I probably would have rated this book higher if it were not for the rollercoaster finale, which introduced too many unknown connections and open ends. Suri’s identity and Nes’ previous relationships were largely unaddressed throughout the whole novel, so the big reveals came out of nowhere. Then there were the twists in the central relationship. I needed to understand both Toran and Nes better to gauge their motivations and the flips for them to feel valid. There is a fine line between an unreliable narrator with secrets and outlandish twist. As it was, it read more sensational set up for the next book rather than true to created identities and character trajectories. I normally like an unexpected ending, but this was chaotic and frustrating. Thank you Penguin Young Readers for the eARC."
