Reviewed by Dan

TITLE:  Witch King

AUTHOR:     T. A. Creech

PUBLISHER:     JMS Books LLC

LENGTH:     88 Pages

RELEASE DATE:  June 11, 2016

BLURB:

King Solna Nalion is tired of war. Standing in the aftermath of yet another battle over an ancient insult, he longs for the possibility of ending the wars at last — and finds it in Vius Tylele, a wounded warrior who is not what he seems. In light of Tylele’s charm and intelligence, Nalion schemes to unite their countries for a lasting peace, one that might even bring love.

Nothing is as it seems and Vius Tylele knows that all too well. But King Nalion’s marriage proposal, while ridiculous, has merit. Between petulant generals, tainted magic, and falling unexpectedly in love, Vius discovers he has more to lose than he thought. His country, his magic, and even his heart.

REVIEW:

In my opinion, Witch King by T.A. Creech is a prime example of a good book that is missing some chapters. I really enjoyed what I read, but all the way through the book I felt I was missing information that I should have had.

The story begins on the battlefield. A major battle has just been fought between two nations, and there are thousands of dead bodies lying everywhere…right outside the city. Wandering amongst those bodies is Solna, the King of the invaded country.  For some reason his own troops are staying away from him, but we never find out why.  We also never find out how the enemy army actually got all the way to this city, since it says later in the book that the other King’s city is weeks away on foot.

While wandering, Solna finds a mortally wounded elf from the enemy army.  Solna is drawn to the elf and ends up carrying him all the way back to the city.  Once there, he gets the healers to take care of the elf and in the end the enemy trooper lives.  Quite quickly we find out the enemy trooper is actually the enemy king, Vius Tylele.

The marriage proposal mentioned in the blurb takes place, and while ridiculous on the surface, both men know it might be the only way to end the war that has being fought seemingly forever. Did I just summarize the blurb for you?  Yes, in a way. Why did I do that?  Because there isn’t much else to tell you about the story without giving major spoilers on the few other things that happen.

I will tell you that this book has what appears to me to be a major cliffhanger ending.  But as I mentioned above it is also missing something up front, so maybe this is the entire story.  I have no idea.

In summary, I liked what there was of the story, but it really needed a beginning and an end which were both missing, and a whole lot more world building.  There were humans, elves, dwarves, one mention of a dragon shifter and maybe something else, but frankly I’ve already forgotten.  Most of those seemed to be thrown in because it was a fantasy…and someone maybe told the author they had to be there?

I would rate this book as “It was OK” on our rating scale.  Based on the parts of the story that I liked, I think the author has the potential to turn it into a good book, but only if they pull it, beef it up (A LOT) and then reissue it!

I would not recommend the book in its current state.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

JMS Books LLC  

Amazon 

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