The main character Cecile plans to move to her mother's place in the city and become a singer. The day before leaving, she is kidnapped and brought to the city of trolls. The trolls have been cursed for centuries - they can't leave their city and believe that Cecile will break the curse. She has to marry the troll prince Tristan and live among trolls. The girl thinks about escaping, but with time her feelings change.
I loved the world building. The trolls were amazing, creepy, and scary. They couldn't lie but twisted the truth and manipulated people. They were also very strong, clever, had magic and their city blew my mind. I actually liked some troll characters and really hated the others. 
The book was long but at times I felt that the story had gaps which needed filling. One moment Cecile hated trolls and the other moment she already had friends and was ready to take risks to help them. The romance felt a bit rushed and I wanted more about Tristan's point of view.
Still, I liked how Cecile, who had all these big plans at the beginning of the story, started to discover who she really was and the things she was capable at the end of the story were astonishing. Also I liked the last sentence so much I want to read the second book soon.

Tasks 1, 2, and 4 completed. Points = 3

Task 1:  Share a picture of your favorite light display. ~ I might be reaching here, but no man-made display has ever captivated me as much as the night sky (though lantern festivals come close).

Task 2:  Cleaning is a big part of this holiday; choose one of your shelves, real or virtual, and tidy / organise it.  Give us the before and after photos.  OR Tidy up 5 of the books on your BookLikes shelves by adding the CORRECT cover, and/or any other missing information. (If in doubt, see here: http://jenn.booklikes.com/post/1782687/state-of-the-database-booklikes-database-halloween-bingo-and-a-mini-rant-with-pictures). 

I literally just rearranged my shelves and have no before pictures, so digital it is. I'm not sure how to track this, so I'll just list the titles I tried to tidy up. (Kindle editions only. Hope I didn't screw up any book data. Y'all might've opened Pandora's box with this task.)

1. Call of Poseidon by CP Bialois (Added cover and description, corrected ASIN and erroneous crediting of editors as authors)

2. Illegal Magic by Arlene Blakely (Added cover etc., corrected ASIN)

3. The Savage Blood by Tamara Rose Blodgett (Reported duplicate book entry with incorrect ASIN)

4. Stolen Peace: The Untold Story of the Spanish Conquest by Gloria Bond (Added cover and other book data, corrected ASIN)

5. Maggie Come Lately by Michelle Buckman (Added cover and book data, corrected ASIN)

Task 3: Eating sweets is also a big part of Diwali. Either select a recipe for a traditional sweet, or make a family favorite and share a picture with us.

I'll come back to this one.

Task 4: During Diwali, people pray to the goddess Lakhshmi, who is typically depicted as a beautiful young woman holding a lotus flower. Find 5 books on your shelves (either physical or virtual) whose covers show a young woman holding a flower and share their cover images.

See books at top of post. This was a struggle. Thank goodness for my small Heyer collection! I might be stretching it with a couple, but I'm reasonably sure I see flowers in that basket on The Grand Sophy's cover, and I think those are flowers in her hand on Sprig Muslin.

Book: Read a book with candles on the cover or the word “candle” or “light” in the title; OR a book that is the latest in a series; OR set in India; OR any non-fiction book that is ‘illuminating’ (Diwali is Sanskrit for light/knowledge and row, line or series)

It's been a minute since I've binged an entire trilogy in one sitting. I'm glad it was this one. 

The snark, the complicated scheming, the wit, the war and the love and friendship. It draws you in, and you ride the adventure all the way to one of THE BEST ENDINGS I've ever had the pleasure of reading. 

With so many series having rushed ends or ends that simply fall flat of expectation, the final turn of the page in Warrior Witch, had me feeling nothing but complete comfort and having no regret of immersion in Trollus.

A great series.  

An age old curse from a human witch, trapping Trolls under a mountain. Stories told to human children. Not just stories after all.

When Cecile is kidnapped and taken under the mountain to be sold to the Trolls and wed to their prince, the stories become reality. 

This was a fun and FUNNY book! The intelligent banter, the witty snark and the adventure itself all contribute to what was a total page turner. 

Starting book 2 NOW!

Warrior Witch is the final book in The Malediction Trilogy. With the witch Anushka dead and trolls finally freed, the isle is at war.  Tristan and Cécile, are finally together again after being separated but they have no time to celebrate. They quickly find themselves fighting a war on two fronts and if that were not enough, each of them owe a life debt to the fae.  Somehow, they must find away to stop Tristan's violently insane younger brother from claiming the throne, as they try to stay one step ahead of the fae, who clearly have been playing the long game.

Cécile has been through much since we were first introduced to her in Stolen Songbird. My first complaint with her character was the she turned out to be the typical spunky agent and this still has not changed.  I am well aware that this book YA and therefore a younger protagonist might make mistakes that a more mature one might not but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect some character growth, of which Cécile had absolutely none.  Cécile constantly vacillated between wallowing in self pity due to the consequences of her actions and in turn blaming others and shirking responsibility altogether.  What was perhaps must irritating about Cécile was her absolute refusal to listen to others. The trolls on her side of the war were experienced and trained and time after time, she ignored their advice to do things her own way which inevitably further complicated whatever situation she was trying to extricate herself from.

The thing that bothered me most about Cécile as a spunky agent is that her actions didn't even make sense.  Who exactly decides to sneak into the enemies lair in the middle of the night without bothering to inform friends and family of the risk they are taking? Cécile that's who.  She knew damn well that cooler heads would have forced her to think through her actions and so she ran off instead with a half formed idea.  When called upon her action, Cécile didn't even seem to want to acknowledge that her friends and family were terrified that she had died.  She's almost bitter about having to take her lumps for their rightful anger.

Warrior Witch is filled with action which for me is a bit of a turn off.  I don't enjoy reading battle scene after battle scene and the writing in these portions of the book was far from descriptive enough for me to be drawn in.  Instead, it felt like the action was drawing out the inevitable conclusion of the story.  There just wasn't enough meta holding Warrior Witch together for me, even with the introduction of the fae and an explanation as to how they become trolls and trapped on earth. The introduction of the fae should have added something special to this story and yet, I felt at least the Winter Queen was far too easily defeated to be of much interest.  If that were not enough, solving the mystery of how the Trolls became trapped on earth on the first place occurred in what felt like a blink of the eye. How is it that the Trolls and witches have been trying for centuries to deal with the iron poisoning which trapped the Trolls on earth and Cécile was able to put together a little spell in a New York minute? I understand that Cécile is the super special chosen one but watching her vacillate between an utter wreck and then completely competent threw off the flow of the story.


For all its faults, I read through Warrior Witch rather quickly.  I kept hoping that it would return to the former brilliance of Stolen Songbird, only to be bitterly disappointed.  At least part of the problem is that Tristan and Cécile spent so much time apart and on top of that, for a time, Tristan used magic to shut down his feelings so he wouldn't be tempted to rush to her aid.  This series really needed the banter between Cécile and Tristan to be at its best. I kept reading in spite of what was wrong because I wanted to see how Jensen ended this trilogy.

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