Book: The Elf Witch by Jacquelyn Gilmore
Reviewed by A.Hampton Reads
Rating: 5/5
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5
I knew this was a five-star read when I finished the last page and immediately wanted to start the next book.
Imani pulled me into this story from the beginning. She's isolated, morally gray, and willing to do almost anything to survive and protect the people she loves. She's also only beginning to understand a power that has been hidden for years, leaving her vulnerable in a world where nearly everyone seems to have their own agenda.
What I loved most was how immersive and well considered the world felt. The magic, politics, competing monarchies, and different peoples are revealed gradually rather than handed to the reader through long explanations. I did have to slow down occasionally in the beginning while learning some of the magical terminology, but eventually I stopped trying to understand everything immediately and trusted the story to teach me its world. It did.
The prose was one of my favorite parts. It felt as though the author was writing from within the world itself , rather than standing outside of it explaining the world to me. The descriptions had detail without becoming heavy-handed, the dialogue felt natural, and the pacing stayed consistent enough that I finished the book within 24 hours.
The relationship between Imani and Kiran is complicated, dark, and incredibly uneven in its power dynamics. Kiran is powerful, ruthless, manipulative, and often genuinely cruel, while Imani finds herself bound to him under circumstances that severely limit her agency. The story doesn't shy away from how upsetting that imbalance can be. At the same time, I believed Imani's hatred of him just as much as I believed her desire for him, which made their dynamic compelling even when it was uncomfortable.
And Imani made choices that had me wanting to reach through the pages and shake her! But that's an important distinction for me: I wasn't frustrated because her choices felt like poor writing. I was frustrated because I understood enough about her flaws, desperation, circumstances, and need to survive to believe she would make them (even when I desperately wanted her not to).
By the end, I was SO ready to see this woman stop being used and start coming out on top. She's still in a precarious position when the book ends, but something in her has fortified. It felt less like her story had stopped and more like she was finally becoming ready for whatever comes next.
This was dark, immersive, high-stakes fantasy with morally complicated characters, detailed worldbuilding, plenty of spice, and enough blood and gore to occasionally remind me that Kiran is, in fact, absolutely ruthless.
I immediately wanted Book 2.
And that's about the strongest recommendation I can give.