Book Review – The Book of the Unwinding

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the review copy is exchange for an honest review.

Book:  The Book of the Unwinding (Witches of New Orleans 2) by J.D. Horn
Release Date: June 26th 2018
Tags: Fantasy / Adult / Witches / Shapeshifting / New Orleans / Soulmates /  LGBTQ+ / Lesbians
Other books in this series I reviewed
The King of Bones and Ashes

Possible spoilers for the previous books in the series

 With their magic diminishing, warring factions of New Orleans witches desperately search for the Book of the Unwinding—a legendary grimoire, hidden by spells, that holds the key to unimaginable powers. As a ruthless struggle erupts in a maelstrom of malevolent magic, psychic Nathalie Boudreau finds her destiny intertwined with that of an exiled witch.
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Her name is Alice Marin, a vulnerable young woman trapped in a realm of illusion. Only Nathalie can free her, but first she must come to understand and master her own extraordinary abilities.
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Now, in a world where betrayals have become the order of the day, it will fall to two women to restore rightful balance amid terrifying chaos.

 

While I wasn’t the biggest fan of the first book I was certainly interested enough to want to continue. In places it was better than the first book, but in other places it certainly wasn’t and so I am left with the same rating.

There is so much potential here and it certainly isn’t the writing style by J.D. Horn that is the problem. The writing is dark and atmospheric. I think it captures well the feeling of New Orleans as its own entity almost. But that isn’t enough to make a book.

Plot wise this second book is lacking. For me it felt like there was no climax nearing the end. It just trudged on in the dragging pace that was set at the start of the book. There weren’t any big revelations. There were a few story lines here and there with Alice’s fate after book one for instance, and Evangeline’s fight. But they weren’t big enough to carry the whole book. There was no true climax to them and in parts (especially considering Evangeline) things were confusing. It just feels like a set up for the next one. The revelation at the end was certainly interesting. However it is hard to care at this point. We also aren’t entirely getting great reasons as to why the magic is diminishing

Added on to that is that I don’t truly care about any of these characters. There for sure was some character development in this book. There was one that I cared about but not anymore. What happened just makes me want to shout into the void. Alice is just a lost girl really. Nobody but Daniel seems to truly want to protect her which is kind of sad. Nathalie is more present in this book and she is an interesting addition. I just don’t  think we’ve delved that deep into her.

Evangeline is a strong woman but I don’t care for her one bit. The more we get to know her, the more I hope she ends up dead at the end of all of this. Lisette is also not a favorite but I think she got dealt the short end of the stick in this one. Her children however seem sweet and I hope that they end up happy. I think following Fleur more would have been interesting. Her mother makes some questionable decisions.

The romance is also questionable to me about soulmates and being meant to be because they had seen in the future with at least two romances. I love that there is some diversity there. Alice and Nathalie are lesbians. I just don’t like how this is being forced on Alice, soulmate wise. I’m  glad that she decided to take a few steps back from it.

Having said that all though I can’t turn my back on this series either and I am still interested in reading it. J.D. Horn truly is a great writer. And he can do character developments. But his plots need to be tighter.