Truthwitch

Written by: Susan Dennard

Publication Date: January 5th, 2016, by Tor Teen

Would Recommend To: experienced high fantasy readers and magic lovers

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

AAAHHH I'm so conflicted!

Before I start letting all my feelings out, you are going to have to read a short synopsis that may or may not have some biased commentary. Sorry, but I got to.

Our story focuses on two Thread-sisters named Iseult and Safiya. Iseult is a Nomatsi, pretty much the most hated race in the world, for reasons that aren't explained at all. She is also a Threadwitch, meaning she can see everyone's threads, strings of soul that represent emotions and deep ties to other people. Threadwitches are expected to keep all of their own emotions under the surface, since they have no visible threads, but Iseult, unlike other Threadwitches, has trouble containing her emotions. Safi, on the other hand, is a hurricane of a girl and enjoys spur-of-the-moment decisions. She is a Truthwitch, a rare and valuable type of magic in which she can sense what statements are lies and what statements are the truth. She keeps her magic secret, though, because if anyone finds out, they would do anything to get her on their side.

One day, Safi is forced to attend a ball hosted by Emporer Henrick of Cartorra. When things go VERY wrong, she escapes and gets roped into a contract with Prince Merik of Nubrevna: as long as Safi gets safely to a small port city named Lejna and not a drop of her blood is spilled, then a trade agreement will be established been Safi's uncle, Eron fon Hasstrel, and Merik. At first, Safi is relunctant, but soon she realizes that a lot of her previous life has been littered with lies she wasn't able to detect, and she wonders if this agreement is a way for her to make up for her past mistakes and pave her own way.

So... the first half of the book is confusing as heck. I truly am sorry, and maybe it's just me, but the world-building is incredibly lacking in the beginning, which really prohibited my understanding of what's going on and kept me from diving headfirst into this book. For the most part, the magic system is not explained completely, and the half-executed politics and explanations of the world, countries, and characters overwhelmed me so that I didn't know who was who and what was what. I'm going to be completely honest, I just wasn't happy with the first half of the book. I could see the plot starting to escalate, but it was like I was just a spectator because I couldn't completely get into it.

With that being said, the second half was a lot better. All that world-building stuff didn't matter as much to the plot because it was more concentrated on keeping the plot going, it seemed. The action got me on the edge of my seat at the end, and there were a few plot twists that made me gasp in shock, so I'm definitely giving Dennard credit here. Plus, she truly built a core cast of amazing characters that are just so easy to love, and with each one comes different reasons to do so. The only aspect of the second half that bothered me was, honestly, the romance. *GASP* Ashton didn't like the romance?!
No, I didn't say that, sheesh.

I really shipped the couples. From the beginning. But... I felt like the set up of the magic system allowed less room for a romance to truly be about love. Instead, there was more physical attraction and "passion" (lust) involved in it, which really upset me. It's hard to explain because the romance didn't go fast, but it still felt like insta-love, where the boy and the girl deny their passion until, suddenly, they're making out pretty graphically, something I wouldn't consider a sweet, genuine romance. They had so much potential, and still do, so I'm pretty disappointed in that regard.

That was hard! Ugh, to sum it up, I do recommend this book and did enjoy reading it. The parts I didn't much like didn't influence my reading a whole lot (especially after the first half), but they did influence my rating in the long run. That being said, do go read it, just be ready to focus and remember names and stuff ;) .

Au revoir, my fellow bookworms!