Oh sure, we love a very good satisfying duology! The Insurgent Witch takes the whole lot that was so bloody enjoyable and addictive about The Crimson Moth, after which simply cranks it up a notch. It’s bought all of the angst, so many feels, surprisingly excessive stakes, numerous twists and turns, and simply the very best sort of melodrama; I eat this shit up.

Now, though there’s a little time soar between the wild ending of guide 1 and the beginning of this sequel, I used to be immediately reimmersed and reinvested on this story. The tides have shifted within the warfare between the witches and witch hunters, and Rune and Gideon each have their very own vital function to play on reverse sides of the lethal battle. However though they need to be sworn enemies, they discover themselves but once more inexplicably drawn collectively by destiny, circumstance and perhaps, probably… love?

Actually, The Insurgent Witch has all the very best romantasy tropes and Ciccarelli simply executes them to perfection. Enemies-to-lovers (completed twice?), just one cabin/mattress, faux marriage, compelled proximity, a love curse, and simply all the very best snarky banter. Additionally, Rune, Gideon, my loves… denial is a river in Egypt!!! Actually, these two are the champions of mendacity to themselves, and I used to be extremely entertained by all of the inside turmoil, mutual pining, the will-they-won’t-they, and the electrifying rigidity. Plus, I at all times favor specializing in the emotional connection somewhat than the bodily/sexual attraction, so I used to be personally all right here for the fade-to-black spicy scenes that match completely for the YA age vary.

However what’s even higher is that every one these enjoyable romantic shenanigans by no means come on the expense of the plot development or sturdy character work. The world organically expanded and deepened as we bought to go to new locations and dove into extra historical past and lore, and I liked seeing much more depraved witchery on show. Furthermore, each the dynamic duo on the coronary heart of this story and a few of the facet characters (be they new or acquainted faces) had some surprisingly touching particular person arcs and actually bought their time to shine, and I simply liked occurring this wild journey of rebel, redemption, braveness, and love with all of them.

And I imply, positive, the villain of this story is only a mustache-twirly, over-the-top, irredeemable drama queen who you’ll be able to like to hate; positive, some supposedly surprising plot twists and divulges had been painfully predictable; and positive, the hectic ending was perhaps a bit rushed and unbelievably excellent… however who even cares? All of it got here collectively brilliantly for me, and even when I knew full nicely that we’re coping with plot armour galore right here, I used to be on the sting of my seat and utterly alongside for the experience the whole method by way of.

Should you loved The Crimson Moth, then I really can’t see the way you wouldn’t take pleasure in The Insurgent Witch. I swear that Ciccarelli will need to have channeled some darkish, arcane magic whereas scripting this duology, as a result of in any other case there may be zero clarification for why it’s as dangerously addictive as it’s. That is the whole lot a sequel, and certainly a finale, must be, and I can’t suggest it extremely sufficient should you simply need to escape right into a enjoyable but mature YA fantasy romance that strikes the proper stability between the motion and emotion.