Fantasy is one of those genres where multiple books in a series is the norm, but there's always that big gap between finishing the first book and waiting for the next one to drop. I often see an uptick in interest on the first book just before the second releases. I suspect there's a subset of readers who prefer to wait until a series is complete before diving in to the first book. I’m the same when I’m invested in a story. I gotta know what happens next!
The Order of the Seven Stars series will be complete when THE WOLF'S EYE publishes on May 14th. In case you're one of those readers who waits. 😉
out may 14th!
The sun and moon's relevance in ancient alchemy play a large part in the outcome of this novel. On May 14th you can find out why it's a thin line between curse and cure. 🌛🌞🌜
Pre-Order the sequel to THE WITCH’S LENS at these shops:
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Under the full moon of World War I, a baleful curse threatens to tear apart a witch’s found family in a novel by the Amazon Charts and Washington Post bestselling author of The Raven Spell.
Petra Kurková—a witch who wields magic worth its weight in gold—is tasked with combating the undead on World War I’s eastern front. The battlefield has yielded a newfound closeness for her spellbound team, especially for Josef Svoboda, a recruiter for the Order of the Seven Stars. But Josef was bitten at the start of the war, leaving his blood tainted by a strain of the vlkodlak curse, which makes him a target of the Order’s latest mission: slay the werewolves prowling the eastern front under the moonlight.
Petra refuses to give up on one of their own. From the hasty kill order of a clandestine society to the long-lost spells in an old grimoire to the unraveling mysteries of Petra’s own past, the urgency to save Josef grows, particularly as his feral impulses become harder to control. The werewolves are closing in. So, too, are the bounty hunters eager to collect. As Petra’s team finds itself at a magical crossroads, Josef devises an ambush of his own—one that could wipe out the cursed threat forever or endanger everything and everyone he loves.
New Trade Review: The Witch's Lens
I’m delighted to share this latest review for The Witch’s Lens. Founded in 1997, The Historical Novel Society is a literary society dedicated to promoting the genre of historical fiction in all its forms, and I thank them for this review!
Full Review:
Set during WWI in the Carpathian Mountains, The Witch’s Lens adds a fantastical layer to the horror of the Great War. Alongside soldiers with rifles and artillery, witches wage battles with curses and spells, and something worse, the resurrected dead turned into bloodthirsty monsters.
In a nearby city, Petra struggles after her husband goes to fight. He has left her a camera as a gift, and she wanders at night snapping pictures on instinct. Unseen ghosts appear in the developed pictures. She’s a witch, but for years she’s buried her abilities and never knew of this one. The novel reveals her complex past slowly, as a mysterious man recruits her into a band of witches to fight on the front. As counterweight to the novel’s grimness, Petra develops bonds of friendship that allow her and the others to perform extraordinary acts of courage to save ordinary soldiers like her husband.
Smith develops the WWI historical world effectively and thus grounds the fantasy in a dark, gripping reality. However, her magical details are even more impressive, blending Eastern European folk motifs and legends with gruesome imagination. An early appearance of an undead soldier shows her talent for evocative description: “The stench of the creature’s breath and the clammy fishlike color of his skin nauseated her even from two meters away…a fully fleshed-out creature with teeth bared and bloodlust churning in its veins.”
Smith puts the historical horrors of the “war to end all wars” through a prism that both amplifies and elucidates the degree of evil that war unleashes on the world, all while telling a spellbinding, captivating story. As antidote to this dark theme, Smith portrays the redeeming idea of loyalty and sacrifice that transcends evil.
~ Available from 47North on Amazon. Don’t forget to preorder the follow up novel, THE WOLF’S EYE. ~
The Witch's Lens on Audible
Audiobook fans of my previous novels may notice there is a new narrator for The Witch’s Lens on Audible. Please meet Gail Shalan, an actor, award winning audiobook narrator, and puppeteer!
Check out The Witch’s Lens on Audible!
And, as always, when you buy the ebook version of the novel on Amazon you can add audible narration for $1.99 in the US.
Happy witchy season! ✨🍂📚🧙♀️
Another Trade Review for The Witch's Lens!
Thank you to Booklist, a publication of the American Library Association, for their wonderful review of THE WITCH’S LENS!
And thank you to all the Amazon Prime readers who’ve downloaded and reviewed the book so far during the First Reads pre-publication promotion!
“The Witch’s Lens launches Smith’s (The Raven Song, 2022) newest historical urban fantasy focusing on Petra Kurková and a team of witches who are recruited to combat undead at WWI’s eastern front. When the countries went to war, their magic users went with them, unleashing vile forces that mortals cannot fight on their own. Petra, whose husband, Marek, enlisted without sending home his wages, is scraping by doing tarot readings for her landlady and others, using any extra cash to fund her photography habit that allows her to see souls of the dead on film. This and her other long-suppressed magical abilities lead to her recruitment by the mysterious Josef Svoboda, a mortal who is fighting a terrible curse. Teamed with witches who either avoided the wartime draft or were rejected by the military, Petra is forced to reexamine the limits she has placed on her own magic as she stumbles through encounters with other occult foes. Smith’s thorough descriptions make this first novel in the Order of the Seven Stars series an immersive experience for readers.”
— BOOKLIST