ARC acquired by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

“If they wanted darkness, I’d shroud them in it until they choked. If the hunter wanted another reason to hate witches, I would be that, for him, because in his vengeance against us, he’d turned me into his own poison.”

I feel like this story was a great effort in trying to break away from the typical witch/witch hunter storyline. However, it fell a little flat for me. This story had great potential but not enough character development or world-building. What is there of the magic system and world, I really enjoyed, but it definitely needed to be fleshed out a LOT more. Victoria Amberwood and her family are witches in hiding. Something happens toward the beginning of the story that forms are MC into a villainous character. On the opposite side of things, we get Elijah Shaw’s perspective. He is the son of the most notorious witch-hunter, but all he wants to do is run his business ventures and not follow in his father’s footsteps. Obviously, these two characters meet and have their meet-cute moment and plot thickens. Unfortunately, the romance wasn’t believable at all. The characters barely had any page time together and I feel like the story should have been either expanded to get the full effect of their relationship or only told from one point of view instead of two. I also had several issues with the clunky storyline and the receptiveness of the story. I also found several continuity issues that took me away from the story. Overall, the story had great potential and I will check out more form this author in the future.

The quotes above were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.

I love a good tale of revenge, however, the tale must include actual revenge. If the character isn’t ultimately willing to follow through on their hatched plot, then what’s the point of the read? That’s not what happens with this book. Our main character, Victoria, is very much willing to do whatever it takes to avenge her sister, and she did not come to play. I truly loved this book from start to finish. It was a tale of love, revenge, realization, commitment, and family. There were no miscommunication tropes, no ridiculous plot twists, just good old-fashioned revenge, magic, evil villains, misunderstood witches, and of course love. As an older sister, control freak, and protective person (especially of my family), I really resonated with Victoria. I will 100% be reading more from this author and can’t wait for her next release; I would love to revisit this world again.

Plot: The plot was a tale of revenge and not sissy revenge, real, cold-hearted, “I want you gone from this world” revenge, and our main character Victoria did not shy away once she had taken on that commitment. Plots like these require a committed character and Victoria didn’t disappoint.
Writing: Easy to read, quick, but detailed and concise. The author knows how to string words together in a way that makes it easy for the reader to follow.
Character Development: I quickly fell in love with Victoria and as an older sister, general control-freak, and protective person, I quickly resonated with her. I genuinely love the development and growth as a person, and as a sister, but it’s not just her that develops but also her older brother, her younger sister, and the characters she brings into her spiral: Elijah and Corbin. Genuinely great character development.
Dialogue: Loved the dialogue for the most part. I especially loved the sarcastic banter between characters, especially between the family members. There were a couple of times Victoria dropped the f-bomb (I am not shaming, I love using that word) but it just seemed out of context a bit. Other than that, I loved the dialogue.
Scenes: I loved that we had dual POV - I think it really added to the plot development and enhanced the story; it doesn’t always do that, but the author did that well here.
Other Notes: I loved that we get two love stories as well; even though Alex and Corbin are separate and we don’t get a lot of info, I loved those two. I would 100% read more about them in another story too.

This book was such an easy read for me! I was able to read it all in one sitting.

I really enjoyed the main character. Victoria is a morally gray character that has a lot of darkness. She goes through the book making certain decisions that are a fine balance between dark and light. She is complex, and I appreciate that about her character.

Elijah, her love interest was very intriguing and charming as well. Their love story was well done for a standalone novel. I was hooked on their interactions right away! Elijah provided a balance for Victoria's character that I found myself enjoying.

The story itself has a lively pace throughout. I'll definitely pick up a physical copy of this book!

Big thanks to Rebecca L Garcia, Netgalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for the eARC in exchange for a review.

Victoria is a witch. But, if the people of her town knew that, they'd hang her and the rest of her family. Yes, there are opportunities to live openly and free as a witch in another kingdom but this is her home. Growing up in a family of witches means secrecy against the humans. They just don't understand. The humans have proved over and over again that they can't be trusted.
When a notorious witch hunter comes to town, Victoria is worried, but her siblings are less worried. He won't bother them, they won't be seen, it's not a big deal..... until it is.

