The Witch’s Daughter by Paula Brackston
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I ended up liking this, but it took me forever to get it read. Almost two months… If you can suspend belief and go with it as a fantasy novel, it’ll be fine. My problem is, I wanted it to be more of a historical novel with supernatural elements. It didn’t work that way for me. I don’t like historical made-up witchcraft depicted as modern-day Wicca. It just never rings true as “historical.” But take it as a fantasy, as a world unto itself, and then you have a pretty good story of good versus evil. I might even read the sequel, which is actually #4 in the series, I think.
Book description: In the spring of 1628, the Witchfinder of Wessex finds himself a true Witch. As Bess Hawksmith watches her mother swing from the Hanging Tree she knows that only one man can save her from the same fate: the Warlock Gideon Masters. Secluded at his cottage, Gideon instructs Bess, awakening formidable powers she didn’t know she had. She couldn’t have foreseen that even now, centuries later, he would be hunting her across time, determined to claim payment for saving her life. In present-day England, Elizabeth has built a quiet life. She has spent the centuries in solitude, moving from place to place, surviving plagues, wars, and the heartbreak that comes with immortality. Her loneliness comes to an abrupt end when she is befriended by a teenage girl called Tegan. Against her better judgment, Elizabeth opens her heart to Tegan and begins teaching her the ways of the Hedge Witch. But will she be able to stand against Gideon―who will stop at nothing to reclaim her soul―in order to protect the girl who has become the daughter she never had?