Published: September 19, 2023
Publisher: Podium Publishing
Series: The Burning Witch #1
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 400 (Kindle)
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
Synopsis:
A young woman navigates a web of politics, assassination attempts, and romance in the first book of a new series set in the world of the House Witch trilogy.
Katarina Ashowan was not made for courtly life. Sure, her father is the famous house witch of Daxaria so she was raised among majestic castles, proper manners, and royal expectations. But Kat is also a mutated witch whose power aligns predominantly with fire. She’s more comfortable riding horses or learning to fight than she is making polite conversation and wearing fancy dresses. Which is why her upcoming assignment—serving her best friend, Alina, the soon-to-be crowned Troivackian queen—is anything but ideal.
Even worse, Kat is forced to make the long journey from Daxaria to Troivack with Alina’s extremely irksome brother, Eric, the crown prince of Daxaria. Kat and the formerly missing prince are constantly at each other’s throats—until, that is, they begin to form an unexpected kinship . . . with perhaps something more flickering beneath the surface. Now Kat must contend with the strictures of Troivackian court, mysterious assassination attempts, and her unsettling new feelings for Eric, all as her fiery powers are becoming harder and harder to control.
I genuinely don’t know how Delemhach is churning out books at such an alarming rate, but I’m not going to complain. These are the ultimate fun, cozy read for me! The latest installment, Burning Witch picks up right as Kat Ashowan is about to leave for Troivack with her dear friend Alina and Alina’s new husband. The previous book, The Princess of Potential, acted as a bridge between The House Witch series and The Burning Witch series and did quite a bit of set up while providing a nice little love story of its own and served to first introduce us to the all grown up Katarina Ashowan.
Kat, as we now know, is reckless and constantly on the move thanks to her mutated fire witch magic. She’s about as improper a noblewoman as there could possibly be, much to her mother’s chagrin, and she doesn’t seem inclined to change. Kat’s being sent off to Troivack in hopes that while she’s there protecting her best friend from assassins, she’ll also learn to behave more responsibly. That’s kind of a lot to ask for and Kat repeatedly astounds and disturbs everyone around her, most especially Prince Eric who traveled to Troivack as part of his sister’s retinue.
If you read The House Witch books, you’ll remember Eric as a friendly, delightful boy but now he’s all grown up and full of the horrors of life. Prior to this book, he had disappeared for many years and the only person who knew where he went was Finlay Ashowan. He remains a mystery for much of this book as well, but finally, towards the end we begin to unravel what he was doing away for so many years after the death of his mother and why he seems to be such a pained individual.
I must fully admit, I didn’t love either one of our main characters quite as much as I did Finlay and Annika, or even Alina in the previous books. Kat is intentionally controversial and doesn’t care who that impacts or reflects upon. Eric is hostile and secretive about his past to the point that it further damages his relationships, though it makes more sense once you figure out what past traumas have caused him to be that way. I was less charmed by the characters themselves but I still greatly enjoyed the quick moving plot and the ‘will they, won’t they’ undercurrent.
Overall, while this was not my favorite installment of the overarching world, I did enjoy it and eagerly await The Burning Witch #2 in January 2024.
Powder & Page 
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