By Victoria Lamb, published by Corgi.

Goodreads synopsis: London, 1554. At the court of Mary Tudor, life is safe for no one. The jealous, embittered queen sees enemies all around her, and the infamous Spanish Inquisition holds the court in its merciless grip. But Meg Lytton has more reason to be afraid than most – for Meg is a witch, and exposure would mean certain death. Even more perilous, Meg is secretly betrothed to the young priest Alejandro de Castillo; a relationship which they must hide at all costs.

In the service of the queen’s sister, Princess Elizabeth, Meg tries to use her powers to foretell her mistress’s future. But when a spell goes terribly wrong, and Meg begins to have horrifying dreams, she fears she has released a dark spirit into the world, intent on harming her and those around her…

My review: Witchfall was such a brilliant sequel! After a really strong first book in the Tudor-based series, I was honestly a bit worried that this sequel may not live up to its predecessor. However, I was definitely wrong! Witchfall may have even been better than Witchstruck in a lot of aspects.

First of all, the plot was amazing. Again, I was plunged straight into Meg’s magickal Tudor world… though this time the setting was mostly in Hampton Court Palace. The author has definitely developed the relationship growing between Meg and Alejandro really well as the plot thickens. There was also the aspect of a restless spirit, supposedly stalking Meg, in Witchfall! I really loved that addition to the story. The demonic presence laced the plot with so much mystery and eeriness, and shook up the events of the book- making clever ties with book 1’s main antagonist. Everything just came together so well in this installment!

I think I said this before in my review of Witchstruck,  but I’ll say it again- move over, Jace Wayland, you have competition for the YA heartthrob title here! Alejandro made for such a great love interest, and his relationship with Meg was just so sweet, as he seemed willing to sacrifice anything for her. I could really feel his sorrow about the fact that his family would not approve of Meg.

Meg was also still a brilliant character: and there was a lot of development for her character in this book, which was great! Meg was, again, strong and fearless- even in her darkest moments of this book. I also really enjoyed reading about how she was starting to slip away from her magickal powers, and how she regained them, nearer the ending. The only thing that aggravated me was the fact that she kept going on about how much she loved Alejandro… and then would keep putting off the marriage proposal! Alejandro was risking his potential priesthood career for her- that’s how much he wanted her to say yes- and yet she still refused to answer until a later date. I’m pretty sure that any other of the maids and servants in her place would’ve said yes. I wish she had in this book, because that could have shaken things up even more. Though, maybe, she’ll finally accept it in book 3…?

I adored the writing so much: Victoria Lamb is just so talented! She clearly has a knack for creating vividly clear images in the reader’s mind. Thanks to that, I could almost feel the torrential rain on ,me; could almost feel Meg’s magick in the air… the whole book consisted of such amazing, detailed narration and imagery!

Overall, I really, really enjoyed Witchfall, and this series is a prime example of how brilliant YA historical fiction is. The writing style simply blew me away: and I’ve grown to love the characters even more than I did after finishing Witchstruck. The plot was layered, with supernatural happenings and constant mystery, and there really isn’t much that I didn’t fall in love with about this book. Highly recommended! Now, I’m pretty sad, because I’ve just scanned Goodreads and found out that the third book in the series is expected to be published next February. I can’t wait that long!

My Rating:

Read my review of Witchstruck HERE!

I received a copy of Witchfall from the publisher, in exchange for a review. In no way at all did this affect my thoughts.