DNF Audiobook Review – The Black Witch (The Black Witch Chronicles, Book 1) by Laurie Forest, Narrated by Julia Whelan (2/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 18 hours and 11 minutes
Publisher: Harlequin Audio
Release Date: May 02, 2017
ASIN : B01MRCU8LN
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in The Black Witch Chronicles
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 2/5 stars

“ A Great Winged One will soon arise and cast his fearsome shadow upon the land. And just as Night slays Day, and Day slays Night, so also shall another Black Witch rise to meet him, her powers vast beyond imagining.

So foretells the greatest prophecy of the Gardnerian mages. Carnissa Gardner, the last prophesied Black Witch, drove back the enemy forces and saved her people during the Realm War. Now a new evil is on the horizon, and her granddaughter, Elloren, is believed to be Carnissa’s heir – but while she is the absolute image of her famous grandmother, Elloren is utterly devoid of power in a society that prizes magical ability above nearly all else.

When she is granted the opportunity to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming an apothecary, Elloren is eager to join her brothers at the prestigious Verpax University and finally embrace a destiny of her own, free from the shadow of her grandmother’s legacy. But she soon realizes that the university, which admits all manner of people – including the fire-wielding, winged Icarals, the sworn enemies of all Gardnerians – is an even more treacherous place for the granddaughter of the Black Witch.”

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in The Black Witch Chronicles. It looks like there are going to be at least five books in this series, with the fifth book to be published June 2022. I got this as an audiobook from Audible.com.

Audiobook Quality (4/5): I have no complaints about the audiobook quality, it was fine.

Story (2/5): I stopped reading this book about 25% of the way in, it was just completely not for me. This is a dark world where women are forced to be wandfasted to men to help them control themselves. Our main character, Elloren, ends up at University where she is expected to find someone to be wandfast to. In the beginning of the book a main plot line is Elloren and another powerful female mage basically fighting over a guy…yuck.

Characters (2/5): All of the characters in this story just felt wrong and slimy and left me with a bad taste in my mouth. They just weren’t people I wanted to read about. I am sure some of this is the point of the story but I didn’t like it and felt no reason to read something that makes me feel so awful.

Setting (3/5): There is definitely world-building here and, while I didn’t enjoy the world at all, you can tell a lot of effort went into creating the society and magic system.

Writing Style (2/5): I was also not a fan of the writing style. The writing is very descriptive and moves very slow. It took nearly 25% of the book just to get Elloren from her home to University and I am not really sure why. This book was just so far from being something I liked. I don’t DNF audiobooks very often but I just couldn’t keep listening to this one.

My Summary (2/5): Overall I did not like this. I disliked pretty much everything about it; the story, the characters, the world and the writing style. I will be steering clear of Forest in the future and checking to see if I can get my Audible credit back.