Book Review, Interview and Giveaway: Witchstruck by Victoria Lamb 

If you’re a his­tor­i­cal purist, than Witch­struck may not be the book for you. Lamb has woven together his­tor­i­cal fig­ures and events with fic­tional char­ac­ters and the super­nat­ural. It’s an unusual com­bi­na­tion but one that I really, really enjoyed.

Set in 1554, Witch­struck intro­duces the story of Meg, ser­vant to the closely guarded Eliz­a­beth, and a prac­tic­ing witch. It’s not long before a des­per­ate Eliz­a­beth turns to Meg for help, ask­ing her to use her magic to fore­see the future. Will she or won’t she be queen?

With grow­ing polit­i­cal unrest, the arrival of a Span­ish priest who seems deter­mined to uncover her secrets and a ruth­less witch hunter clos­ing in on her, Meg finds her­self in increas­ing dan­ger. It’s not long before her loy­al­ties are tested when she inad­ver­tently becomes mixed up in trea­so­nous plot that could see Eliz­a­beth crowned, or exe­cuted, with Meg right along­side her.

I’ve always been drawn to sto­ries about witch­craft, whether they lean towards the super­nat­ural, fea­tur­ing kick-ass women with actual pow­ers, or focus on a more his­tor­i­cal por­trayal. Both fas­ci­nate me and Witch­struck, to my delight, is a com­bi­na­tion of the two. Meg and her Aunt are both witches, a dan­ger­ous prac­tice in Tudor Eng­land. In order to sur­vive, Meg must hide who she really is, trust­ing no one, yet she can­not help but find her­self drawn to Ale­jan­dro, a young priest sent to spy on Elizabeth’s house­hold. Con­tinue read­ing →