The Witch Collector by. Charissa Weaks | Book Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Title: The Witch Collector (#1)

Author: Charissa Weaks

Format: ebook (own)

Pages: 343

Publication Date: 11/01/21

Categories: Fantasy, Romance, New Adult, Magic, Witches

Every harvest moon, the Witch Collector rides into our valley and leads one of us to the home of the immortal Frost King, to remain forever.

Today is that day—Collecting Day.

But he will not come for me. I, Raina Bloodgood, have lived in this village for twenty-four years, and for twenty-four years he has passed me by.

His mistake.

Raina Bloodgood has one desire: kill the Frost King and the Witch Collector who stole her sister. On Collecting Day, she means to exact murderous revenge, but a more sinister threat sets fire to her world. Rising from the ashes is the Collector, Alexus Thibault, the man she vowed to slay and the only person who can help save her sister.

Thrust into an age-old story of ice, fire, and ancient gods, Raina must abandon vengeance and aid the Witch Collector in saving the Frost King or let their empire—and her sister—fall into enemy hands. But the lines between good and evil blur, and Raina has more to lose than she imagined. What is she to do when the Witch Collector is no longer the villain who stole her sister, but the hero who’s stealing her heart?

Content Warning: violence

I have been eyeing this one for awhile and finally got it when it was $0.99 on Kindle! This is what did and didn’t work for me:

+ The cover is so pretty, it gives me winter vibes.

+ Raina is mute, so I love that she uses sign language and others around her (only a few) know how to sign with her too. Raina is also really brave and is a fighter even though her true skill as a witch is healing and scrying.

+ It’s an enemies to lovers romance but it’s one-sided. Raina’s plan is actually kill the Witch Collector, Alexus, but things don’t go as planned. Instead she reluctantly has to cooperate with him if they are going to save her sister and the Frost King. Alexus has been into her for a long time now, so it’s Raina who is fighting the attraction she is starting to feel with him. There are some sexy scenes between them and even one epic sex scene that was not just hot physically but emotionally (the thing that happened with the life threads). The two of them really grew on me.

+ World building is great! There is some back story about Alexus that shows the bigger picture of what they are dealing with. There are gods, evil princes and witches! The magic system is intriguing as well.

~ We get thrown into the story – we meet Raina and she wants to kill Alexus because he took her eldest sister years ago. But there is some backstory we are missing about Nephele (her sister) and the Frost King. I kind of wish maybe we knew their story first, because it seems very important to everything going on. That was my main issue. I felt like I was catching up to the story. And Alexus had to do a lot of explaining to Raina.

~ Raina does go from obsessing over killing Alexus to then sleeping with him. So…I thought it was a quick turn around. I think it was her sister at the end of the book that said Alexus knew Raina for only 2 weeks and he was ready to burn the world down for her! TWO WEEKS! 😅 He got through her defenses super fast but I guess all he really needed to do was explain the Nephele/Frost King situation.

Tropes: one-sided enemies to lovers, hiding great powers

Spice Level: 🌶🌶

Why you should read it:

• a good romantasy read – it’s got equal parts romance and the fantasy world building is great
• Raina is mute, great representation
• entertaining – it has action and a fight with an evil prince

Why you might not want to read it:

• slight pacing issues, a little slower in the middle
• the romance happens in the span of 2 weeks, even though Alexus has been wanting her for longer than that

My Thoughts:

I think this was pretty enjoyable if you are looking for a romantasy to read. It’s got an enemies to lovers romance, a steamy scene or two, lots of magic and fighting against an evil prince, and I’m looking forward to reading book two, City of Ruin.

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