A fantasy read for those who enjoy a world of witches, witch hunters and wizards.

Elizabeth is a witch hunter with skills and secrets that threatens her life. Will she make it through the accusations?
Under attack she will rely on those she trusts to defeat Blackwell. If she can survive the trauma from her past and get her stigma back, she might live another day.

A rebellion is on the rise, balance is shifted, and those that seek peace are tested. Who will make it on the other side of all this madness? who will survive?

The King Slayer by Virginia Boecker

I'm very upset about how this duology handles (and by this I mean, doesn't handle) rape. I hung in there after the first book, but in this second book people make excuses and sympathize with the rapist! Rape is NEVER ok. Teens should not be taught that there is ever a good excuse to rape someone. And the fact that the heroine was more concerned with preventing a pregnancy than processing what she went through was terrible. If rape was not going to be addressed properly, it should have been left out of the story completely. I mean, she SYMPATHIZES with her rapist. The girl should be in therapy. She should have been told that rape is wrong, that it wasn't her fault, that she's allowed to feel pain from that. But nothing. It's all just brushed under the rug. I'm horrified that these books were published as they are, and I will do everything in my power to keep them out of libraries.

WHAT DID I THINK OF THE KING SLAYER BY VIRGINIA BOECKER?
I do not know how often I mention loving duologies on here, but friends, I love them. It makes me so happy when I can finish up a story in just two books rather than one that stretches on and on for a very long time. Speaking of which, The King Slayer by Virginia Boecker is the conclusion to The Witch Hunter and basically wraps everything right up. I read The Witch Hunter back in Spring 2015 and now it is Summer 2019 and I am finally reading The King Slayer during my summer of Netgalley queue clearing. Life pro tip: don’t wait forever between sequels to read or go in without a refresh of the previous book.

I was a little bit lost during my listen to the audiobook of The King Slayer. I remembered literally nothing from the previous book and was not smart enough to just re-read the previous book or synopsis. So, I would say that had a big impact on how I felt about this book. On the whole though, the main character of The King Slayer, Elizabeth is excellent. She’s basically switched sides and is staying in a town populated by witches and wizards. She then really gets into the war against Lord Blackwell. There’s a bit of romance too. And coming of age and learning. It’s a pretty good book I think, but for me personally, would have been better if I had just taken the time to re-read The Witch Hunter. I might also have liked it better if I had physically read it instead of listened to it.

HOW’S THE NARRATION?
The audiobook of The King Slayer is narrated by Nicola Barber, who I just love as a narrator. I say that I would have liked this better if I physically read because I think maybe I might have processed the book a little slower and retained a little bit more. Granted, the audiobook is very well narrated. So maybe on the other hand, I’d feel differently if I had re-read by listening to the first book and maybe have been a little more invested. Regardless, the audiobook is 10 hours and 33 minutes long and a decent way to experience this story.

The King Slayer (The Witch Hunter, #2) by Virginia Boecker
Little, Brown Books for Young Reader, 2016
Fantasy (YA); 377 pgs

Elizabeth Grey was once the only female on Lord Blackwell's elite group of witch hunters, finding and meting out justice to those they found guilty of witchcraft. In the previous book, The Witch Hunter, Elizabeth suddenly found herself on the other end of the spectrum, herself accused of witchcraft. On the run and suddenly the target of all the witch hunters, Elizabeth makes some unlikely allies who came to her aid.

Although Elizabeth and her new found friends were able to come out on top at the end of The Witch Hunter, it was just the beginning of the horrors to come. With Lord Blackwell angrier than ever and more desperate for power, war is sure to come and no one is safe.

Elizabeth does not have the same strength or power she did in the previous novel, but her skills as a fighter and assassin remain formidable. She is hiding among those she once saw as the enemy of the kingdom, and there is no love loss from the witches and wizards she once had targeted. They do not exactly trust her. When her healer boyfriend begins showing the strain of being under the stigma and turns against her, Elizabeth feels she must solve this problem on her own. She must take out Lord Blackwell. She knows this will likely mean her death.

I had enjoyed The Witch Hunter quite a bit, and The King Slayer was just as good in its own way. It is much more action-packed and tense. With every decision made and step taken, the suspense builds, leaving me turning the pages as quickly as I could. I really felt for Elizabeth and the situation she was in. While I think she did not always make the wisest of choices, I could see why she made them.

It was good to see some of the returning characters and get to know them a bit better, particularly John (the healer) and Shulyer (a reverent). I wouldn't have minded a bit more time with Fifer though. An interesting twist I was not expecting was the appearance of the usurped king, who has a fairly bad reputation among the witches and wizards--and for good reason. His relationship with Elizabeth is a complex one to say the least, and it was interesting to see how the two interacted in this second novel. I admit to not liking, even hating, his character in The Witch Hunter, and I certainly did not warm to him, not even by the end of this book. Although, I do think he had changed and grown as a character. Some things though are hard to forgive.

The King Slayer takes the reader deeper into the conflict between the kingdom and the witches and wizards. The Witch Hunter was richer in world building and The King Slayer more action-packed. However, the use of magic in this one seemed more diverse and unique. I thought the power shift between some of the characters, particularly John and Elizabeth, was interesting, and added a different layer to the overall stories between the two books.

Second book blues. Witch Hunter makes such a great stand alone and this book suffers a bit from trying to sustain that pace and that beautiful world set up in Witch Hunter. I liked the book because it did expand on things I wanted to know more about but it was more of a bridge than anything.

I thought The King Slayer was an enjoyable sequel. I'll admit that I was expecting more. The first one pulled me in and made me think it would turn into an epic series that I wanted to devour within hours of buying each book. In the end, everything wrapped up so quickly that I actually had to reread parts to make sure I didn't accidentally skip something.

I was also utterly confused as to why characters I loved in the first book did a complete 180 personality-wise. It really bothered me that I started to dislike some of my favorites.

As much as I enjoyed The King Slayer, I was disappointed with how it all concluded. I think because everything was so rushed in The King Slayer the series ended up being one of those series with more potential than it actually lived up to.

The second instalment of The Witch Hunter series, The King Slayer takes place following the previous novel as Elizabeth and her compatriots prepare to dethrone the monstrous uncle to the rightful king, Lord Blackwell. Having lost her powers, Elizabeth is challenged with her value and the added danger she is now in because of her mortality. Along the way she bonds with with her new found friends and the man she loves, while she copes with the loss of those in her passed that are now dead. Action packed and full of danger, The King Slayer concludes the series in a fulfilling way.
I enjoyed The Witch Hunter, even though some parts of it hurt my heart to read. Readers grow to respect Elizabeth even more in this novel as we witness her willingness to sacrifice herself to stop Blackwell and save her loved ones. She is flawed enough to be human, while still preforming acts of courage that are inhuman. The romance in this novel was average. It was heart warming, but nothing to write home about. It was sweet but not inspiring. I also found that although most of the plot was solid, there were some plot points that seemed to be under-explained. They were lacking in just a little more detail to clear things up for the readers. I enjoyed The Witch Hunter series and give The King Slayer the rating of FOUR OUT OF FIVE STARS!