We’ve lived and loved with Juliet and Sophie Fyne as they found love and feared the curse’s power. Now it is Isadora’s turn…

Isadora lost her first husband, Willym, to the family curse many moons ago and has never gotten over it, swearing she’d rather be alone than love someone else. Besides, she had her sisters. Until she was captured by the Emperor Sebestyen’s men and forced to servitude as personal with to Empress Liane. Over time mutual dislike and fear turned to friendship and now Isadora is sworn to keep a heavy secret about Liane’s pregnancy.

Lucan Hern from the magical Circle of Bacwyr has come to the palace at Sebestyen’s request for the Emperor hopes to win the support of the Circle against rebels who long to overthrow his leadership. But Lucan has a greater purpose… he needs a magical Star of Bacwyr to fulfill his destiny as the Prince of Swords to the Circle. When Lucan sees Isadora for the first time, he is convinced she has the very talisman Lucan needs. When he hopes to seduce the prize from her, Isadora is forced by Sebestyen to go to Lucan’s bed.

But when the Emperor discovers Liane’s secret that Isadora was keeping, Isadora is sentenced to Level Thirteen... the palace prison from which no one escapes. However, this condemnation becomes Isadora’s salvation when she learns her true destiny and… perhaps the way to break the family curse and realize the love growing with Lucan?

This novel is hard to simplify to the bounds of a review because it is the conclusion of so many story lines flowing throughout the trilogy, as well as having its own story to tell. The Star Witch is relatively stand alone, but to grasp the full story, it helps to read The Sun Witch and The Moon Witch first. This is truly Isadora’s tale, but her sisters do play an important role in the conclusion.

Isadora has been crushed by love and the subsequent death of Willym. Losing her sisters to their husbands leaves her alone for the first time in her life and she doesn’t know what to do with herself. She is full of bitterness when first made a slave and later an assassin. With each subsequent kill, she loses more of herself, and her good magic, until she vows to rebuild her strength in the white side of the magical world. It is only through the friendship she develops with Liane and the budding relationship with Lucan that Isadora again learns how to be herself, as a woman, not as someone’s wife/widow, sister, slave. She is my favorite lead character just because we experience so much with her and watch as she has so much she needs to do and be strong for.

Lucan is a strong man, physically and mentally, yet he has his own deep seated fears that he needs to conquer to find the happiness he desires and deserves. He is the perfect mate for Isadora, though when he meets her, he wants her to satisfy his own dreams. With time, he comes to accept her for who she is and loves her for it, not merely as a means to an end. He wasn’t my favorite hero of the trilogy (I’m partial to Juliet’s mate in The Moon Witch) but Lucan is absolutely perfect for Isadora.

Only one story is left hanging, that of Liane. Her story is strongly linked to the Fyne sisters and their husbands. Though there is no traditionally definitive resolution to her plight, readers are left with the knowledge that as strong as she is, she will make a new, happy for life for herself. I’d love to see her get her own book someday so we can see how she turned out.

One fear I always have with trilogies is that the story arc will not be satisfactorily concluded by the end of the final book. Fortunately, The Star Witch stands and delivers. Plenty of time is dedicated to the Fyne sisters’ curse, through their fears they are running out of time to how they find the solution. The resolution of their plight is well done, with plenty of detail so you aren’t left wondering. I especially liked the touch of a certain wizard who plays an important role in helping them find the answers… both Isadora and Lucan.

© Kelley A. Hartsell, October 2006. All rights reserved.