Bitter Night: A Horngate Witches Book by Diana Pharaoh Francis
Buy It Now: on Amazon.com
Description: SOMETIMES YOU CHOOSE YOUR BATTLES. AND SOMETIMES, THEY CHOOSE YOU…
Once, Max dreamed of a career, a home, a loving family. Now all she wants is freedom…and revenge. A witch named Giselle transformed Max into a warrior with extraordinary strength, speed, and endurance. Bound by spellcraft, Max has no choice but to fight as Giselle’s personal magic weapon — a Shadowblade — and she’s lethally good at it. But her skills are about to be put to the test as they never have before….
The ancient Guardians of the earth are preparing to unleash widespread destruction on the mortal world, and they want the witches to help them. If the witches refuse, their covens will be destroyed, including Horngate, the place Max has grudgingly come to think of as home. Max thinks she can find a way to help Horngate stand against the Guardians, but doing so will mean forging dangerous alliances — including one with a rival witch’s Shadowblade, who is as drawn to Max as she is to him — and standing with the witch she despises. Max will have to choose between the old life she still dreams of and the warrior she has become, and take her place on the side of right — if she survives long enough to figure out which side that is….
This review is based on a free review copy received from the publisher.
TDF Pamela’s Review:
I’ve had one of Diana Pharaoh Francis’s fantasy books on my bookshelf for ages, but I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet. So I jumped at the opportunity to review this book, and I’m very glad I did.
The story is tense and gripping, and the characters are fascinating and likable even in their flaws–of which there are many. But the characters, even the most fantastic of them, are all very believable and realistic. Max’s bitterness at being bound to her witch, Giselle, is well-constructed and believable in its intensity. She is comfortable being angry and hating Giselle to the point where it has blinded her to how important her impromptu family of Horngate Shadowblades and Sunspears–and even Giselle herself–is to her.
Alexander, on the other hand, is almost alien in his detachment from others around him, and it was very enjoyable to read his attempts to integrate into the Horngate group. After discovering that the last hundred years of his existence have been pretty much a lie–his witch and his former Shadowblades turn on him without a second thought–he finds Max and her relationship with her group fascinating and alluring. He wants nothing more than to be a part of a group that close knit.
The story itself definitely reads as the first chapter of a much larger series, and the ending isn’t so much an ending as it is a pause before the next shitstorm. It left me impatient for the next book, heh.
I really enjoyed this and think it’s a great entry into the urban fantasy genre. Some of the action does get very gory, so if you have a weak stomach, there are a few scenes you might want to skip (the torture scene at the Conclave, in particular), but the violence never seems gratuitous. It adds to the tension that pervades the narrative and winds the reader up as tight as Max and Alexander. I can’t wait for the next book in the series.
Rating: 
TDF Pamela
The Discriminating Fangirl, who is more likely to answer to Pamela if you shout it at her, is currently working on a MA in English, focusing on children's/young adult literature and popular culture. She reads voraciously, loves geeky movies and tv shows, reads comic books as often as she can buy them, and when she's procrastinating, she enjoys playing video games. She can be contacted at t.d.fangirl @ gmail.com and followed on Twitter at the link below.
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[...] When she runs afoul of another witch’s plot, Max finds herself saddled with another Shadowblade, Alexander, who is much older than her and comes from a very different background. It was fascinating to see these two try to break the other’s armor, and the characters bounced off of each other very well. The story itself is obviously the beginning of a series, and as such the end of this book doesn’t feel so much like an end as a “To Be Continued…” It’s a strong debut into the genre, and I’m betting this will be a great series as well. Read my review here. [...]