Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Unholy
SERIES: Witchbane
AUTHOR: Morgan Brice
NARRATOR: Kale Williams
PUBLISHER: Tantor Audio
LENGTH: 6 hrs and 33 min
RELEASE DATE: March 30, 2021
BLURB:
A cycle of ritual murders. A coven of dark warlocks, drawing their immortality from the magic of their dead master. Two men sworn to stop the deaths, destroy the warlocks, and avenge the victims. Except this time, the killer flips the script.
Seth Tanner swore vengeance on the dark witches who killed his brother, Jesse. He rescued Evan Malone from one of the witches, and they’ve fallen in love despite the danger and chaos, going on the road to complete the quest and bring an end to the ritual murders. Their relationship is still new, tested at every turn by danger and magic.
Seth and Evan head to Charleston to stop the next warlock and save his intended victim. But this time, they’re too late. The warlock has already powered up, and he’s determined to destroy the two hunters one way or another. A deadly curse on Seth and Evan means time is running out. Can they find a way to turn the tables, or is Charleston their final destination?
Contains mature themes.
REVIEW:
Note: This is the fifth book in this series and builds on the events of the previous books. There are major spoilers for all previous books in this installment and as such, it’s recommended to consume these books in order.
Shortly after the events of Flame & Ash, Evan and Seth head to Charleston to find the next Dark Witch and neutralize him before he cycle. However, when they get there, the witch has moved up the timeline and the intended victim has already been sacrificed and his younger brother is missing. On the way into town, they are involved in a car accident that damaged Seth’s truck and puts them out of commission. Luckily they were on their way to meet with hunter friends in town and so are picked up by these same friends.
In Charleston, there are a lot more people that seem to be aware of magic and they have a society of sorts that run the town. These include a number of witches and other powerful magic holders – and a surprising vampire and necromancer too. But in addition to the dark witch they are after, Seth and Evan also have to fight a curse that has been placed on them while they were vulnerable after the car accident that forces them apart. They literally cannot touch each other without pain and worse yet, the consequences of this curse could be deadly. Add to that a class war between the old guard/old families in Charleston and the witch gangs who have been kept out of any of the power structure and there are just a lot of distractions from the task of finding the destroying the dark witch.
The Charleston magic community though acknowledges that changes need to be made and so they are all in helping Seth and Evan – and really themselves too – rid the area of this dark witch. It turns out not only is he following the same pattern as the other witches in sacrificing the descendants of the original killers of the witch master, but he’s been engaged in a lot of other really bad stuff. Evan and Seth unwittingly help uncover a pattern of unsolved disturbances for which the Charleston group is most appreciative. And they all work as a team to stop the latest potential disaster and save more than just the brother of the original victim.
I’m liking this series more with each book! I loved the additional magic and hunters and characters in this book. The vampire and necromancer characters were great addition to this universe. There are guest appearances from Milo and Toby and Simon from past books and they help Seth and Evan with the tasks at hand and do their best from afar to give them support. The battle with the dark witch was really exciting without being as gruesome and some rituals of the past books, but I was racing through just waiting to see what would happen. I loved the suspense and the use of magic and both Even and Seth were able to contribute. Once again, Kale Williams does a great job with the narration. His voice choices for a really large cast of characters I thought were really fantastic. He does such a good job with both male and female voices and also with conveying the emotional tone of each of the scenes. I really cannot wait to see what happens next when Even and Seth get to Cleveland 😀
RATING: 
BUY LINK:
Audible