When the remaining members of Victoria's family need to flee, they might as well flee to the last place the witch hunter will look for them... as neighbours. With a plan rooted in dark magic, revenge will be as sweet as when the fresh blood of the witch hunter is dripping from Victoria's hand. And what better way to rip into his chest, than through his own flesh and blood.

FULL 5 STARS!
This is my kind of story. I want revenge and blood and zero forgiveness. Let them all suffer!

World building was excellent, the magic took as much as gave and the darkness was deep! This can be a standalone but part of the Embracing Darkness series (I didn't even realize until after I finished this one) and although you don't need to read the others in this series to enjoy it, or understand their world, it is all tied together.
This is the second in the series that I have read and I enjoyed this one even more.

TW:
There is one steamy scene, that is a little more than fade to black, but not overly descriptive.
This is dark, if you want a sweet, find-the-light type story, this isn't it. This is revenge. This is being hurt. This is true suffering.
Drug use, drinking and domestic abuse are pretty heavy

This is for fans of 𝗔 𝗧𝗢𝗨𝗖𝗛 𝗢𝗙 𝗗𝗔𝗥𝗞𝗡𝗘𝗦𝗦 and 𝗦𝗘𝗥𝗣𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗗𝗢𝗩𝗘. This has HUGE enemies to lovers vibes. Like HUGE. And I was all about it.

Are you the hunter or the hunted?

Damian Shaw is the most notorious witch hunter in Salvius. Every person knows his name throughout the kingdom. Witches burn on the inside with hatred at the mention of a Shaw.

Victoria watches as Damian holds her sisters heart in his hand. She vows that she will find him and get her revenge. Forced to flee town and change their names to escape Damian, the Amberwood’s try to deal with their grief and formulate a plan to infiltrate the very town where the Shaw family resides.

Do you love:
🥀 witches
🥀blood magic
🥀romance
🥀dark female characters

Then you need this.

Victoria was my favourite. She is a complex character that pulls more towards darkness and I loved that about her.

“𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗽𝗶𝗲𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗹 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗳𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀.”

4 ⭐️

Thank you to Rebecca Garcia and Victory Editing Netgalley for the ARC!

Thank you Netgalley and Victory Editing for allowing me to read and review this title! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I do know my review is a little late and the book has come out December 14th.

After reading Spellbound by Rebecca L. Garcia and seeing Heart of a Witch available on Netgalley, it was an instant request from me. Heart of a Witch is a New Adult fantasy stand alone compared to being like The Bridge Kingdom and A Touch of Darkness. They were not wrong with those comparisons. This is an enemies to partners to lovers kind of story where our main character is a witch and her family is being hunted by something monstrous. She vows to destroy witch hunters Damian Shaw and his son Elijah. While dealing with the monstrous threat, they need to come together to fight it and also try to fight the attraction growing between them.

The spice is of course very spicy like in Spellbound and does not disappoint in that department. I enjoyed the story and the characters are well-developed. I am looking forward to reading another great fantasy from this author in the future.

4 stars

A really intense Revenge storyline with witches and witch hunters that involves family saga and blossoming love.
I’m not sure if I missed a book before to enhance the world building but that was probably the only lacking element for me in that I wasn’t confident in the world of witches, humans, demons and the witch hunters. It wasn’t overly detrimental to the storyline as it was very blinkered to the two families of Tori and Elijah.

Heart of a Witch is a book that, in theory, was right up my alley. In some ways it was, in others it wasn't, but overall I had a good time with it.

This book follows Victoria, our morally gray heroine, who vows to take revenge on a notorious witch hunter after he kills one of her sisters. She and her family flee, take on fake names, and hide right under the hunter's nose in his very own town. She decides the best course of action is to seduce the witch hunter's eldest son, Elijah, as a way to get closer to her end goal of killing the hunter. Things get more complicated as her feelings for Elijah develop into something real, since all the while she's plotting on killing his father.

It's a fun concept, and one that I enjoyed, but I didn't feel much connection to the MC Victoria. I preferred Elijah's chapters–especially as the book had such a strong opening from his POV. Though, admittedly, I think my expectations for this book skewed since the comp title, The Bridge Kingdom, is easily one of my favorite fantasy romance novels. While Heart of the Witch didn't reach that level for me, I do see potential. Should their be a book that follows my favorite characters–Alex and Corbin–I would pick it up.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this arc in exchange for my honest review.

