The Shadow Reigns (Witch-Hunter Book 2) – K.S. Marsden

Synopsis

The second part of the Witch-Hunter series.

The world has been thrown into darkness by the Shadow Witch’s revolution. The witch-hunters are scattered, but still strong. The race is now on to gather allies and win the war.
New enemies will arise; loyalties will be pushed to the limit. And an important question will be answered: can a witch-hunter that practices magic ever be trusted, or will he be persecuted?
It is said that ‘love conquers all’, but this twisted love must stay secret, locked away with the past.

Review

Sophie fell in love with Hunter and vice versa. But they couldn’t be together and Sophie was determined to kill him. Until she stabbed him and felt the same pain he did.
Apparently the baby creates a strange connection between them, so Sophie is forced to withdraw during her pregnancy, creating a moment of peace before the storm.

Hunter discovers that he has interesting abilities that allow him to travel from one place to another in a “blink” even taking others with him. He also has the ability to form an anti-magic shield, which proves to be a great advantage in a war against witches.

Thanks to Sophie (who accuses him of being a witch), he learns that these “powers” are similar to those of the Benandanti, an ancient anti-witch people who developed skills in their years of fighting witches and ended up being annihilated by the witch hunters themselves for their powers.

From this point, Hunter and James desperately searched for information about them, but there were no major results. It would be necessary to search their place of origin in Italy, but with the war that was being prepared Hunter could not abandon the MMC.

There had been a few hints from his research, but nothing solid. That the Benandanti could walk through dreams, that they could control the elements and manipulate the world around them. But no one mentioned how.

The truth is there is not much more to tell about this book. Yes, some interesting things happened and there is an advance in the story. However, I do not stop feeling that the real progress of the plot could have been made in just a couple of chapters.

I feel like Hunter’s reactions to having a child are too vague. An overreaction such as crying every time he remembers it would not be logical either, however, it is like he forgets his existence most of the time.

Hunter stilled at the mention of his son. Where was he now? At home with his grandmother, while his mother went on her killing spree?

Here the relationship between Sophie and Hunter is destroyed. It is clear that Sophie loves him, but is obsessed with doing her duty. But Hunter doesn’t seem to really love Sophie, at least his behavior doesn’t show it. And honestly it does not show either the desire for revenge that he should feel against her with everything she has done. There are very few moments of weakness when he shows any emotion towards Sophie.

When did this happen? A few years ago, he would hace enjoyed the attention. She was a pretty girl – they could have flirted, possibly slept together, and entertained some short-lived relationship. Hunter blamed Sophie, it had to be her fault. Or was it because he was a father – did that automatically make you mature and responsible?

It’s not a bad book nor did it bore me at any point, but it really disappointed me in terms of the development of the story. I still recommend it, as the entire saga is quite entertaining to read. K.S. Marsden is hilarious.

PS: In this book there is a conversation between Hunter and his team in which they tell him that he was Voldemort and Sophie Dumbledore. Pure gold.