[Review] Hexen's Cross - J. Kowallis

 

Titel: Hexen's Cross

Series: Hexen Series #1

Author: J. Kowallis

Publisher: -

Format: Kindle, english

Synopsis: GoodReads

Review: 5*, GoodReads, Amazon

A digital copy of this book was provided to me by Xpresso Booktours in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The magic calls her.
A prophecy binds her.
The ancestors guide her.

Dr. Taran Grim, a young professor of occult studies, knows the written history of witches better than anyone in her field. And she should. She’s one of them.

After a mysterious stranger arrives at her office inquiring about the mythical staff of Woden, Taran’s curiosity reveals a millennia-old prophesy directly tied to her. The answers wait in Bryden, England and the only person who can help her gain access to the hidden valley is the descendant of Ruhmactir, and a member of the shape-shifting Geri clan: Collens “Coll” Donovan.

But the Donovans have secrets of their own, and Taran’s underdeveloped magic is wreaking strange havoc on her life. If she can’t manage her magic and strike a truce with Coll, they’ll fail to prevent the prophesied event known as Deireanhexe: the end of the hexen race.

-->GoodReads

‚Hexen’s Cross‘ is the first book in the a new series by J.Kowallis, or at least it seems to be. It didn’t read like a stand-alone and I can’t imagine the ending of this book to actually be the end of the story, yet when I checked GoodReads for the name of the series I couldn’t find anything.

If this actually a stand-alone the ending was very un-satisfying, but I’ll just hope for the best.

Both the cover and the synopsis immediately drew my attention. To be honest the synopsis kinda reminded me of Deborah Harkness’ ‘A Discovery of Witches’, which I really liked. The cover is perfect for the story and promises a amazing story.

The plot is really interesting and I’m absolutely fascinated by all the mythology going on, although I can’t speak to the correctness of it as I hardly know anything about the subject.  I do read a lot of fantasy and I didn’t come across anything in the book that seemed over-used or even familiar, which really is quite the feat. And the plot-twist towards the end totally surprised me. Part of it was something I expected for quite a while, but the other part was something I never expected.

I liked the writing style and the use of different languages for the spells and stuff, but the few german words / sentences in the beginning of the book threw me off a bit. German is my first language and most of the words / translations she used seemed off to me.

Taran is a strong women who has distanced herself from her heritage without really realizing it. She is a history professor, yet knows almost nothing of her own family history.

It was really interesting to see how in the beginning she thought she was so in touch with her “inner witch” and connected to her family until she started to realize that she hardly knew anything and should have spent a lot more time studying her magic.

I really liked her character and could identify with her. She is an academic and a witch, is there anything better than that? Maybe the fact that she’s obviously read Harry Potter.

Coll on the other hand took me a while to get used to. His accent immediately threw me off. No offense to anyone, but I just couldn’t imagine him attractive after “hearing” him speak. The fact that he keeps calling Taran “women” doesn’t help either. 

As we get to know him better and their relationship slowly develops we see a different side of his which endears him to me a little more. The way he is protective of his sisters, his use of magic and his obvious feelings for Taran show his softer side.

SPOILER

With the way she referenced Harry Potter she should’ve known that if she changed the past she can’t expect to return to the same present she left..