The premise of this book — witch and witch hunter seemed amazing. Enemies to lovers, lies, magic and betrayal. It was perfect on paper.

Unfortunately, this book did not deliver it. It felt like a very basic YA book (even though it’s NA) with no depth whatsoever. It wasn’t memorable at all and I had such a hard time going through it.

What I liked:
- Alex and Corbin. We BARELY got to know them (I understand this might be a series so they might get their own book) but even so, they were the best characters, with the most personality.

What I disliked:
- The main character: it’s terrible when you don’t get to connect with a Mc. I was doomed from the start. Victoria was barely described (I don’t even know what she looks like). She had the whole “I’m not like other girls” vibe.
- The romance: it was oddly paced. They had little to no moments together (I think the entire book happens in a week, the timeline wasn’t very well defined) and suddenly have sex and fall in love. They acted like children most of the time so it would’ve been better for this book to be YA imo. The smut/cursing served little to no purpose.
- The worldbuilding: now this is what troubled me the most. We learn /nothing/ of the magic system, where they are, why witches are hunted. Not a thing. It made the story less believable, and I couldn’t deep dive into it because I simply didn’t care about this world.
- The dialogues: They went from Lord of the Rings to Fifty Shades of Grey. I didn’t know if this was a medieval world or a contemporary one. Very confusing.
- The plot: The twists made no sense whatsoever and weren’t foreshadowed at all. Succubus appearing out of nowhere? Enemy families showing up to kill them?? The villain discovering the entire “plot” in one sentence and out of the blue? Not good. All the action scenes were underwhelming too and it did more of telling than showing.

I wanted to like this so bad. Unfortunately, this book wasn’t it for me, but hopefully book 2 will improve it because Alex and Corbin seem like promising characters.

I enjoyed Heart of a Witch by Rebecca Garcia. I'm actually very sad this is a standalone! Garcia definitely knows how to world-build; I felt like I was dropped right into a rich, beautiful fantasy world immediately upon opening the book. The characters were flawed and real, which made them fun to read and extremely relatable. The twists and turns kept me enthralled, and Victoria (the main character) was hilarious!

The only reason I did not give this book five stars was because I felt like a lot of it was rushed; this could have been a great duology.

I had to DNF this. I wanted to love it soooo much, but sadly I just could not. First off, there was so much repetition with phrasing and certain words used: "my gaze climbed, I climbed my gaze, etc." was used so many times and I only got through 20% of the book. It also definitely needed to be edited again because there were quite a few issues. Also, the time period was confusing to me, there were oil lamps and candles, but then references to "turning on the lights, etc.". It also read like YA, but then threw in some F bombs and "I've had lovers before" to make it seem "edgy" or adult, but it felt forced. I found the characters very bland and one-dimensional as well. Also, slightly spoilery: when [redacted] gets their heart taken out, it makes it seem like it took two seconds instead of a realistically very long time to go through muscle and bone to get to the heart. In the book it happened so quick, like Temple of Doom style. The premise of the story sounded great, but the execution wasn't for me.

RATINGS: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you so much for this advanced reader's copy provided by Netgalley and the author, Rebecca L Garcia, and the publishers.

"In all this revenge, I've become a monster too. I was willing to hurt anyone in my way to get to him."

Heart of a Witch is a story about revenge and betrayal but also about forgiveness and acceptance. I love that the story is a villain story but also her redemption story. It's not often that I encounter books written about a female villain and her journey. Victoria was consumed by darkness and her pursuit for revenge that she is willing to do anything in order to accomplish her goals. She meets Elijah and hopes to use him for her revenge, underestimating the good that remains in her.

I must admit that I had a bit of trouble getting into the beginning of the novel. But let me tell you, once we get to the catalyst of the novel, it becomes easier to real and clearer to follow. The novel is written in dual POV and allows the readers to see into the minds and emotions of the characters. However, I feel there are parts that remained unclear between their interactions that I felt would have made the romance better? Some parts seem one-sided at some points so I felt that the character's romance wasn't very natural.

