Customer Reviews
It's WWll in London, and the witches are thinking about helping the English. Witches have been around forever, but since the Witch Trials killed so many, most are "undercover". The Blitz is destroying London and Churchill could use some help. Lydia Polk, an unlikely member of the Royal Academy of Witches. Hitler's supernatural corps is hot on the trail of any magical item that will help his cause.Lydia, through a exciting, tragic twist of fate, is in France looking for the Grimorium Vellum to keep it from Hitler. Her search becomes entangled with Rebecca Gagne, a French Resistance fighter and Henry Boudreaux, a Haitian American art historian with a bit of magic of his own.The battles are tense, the book is a nasty piece of magic that can end the war, or possibly the world.Great, well detailed characters, "spellbinding" plot , and imaginative settings make this an absolute must for historical fiction lovers with a taste for magic. I read it in less than a week - a little more than four hundred pages. Highly recommend!
The Nazis' fascination with the occult has always intrigued me, so I was eager to read this story about Lydia Polk, a young witch from Britain's Royal Academy of Witches who needs to find a powerful book of spells before the Nazis can use it to wreak ultimate destruction on their enemies. A Resistance of Witches did not disappoint. In fact, it's one of the most entertaining, fast paced, un-put-downable novels I've read in a long time, with relatable, well-drawn characters and a lovely hint of sexual tension between Lydia and a handsome young art curator from Louisiana.Ms. Ryan's first novel is a seductive promise of things to come, so Book #2 will be on my auto-buy list. If you just love to lose yourself in a fun, beautifully written story, you'll definitely want to check this one out.
What an excellent read. Engaging from the very start. Action, dialogue and use of the language are so skillfully done as to make the narrative altogether fast paced and enjoyable. Historical fantasy is always better when the author has done her research. A casual remark in the very first chapter as regards Churchill's encounter with Isidora during the Boer war was the first of many little pleasures slipped in that showed off that research. (Churchill was a journalist and was captured during the Boer war only to pull off an inexplicable, almost magical, escape from his captors.) Altogether a wonderful read and a remarkable debut novel. Hope to see much more from this author.
Couldn’t put it down and as always with a really good read, so sorry when it was finished and I had to leave the characters and world the author created.
From one Chicagoan to another, bravo! This is great story with a plot that keeps the reader invested in both the outcome and the characters both heroes and villains. Set during WWII, the plot weaves history with the fantasy of magic. Loved it and I'm looking forward to Ms. Ryan's next book.
