Witch Born (Witch Song #2) Review and Blog Post by Amber Argyle

Brusenna thought it was finished.

She defeated the Dark Witch, saving the Haven Witches from imprisonment and death. She found love and a place to belong.

She was wrong.

Haven is not the sanctuary it appears to be. Even love is in danger of slipping away like water through cupped hands.

Some things can't be saved.

A new threat merges with the old as the Witches’ dark history begins to catch up with them. Only Brusenna knows the extent of the danger and how to stop it, though doing so might cost her everything.
Including her life.

Will Brusenna be required to make the ultimate sacrifice?

I have to say first that I love this cover! It's also perfect for this second and final book in Brusenna's adventure, the first book being Witch Song. I enjoyed both stories.

In this story Senna is maturing and asking questions the others will not answer. Senna is done with being an outcast, scared and not understanding her true nature. She's changing since we last left her and some of the head witches know some of the answers to a few of her questions. She finds unlikely allies and lots of betrayal to those close to her and even those that are expected. Senna knows she must do something and the others are reluctant to take the hard road, make the hard choice. So she does but finds more unlikely allies and betrayal in her midst.

I enjoyed Senna's journey, but I have to say that at times her questioning herself was just a bit too much. Not enough to spoil my enjoyment, but enough to take me out of the story from time to time. It's good to question and she is young, but she just needed confidence that I would have thought she would have found by fighting so hard in the first book. It's there, it just comes at a slower pace than what I would have personally liked. I also had a hard time with Joshen, her betrothed, in this book and when he finally stops being so selfish it's nice to hear, but it just came suddenly with no epiphany. I would have liked to have seen what caused him to change his mind so abruptly.

I give this book 4 stars. In all I really enjoyed my time with the witches and Brusenna's hard choices. I'm sad to see this end, but 2 books make Senna's story fulfilling. I recommend it to those that love YA, adventure and fantasy.

I received this ebook from the author an no compensation for my review was given.

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Amber Argyle also stopped by to give us a little look into the names in this book and how they came about. Thanks Amber! Take it away:

I like my names to sound like what they are—that way they’re easier for the reader to remember. So for instance, in Witch Song, one of the villains names is Wardof, which I created by combining ward (magical barrier) and off. ward off = Wardof

Garg, another villain, ends up blabbering a lot. He’s also kinda fat. Garg just sounds like a fat, blabbering kinda guy.

I always wanted to name Brusenna (the heroine) Senna, but that didn’t sound witchy enough for me. So I took brew (as in witches brew), changed the spelling, and added Senna to the back. Brew + Senna = Brusenna.

Joshen (the hero) is an easy going, laid back kind of guy. He’s always kidding or joshing around. I also have a cousin named Josh (I pull in family names every once in a while). Plus it just sounds good. Though I wouldn’t recommend pulling family names into books. All of a sudden you’re hounded at family reunions (especially when you have as big a family as I). Then they don’t like that you made them a villain, that the character was bald, or had some other random imperfection that they think was pulled from them.

I introduce some new characters in Witch Born. Krissin is named after my sister-in-law, Kristin. Ellesh is named after my MIL, Ellen (please see above for why you should NEVER do this).

Cord is named after my son. Also, he’s kind of tied to Senna.

Prenny after a high school friend named Penny.

Drenelle just sounded like a woman who adores lace.

Ciara from Tiara, cause Ciara acts like a princess.

Pogg is a frog man. Pond + frog = Pogg (I added an extra “g” to make it look more name-like).

Harshen is a harsh land.

Espen is from Aspen, because *spoiler alert!* the dark witch is turned into a tree with circular leaves. J

Grendi is taken from Glenda the Goodwich in Wizard of Oz (cause I like to twist things like that).

There’s also a couple names in there that only people from a certain demographic will recognize. ;)

Arianis is kind of a rival to Senna. And she’s a pain-in-the-ass = Arianis. See how that works. ;)
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Books in the Series:
Witch Song (link has first chapter)
Witch Born

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