book review the witch's lens

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. ~

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

New Trade Review

Much thanks to Library Journal, a trusted trade publication for American librarians, for this delightful review of The Witch’s Lens!

🍂💛🍂

“In this haunting, supernatural twist on World War I fiction, Petra Kurkova has a magical secret, one that filters out into the real world, with her ability to capture photographs of the souls of the dead. A recruiter, Josef Svoboda, uses that knowledge to bring Petra onto a ragtag team of sorcerers to fight their own battles in the Carpathian Mountains. The war has stirred up terrible, dangerous creatures, and with the help of an ancient organization, the team is tasked with trying to subdue the foul things. But something is amiss; there is power behind the resurrections, and a world balance that has been maintained is set to be ripped apart. Petra must learn to wield her more powerful magic in order to counteract the dangerous magic—before all is lost.


VERDICT A delicious foray into a new series that melds history with the supernatural, from the author of The Raven Song. Smith’s fans, as well as new readers, will delight in the heady mixture of historical fiction, fantasy, and horror.”

Out October 1st from 47North