Witchy Winter (Witchy Eye, #2) by D.J. Butler

Witchy Winter (Witchy Eye, #2) Reviews

• 
  Pat Patterson

  Beasts find redemption, a queen seeks a throne, and lady pirates care for others
  
  I read the first book in this series, 'Witchy Eye', last year, but the occasion for reading this book was its' selection as a finalist in the 'Best Alternate History Novel' category for the 2018 Dragon Award. This review is extended and expanded in my blog,
  Papa Pat Rambles.
  
  Sarah lives in a world of magic and monsters, somewhere around 1830 or so in a decidedly NON-united states. In book one of the series, 'Witchy Eye', she discovers that she has the power to see magical/spiritual forces at play, and that she is the presumptive heiress to an unclaimed throne. In this follow-up, she further develops her powers, and develops alliances and enemies as she moves to take her rightful inheritance.
  In addition, we follow the stories of the other two members of her triplet birth. She has a sister who is being raised by a pirate queen, and a brother who is the ward of a member of royalty who has sunk into an alcoholic stupor.
  The emperor of this conglomeration is a jerk. He kills anyone who might even suggest that he is not all-powerful, and as he is the unacknowledged uncle to the triplets, he wants them dead. And if that requires devastation and death? Well, he doesn't much care for the little people anyway.
  It's RARE that you will find world-building as well done as this. Butler has taken many historical characters, and twisted them, so that their influence in this magical world that includes Beast-folk, can be traced back to what the historical person MIGHT have done under these circumstances.
  An excellent candidate to win the award.
• 
  CJ

  Too. Many. Narrators. The first book had seven, and this one added TEN MORE. And ONLY subtracted two narrators from the previous one. So this one alternated between FIFTEEN points of view! It was hard to care about the new characters, especially as you were rotated through several narrators before coming back to any specific one. This also made the book harder to follow. By the time I got back to a character, I'd forgotten what happened and had to totally reorient myself.
  
  The bones of the story are good, but it didn't feel very cohesive. I'd start getting into it, then the book would abruptly switch scenes and would lose all momentum. It's a shame because it's a great premise--magic and sorcery and all religions have some truth to them--but it could do with more thorough editing.
  
  And there might actually be more than 15 narrators, I've had to go back and change this review twice because I remembered more of them.
  
  Also, it's a little gruesome. Doesn't make for the best before-bed reading, but that's on me.
  
  I want to finish the series, I just hope to goodness there are fewer narrators in there next one, or at least no new ones. (Okay, there's obviously going to be one more, due to the sibling thing, but no one else can offer a point of view!)
• 
  Helio

  I got as far as fifty pages and decided this was not for me. The premise was promising but the execution excrutiating. The best part was the map on the back of the cover showing seven (presumably) native territories akin to the Iroquois Nations.
• 
  Susan

  DJ Butler’s (Q and A) second installment in the Witchy Eye Series, Witchy Winter has protagonist Sarah Calhoun continuing her journey where she left off from the end of the first installment in the series, Witchy Eye. If you have not read Witchy Eye, I suggest you don’t read any further. There aren’t spoilers for Witchy Winter in this review. By default, there will be spoilers for Witchy Eye.
  
  DJ Butler Interview and Full Review (Spoilers for Witchy Eye only) On NovelLives.Com
• 
  Darren

  The only thing that kept this book from being perfect for me was the huge amount of story lines. I thought the New Orleans ones got shortchanged in the last third of the book.
  
  Loved the Mamelukes, and Ma’iingan's sense of humor.
• 
  Brian Durfee

  Gorgeous book. Great story!!!
• 
  Felix

  A twisted parallel history book written with a magical quill; parts 'Alvin Maker & Vampire earth!" A history that should of been....
• 
  Daniel Shellenbarger

  In most respects Witchy Winter is an excellent follow-on to Witchy Eye, but the book suffers from having too many POV's and switching between them too often. If the author had just stuck to one POV per chapter, that would've been a dramatic improvement. As it is, the story seems to meander for the first 3/4ths and it fails to develop anything like central plotline. Partially, this is because it is a middle book and the author is trying to build up a lot of disparate plots that will come together later, but I feel like it could've been better if the book had found a focus. As it is, it took far longer to read this book than it should've as I simply didn't feel any real pull to keep reading. I enjoyed it whenever I did read it, but there was nothing about the plot that made me think "I have to know what happens next," so I kept putting it down after a chapter or so and it took me four months to get through a book that should've taken a weekend. The writing is still very good and Butler's world-building is both fascinating and quite deep and his characters feel very genuine and generally authentic to the period.
• 
  Steve DuBois

  Witchy Eye succeeded largely on the strength and diversity of the author's knowledge of folklore. This is no less impressive in that respect, but perhaps Butler goes for too much of a good thing. Viewpoint characters proliferate (I stopped counting at twelve or so), and while we get an even broader look at the frontier than in book #1, the story gets too diffuse to follow comfortably. I don't need the author to hold my hand through the events of the plot, but I do need to be given a reason to care about the people involved, and in this case too many new folks are being thrown at me for me to invest fully in any of them, and too little time is spent with the initial set of characters of whom I've had a chance to grow fond.
  
