About the Book:
Magical forces clash and Erthia hovers on the brink of ruin in the can’t-miss finale of Laurie Forest’s epic fantasy series, The Black Witch Chronicles!
Who can survive the Shadow storm?
Black Witch of prophecy Elloren Gardner Grey has unleashed her powers and embraced her legacy as a Dryad and guardian of the Forest. But the losses—of life, of love—have been almost too great to withstand as the Shadow continues to devour the world. With only a tattered shred of hope remaining, the Bearers of the Wand of Myth must battle their way back to each other to mount a final stand.
But Elloren and her allies are not only facing Mage Vogel’s advancing forces—the armies of the Eastern Realm will stop at nothing to see the Black Witch struck down.
With Elloren’s bonded mate prophesied to kill her, Shadow demons rising, and the ties between allies unraveling, can this fracturing world unite to face down the coming storm?
*Review Contributed by Rachel Feeck, Staff Reviewer*
Hold up, this book is out? The original release date was pushed from 2024 and I had to learn about the actual release from a fanart post. So, cue me dashing off to the library for the conclusion to this magic school story that grew into a million characters that I hopefully remember (book 4 was the classic ‘here’s new people now let’s pair them up’ situation) gearing up for the big war to end all wars and protect the trees while they’re at it.
And yup, that about sums it up. Factions gather to fight the big bad, and wonder what exactly happened to Elloren after the last explosive battle. Our notorious witch remains an absent mystery for the first 200 pages (aka around the 25% mark), in favor of Gwynnifer, a Gardnerian witch recently turned rebel. Tierney and the selkies are also key players. So many people. So many names. It’s hard to pin down an overarching plot, and the book feels like a bunch of small stories glued together with A Final Battle and Ye Old Epilogue For Closure. I enjoyed each bit on its own, but this is the Black Witch Chronicles, I’m here for answers to whatever happened to Elloren after that last massive cliff hanger, and I was hungering for some quite heart to hearts and closure.
Looking back on the series, I have a lot of fond memories. The shift in the final books makes me more hesitant to recommend, but let’s not forget the massive world-building (were wolves, fae, and more at university! Language barriers!) or the fearless commentary on authority and tradition (you can pry many a custom from my cold dead hands, but I appreciate how this story takes a stance and does not back down) or the enemies to maybe allies to maybe lovers that made the middle books a dream come true (look, I knew it was a doomed ship, but Lukas is such a good 2nd ML, and maybe I just think that couples who slay (musical duets) together should stay together).
Continuing with the style of book 4, this finale prioritizes side-characters and themes over the main plot, and although the result is a little unfocused, it’s clear it was a massive undertaking to wrap so many storylines together and it’s satisfying just to see the close of such a big series.
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