The plot of the story, however, was just great! There were the right amount of plot twists. I was genuinely surprised in a few parts of the story and i really enjoyed that! The character development of all the characters were also very well written. It was such a journey watching the characters learn from each other and the relationship they built.

If you like villain stories with morally grey and strong-willed characters, I recommend this novel. This is very much plot focused and the growth of the characters. Though there is romance involved, I do think it is a bit lacking in terms of the natural growth and tension of it the ending was worthwhile.

This is my first book from Rebecca L Garcia and will definitely will read more of her works!

Not quite my cup of tea

When starting this book, it was darker than I usually prefer but I was chugging along, it was an easy read

Somewhere after the halfway mark I swear the personalities of the two main characters and the language used changed

I have no clue what time period this is supposed to be, seems like a bizarre mismatch

Honestly I found Victoria and Elijah to be pretty crappy people. Their romantic development felt choppy and shallow and I didn’t buy at all that they were actually in love. The background romance that occurred seemed far more genuine

This didn’t really feel like an enemies to lovers story

I do appreciate that this book is a stand-alone with a happy ending

*thank you to Rebecca L. Garcia and Victory Editing for giving me a copy of the book for an honest review*

Heart of a Witch by Rebecca L Garcia is a fantasy novel set around a family of witches who are in hiding from the humans who hunt them. When one of their sisters is killed they start hiding in plain sight waiting to take revenge.

I enjoyed this book but I felt that it could have been a duo or triliogy. I feel there was so much more to the story and felt like the epilogue was a rushed 'this is what happens now'.

I really enjoyed the world the book took me too and the characters but I was left wanting more and the ending is what has caused this to be 3* not 4*. I was disappointed with the ending as it felt quite rushed.

I liked this book!

It’s definitely a classic romance storyline that I think readers will enjoy and the magical element definitely adds a little zest that I was really wanting.

I felt like it took a while to really take off but I really did enjoy the book

I received a free ARC from Netgalley. This is my honest review.

I read about one third of this book before really starting to enjoy it, in particular the characters. Neither good nor evil, they came across as very human.

I will note that the world building was a bit lackadaisical. It was difficult to grasp the social mores. At times the book seemed modern and at others there was a very Victorian vibe.

Thank you Net Galley and the publisher for giving me a ARC I’m exchange for a honest review.

This book exceeded my expectations. I’m very into witches and romances and seeing this book had both I was excited to read this book. Within the first few chapters of this book I was hooked. Victoria and her family are witches trying to blend in and live with humans who don’t accept witches and see them as demons. Victoria swears to get revenge on her arch enemy Damian Shaw however upon meeting his son Elijah, things began to change.
In this book Garcia uses a dual point of view which I’m normally not a big fan of but in this book it works very well. I also think that all of the characters had been built very well over the course of the story. Which allowed me to feel more connected to Victoria’s siblings as well as to the Shaw brothers. Overall this was a very good read and one I would read again!

At it's heart this is a typical romance. Boy and girl do not get along. Boy and girl interact. Boy or girl falls in love. Boy and girl have misunderstanding/falling out then make up and all is well.

The inclusion of magic and the fight against it adds a little extra zeal to the plot.

I love a book where it’s the heroine who is the darker character instead of the hero and in Heart of a Witch, at times Victoria could give Maleficent a run for her money. She has her reasons though so in my eyes she’s not really a practitioner of the black arts, more a darker shade of grey and, after seeing her sister murdered by a zealot of a witch hunter who can blame her for being eaten up with thoughts of vengeance. In this case her revenge will involve who the witch hunter seems to value the most, his son. The trouble is black magic comes with a terrible price – your soul.

I admit to spending most of the book hating the witch hunter but by the end I was left feeling a twinge of sympathy for him His own demons driven by his loss and had overtaken his mind and set him on his path to destroy witches and all things magic. This is a dark fantasy book but I loved the banter between Victoria and her family. These interactions came at just the right parts to ease the tension but for me the highlight of this book was the development of Victoria from the protective sister, to avenging angel to……. well I’ll let you read the book for yourself to find out what path Victoria ultimately takes.

Enemies to lovers, Witches and Witch Hunters...what more could you ask for. This book was such a fun, addictive read. Only reason it's a 4 star and not a 5 is because there wasn't enough spicy scenes for me.