  The author does do a good job of getting (almost) everybody together on the same stage at the end and having them interact in some unanticipated ways. And it bears repeating: this one of the richest story universes going.
• 
  Daniel Yocom

  Witchy Winter by D.J. Butler is a grand sequel to Witchy Eye.
  
  Witchy Winter is a historical urban fantasy written for adult readers. This is due more to its complexity than in the material presented. Some will shy away because it touches on murder and other ravages humans do to each other. None of these are presented in detail, but they are present. Personally, I think they built on the story to give depth without unneeded levels of description.
  
  I enjoyed Witchy Winter, as mentioned, and already anticipating what comes next.
  
  For complete review
  https://guildmastergaming.blogspot.co...
• 
  John Davies

  Second in the alt-history series, this book follows on the story from the first book. Sarah, along with her followers, seeks to be crowned queen in Cahokia. In New Orleans, the Bishop of New Orleans, an ex-criminal, seeks revenge using voodoo against the Chevalier, who ordered his father killed . In Johnsland, Nathaniel, Sarah's brother, hears voices in his head, and thinks he is mad. An Indian, who needs him as a healer for his sick son, kidnaps him, and reveals the spiritual world, allowing him to become the healer he needs to be. All these threads are gathered together to combine into one awesome fantasy tale.
• 
  Niels

  A web of magic, music, politics, folklore and alternate history. A rightful queen seeks her throne with other forces align for and against her. Think Daniel Boone meets Game of Thrones with a touch of otherworldly creatures. There is some great world building going on in this book along with clearly defined rules for magic based on American Folklore. Manley Wade Wellman's Silver John would feel right at home in this world.
• 
  Joe Natali

  While the story was at points gripping, the plot jumped around far too much to keep me engaged for any long period of time. Throughout the book no less than 12 different story lines developed and we're concluded. If you like that kind of thing, then this book is for you, if not the first installment is still worth a read.
• 
  Alexander Moore

  Total awesome book! I loved this book! It mixes cultures, magic, and history in an amazing blend!
  
• 
  BJ Haun

  Witchy Winter picks up shortly after the events of Witchy Eye. If you are going to get into this series, you really should start with Eye rather than Winter.
  
  While Winter does continue the story of Sarah and her, it expands the plot to include several other people. While overall this is a positive for the book, as you get to see more of the Butler's magical early 1800s United States, there were one or two of the subplots that I felt didn't really have much of an impact on this book in general. I understand that this being the second book in a series that not all the story line are going to resolved here, but some felt like a bit too much set-up with out enough payoff. Undoubtedly these will pay off in later books...but for now a few of the dangling threads were less than satisfactory.
  
  That isn't to say that I didn't enjoy the book. Butler has done an amazing job of world building here, and as I mentioned before, and expanded cast of characters means that we get to see much of more the world than we did in Witchy Eye. Along with this are Butler' fun little folk songs that he throws in here and there you really get a feel for this land, it's history, and it's heroes, villains, and rulers.
  
  All told, I enjoyed Witchy Winter, and chances are that if you liked Witchy Eye you'll also this return trip to Butler's well put together world.
• 
  Micheal Boudreaux

  A Mad Dash
  
  Whereas Witchy Eye slowly introduced the reader to the wild and weird delight that is Butler's magical reimagining of Jacksonian America, Witchy Winter goes full tilt from the jump and never slows down. The pacing is superbly done and the widened cast of characters opens up the world in wonderful ways while never losing sight of the original cast. Butler weaves an exciting and painful tale for the heroes and no one escapes entirely unharmed - be it physical, emotionally, or spiritually.
  
  Beyond the wonderful action and intricate world building, one of the highlights of this series is the magical system that both the heroes and villains call upon. The introduction of Lumen Walters, would-be wizard and dabbler in every arcane tradition he can get his hands on, serves as a relatable yet flawed guide to Butlerian magic, which is weird and earthy and wonderful.
• 
  Graham Bradley

  FINALLY finished. Man alive, this is not for the casual reader. It seems like everything going on in the story has three different connotations and meanings to it, and if you don't have context for all the references and goings-on of the world Butler has built, you probably won't be able to track all the story threads. So caveat lector, your mileage will vary on this series.
  
  I'm excited to see how the third one ties up the main story.