Review: Witchbane by Morgan Brice

Witchbane
(Witchbane #1)
Morgan Brice
Release: February 19, 2018
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Seth Tanner and his brother Jesse's fun evening debunking local urban legends ends with Jesse's gruesome murder. Seth vows revenge on Jesse's killer - too bad the murderer has been dead for a hundred years. Seth uncovers a cycle of ritual killings that feed the power of a dark warlock's immortal witch-disciples, and he's hell bent on stopping Jackson Malone from becoming the next victim. He's used to risking his neck. He never intended to risk his heart.

Review:
After picking up Badlands earlier this month and loving it, I picked up all of Morgan Brice's backlist. And I'm so glad I did! While I didn't think this book was as good as Badlands, it was an exciting read from start to finish. The whole plot of this book felt like it could have be ripped from the script pages of the TV show, Supernatural.

Brothers, Seth and Jesse, go on an adventure to debunk a local urban legend and to find a monster but instead the monster finds them and Jesse is brutally murdered in what looks like a ritual killing. Seth is left to figure out what happened to his brother and prevent it from happening again.

Flash forward a few years and he is now a hunter taking care of various supernatural problems while ultimately searching for a way to stop a group of warlocks from killing more innocent people like his brother. Enter in Jackson Malone aka Evan, the next victim in line to be sacrificed.

I ended up really enjoying this story and the romance! The pace was pretty fast with lots of action and full of suspense with a side of steamy times. I loved the whole mystery and how things worked out. The romance was pretty insta-lovey and while I wish it had developed a bit more naturally, I still enjoyed ended up enjoying it overall and couldn't help rooting for Seth and Evan to end up together. Evan and Seth were both fantastically detailed characters, with enough backstory to put their motivations and hangups into perspective, but with a few loose ends to keep you intrigued enough to pick up the next books in the series. And I'm so excited to pick up more books following these two!

I really enjoyed the perspective switching between the two main characters. It lent way more suspense and tension to the story than if it would have been from one POV. Seth kind of has a protector complex which is understandable considering what happened to his brother. He's so hell-bent on saving the life of the next victim that it was a bit frustrating to see him shove everything else aside because of it. I wanted to shake him a few times throughout the story.

On the flip side, it was fascinating to see Evan's side of things and how he was struggling to accept all of the fantastic things Seth was trying to explain to him. A lot of his reactions to present events are colored by events from his past and I'm intrigued to learn more about those.

I ended up reading this book in one sitting and I can't recommend it enough! It's definitely something to pick up if you've been looking for an urban fantasy meets ghosthunters type story with a m/m romance. I loved the ghost aspects of this story and I can't wait to see where the author goes from here. I need more Seth and Evan in my life!

   

  4 / 5 Stars

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