Witches never died, they were only waiting…
A young student is bequeathed a villa in Berlin from his estranged dead uncle. The only catch: He has to spend the night before Halloween alone in the safety of his new mansion, and not open the door for anyone until sunrise.He soon learns why.The Grand Witch of the East has returned to complete her Last Ritual, and end the current age.Discovering he is the last descendant of a blessed bloodline of witch hunters spanning ten generations, Robert Burmantel has to join a crackpot team to take on his family's arch nemesis. There’s wise-cracking sniper, Juan. Tech expert with a dark past, Salena. Sergei the monk; mighty with the pen and the sword. Leading them is over-the-hill Sigurd, who prefers a drink over responsibility.Pulled suddenly out of his comfortable life, will Robert rise to the occasion and live up to his mighty legacy, or escape his duty and return to the state of mediocrity from which he came? - from Booksirens.com
I received an eARC from Booksirens.com and am providing an unbiased review.
Looking at the cover, and even after reading the story synopsis, I imagined this to be more situated in an older timeline - something like 1800's or something. However, this is much closer to modern times, which is why it is labeled an urban fantasy. I was fine with that, with either situation, as the plot just called out to me to be read. I'm adding in some speculation and comments that will surely be spoilers, so read at your own risk.
The story started out fairly okay. We have a bit of background on our MC (lives in Berlin), fancies get-rich-quick schemes, struggles with school, has no social life (basically). The typical loner hero-to-be story character. An eccentric uncle has left his estate to him, on the requirement he stay inside it Halloween all night. There he discovers his uncle carried the title of Witch Hunter. Story moves along and he meets his first witch (that first night) and then three other hunters. Story is moving along at an okay pace.
Then it stumbles. Cutting the tip of a finger off... immediately following the commands of someone you don't know, in your own new house. Just too much starting to make out MC sound like he obviously cannot do something without being told to do it. Much of the rest of the book is that way. There is much self-doubt going on, and finding out facts about these new hunter "friends". Let's not forget this Grand Witch of the East, that his uncle has hunted for years is coming to Berlin to bring about the end of the world by bringing a demon to it. Sigh.
It took me a couple days longer to get through the book. Each time I picked it up and read some, I would just mentally shake my head and put it down for awhile. Overall, I love the synopsis of the story. I like how an 'unknown world' is eye-opening to the MC, and finding out he has a special power, well, kind of cool. There is a bit of romance starting between MC and one of the hunters (who happens to be a witch, which witch hunters live to hate/kill - see what I did there.... witch which witch). Overall I thought it really slowed down and became a word-count game to the author after about halfway. By the end of the story, I wondered if the Witch was ever going to be stopped, because it ddddrrrraaaggggssss. If somewhat felt like the author was trying to leave a possibility of future sequels...? But I don't see where that would really go, as the power he has is gone (allegedly) and evidently he is falling for a witch. Yeah. Pretty okay book, prolly a bit more young adult genre.
