Unapologetic Reviews

Of Her Blood by Rozina Hyland was my ninth and final book for the 2026 Read Witch-a-Thon, and it was certainly an emotional way to finish the challenge. I gave it five stars, although I can't exactly say I enjoyed reading it. It's not that kind of book. It's a deeply sad, sometimes disturbing story, and when I finished listening to the audiobook, I simply started crying. I tried to gather my thoughts afterwards, but every time I thought about the story, I started crying again. It took me a while to understand why it had affected me quite so much. I used to write poetry when I was in high school, as one does, and I suddenly remembered a little four-line poem I wrote back then: Happiness is A moment in time To take a breath Only a rhyme. And that, I think, sums up this book remarkably well. There are moments of happiness, kindness, and hope, but they never seem to last. Every time the characters find a little peace, something happens to take it away. As the story pr...

Witch Season by Julia Bianco was my eighth book for the 2026 Read Witch-a-Thon, and I gave it four stars. This is an urban fantasy with a contemporary setting, a secret magical society, a bit of mystery, and a rather predictable romance. While I enjoyed the book, particularly its interesting magic system and the social issues it explores, I felt that the various conflicts were resolved a little too easily. The story takes place in our world, except that witches exist alongside ordinary people, operating within their own society. There are two main groups of witches. Some are born into established magical families and grow up learning how to control their abilities, while others develop magic unexpectedly, usually during their teenage years. These witches, who come from nonmagical families, have no idea what is happening to them until their powers suddenly manifest in an event known as a snap, often with disastrous consequences. Because they have never been taught how to control thei...

I read Weyward by Emilia Hart as part of my Read-Witch-a-Thon 2026, and this book was definitely witchy. It combines historical fiction, contemporary fiction, and witchcraft in a story about three generations of women who are connected not only by blood, but also by their experiences of abuse, their relationships with nature, and their struggle to take control of their own lives. I gave this book five stars, not just because I enjoyed the story and its witchcraft, but because it affected me emotionally in ways I hadn't expected. The story takes place across three timelines, each following a different woman from the Weyward family. The earliest is set in 1619, during the reign of James I, and follows Altha Weyward, a young woman who is accused of witchcraft after a local man dies under suspicious circumstances. The second timeline takes place during the Second World War and follows Violet, a young aristocratic girl who lives in a grand country house with her father and younger br...

The Christmas Clue by Nicola Upson is a short Christmas mystery, only 138 pages long, inspired by the real couple who invented the board game Cluedo , or Clue , as it is known in the United States. Interestingly, Upson actually spoke to the descendants of the couple while writing the book, which I thought was a lovely touch. I have never actually played Cluedo , though I have always wanted to. It wasn't a game that was available to me growing up in Hungary, and even though I love board games, I have never really had anyone to play them with. My mother absolutely hates board games, and no one else in my family or among my friends is particularly interested in them either. So, unfortunately, Cluedo remains one of those games I know about but have never had the opportunity to experience. That made the premise of this book especially interesting to me. The story takes place during the Second World War and follows Anthony and Elva Pratt, the couple who would eventually create Clue...

I read The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova as part of my October 2026 Read-Witch-a-Thon. This is another book featuring witches, although I would categorize it more as magical realism than traditional witchcraft. I gave it four stars because I really enjoyed the story, its characters, and its magical atmosphere, but I found the pacing extremely uneven. For a large portion of the book, very little happens, and then suddenly everything starts moving at lightning speed. The story revolves around the Montoya family, whose matriarch, Orquídea Divina, has lived a rather mysterious life. She has had several husbands and numerous children, resulting in an enormous family tree that I wouldn't even attempt to recreate. She lives in a place called Four Rivers, where she has created a home surrounded by fertile land and an abundance of plants. However, when she sends letters to her living children and grandchildren announcing that she is dying and inviting them to collect...

I read Witch Daughter by Tanaz Bhathena as part of my Read Witch-a-Thon, which I'm doing throughout October. I gave this book four stars, and I picked it because I was intrigued by the idea of reading about witches from a non-Western culture. The story takes place in pre-Islamic Persia and incorporates elements of Persian mythology and Zoroastrianism, a religion I knew practically nothing about. I was excited to explore a culture, a mythology, and a religious tradition that were completely outside my usual reading experience. The story takes place primarily in Samangan, a small kingdom ruled by a king whose daughter, Tahmineh, is considered a witch. However, she is not exactly the kind of witch we would usually imagine. Her mother is a daeva, a supernatural being who lives in a lake and can disguise herself as a human. She once took on human form, married the king, and gave birth to Tahmineh, but eventually had to return to the lake, leaving her daughter behind. At the beginning...