A.K. Mulford

Rua is a fae princess who has become the wielder of a powerful magic sword. She ventures into an enemy court to prove her worth and stop an army of cursed witches. This is the second book in the fantasy series, The Five Crowns of Okrith.

The Witches' Blade

The second powerful novel in the Five Crowns of Okrith fantasy series brings us into a new part of the world as the fae princess Rua joins forces with a truly unlikely ally—all with the same romance and adventure readers have come to expect from A.K. Mulford’s viral sensation! A magic sword. A powerful curse. An untested fae princess. And a continent on fire... Eighteen-year-old Ruadora Dammacus now possesses the Immortal Blade, a powerful artifact that might be enough to overthrow the cruel oppression threatening the land. Yet when Rua discovers the Northern Court King’s uncle is not only alive but has cast a spell on the blue witch army, she realizes that the battle is just beginning. Venturing into the Northern Court, Rua finds herself working closely with the young Northern King. Her problems are mounting, and the handsome—and perhaps evil—king is only one of them. With the eyes of her newfound family on her, can Rua prove herself worthy of the Immortal Blade and break the curse over the blue witches, or will its magic be too difficult to control? And, perhaps even more dangerous, is her growing connection to the Northern King and what that means for her people…and her heart.

A Novel

I hope this is not as overused as it is in the first of the series.

Ariel Johnson

"It would be added to the growing list of things that haunted her dreams."

Reading the first is helpful, kinda necessary as it is referenced a decent amount, but not required to understand the story. 

This story is about Ruadora Damascus, sister to Remy and princess of the High Mountain Court. It directly follows the first book after the events that led to Rua picking up the Imortal Blade. A weapon she is now forever connected to. Rua is tasked with keeping the Nothern King, Renwick, in check as he searches for his uncle to squash any further dissent in both the north and mountain kingdoms. 

Villain is underdeveloped. Mainly a generalized bad guy for evil sake without a real major contribution to the tale. However, being Rua is the main focus, it works to push the plot so she has her character growth. Rua, the main protagonist, was given much more depth and trauma to work through compared to Remy in the first story. Made her motivations easier to understand and more interesting to follow.

Story pacing slows in parts, with more of the action happening near the end. Feels more like a coming of age story over a epic fantasy for the most part. Even so, enjoyable.

Recommend if you're looking for a character driven, easy to follow fantasy.

Huge improvement over the first. 

Reading the first is helpful, kinda necessary as it is referenced a decent amount, but not required to understand the story. 

This story is about Ruadora Damascus, sister to Remy and princess of the High Mountain Court. It directly follows the first book after the events that led to Rua picking up the Imortal Blade. A weapon she is now forever connected to. Rua is tasked with keeping the Nothern King, Renwick, in check as he searches for his uncle to squash any further dissent in both the north and mountain kingdoms. 

Villain is underdeveloped. Mainly a generalized bad guy for evil sake without a real major contribution to the tale. However, being Rua is the main focus, it works to push the plot so she has her character growth. Rua, the main protagonist, was given much more depth and trauma to work through compared to Remy in the first story. Made her motivations easier to understand and more interesting to follow.

Story pacing slows in parts, with more of the action happening near the end. Feels more like a coming of age story over a epic fantasy for the most part. Even so, enjoyable.

Recommend if you're looking for a character driven, easy to follow fantasy.

Ruadora aka Rua is the younger sister and only remaining relative of Remy (Book 1).  The High Mountain Court may never be what it once was but it is slowly rising from the ashes.  Rue now has an enchanted relic, the Witch Blade, which was made using Red Witch Magic. 

When she realises that a King has raised an army of Blue Witches with the intent of claiming the throne, she dedicates herself to ridding the world of the despot.  But hankering her pursuit of vengeance is the matter of Renwick.  

Renwick, the new king of the North and nephew of the usurper.  He was a bit of a shady character in Book 1 but was also a surprising ally.  There is magic galore, action, adventure, daring do and some romance that came out of the left field!  Some of my favourite characters were lucky to survive this book.  There were more than few eeeeeeek moments.

Nicola Sarah Brooks

Ruadora aka Rua is the younger sister and only remaining relative of Remy (Book 1).  The High Mountain Court may never be what it once was but it is slowly rising from the ashes.  Rue now has an enchanted relic, the Witch Blade, which was made using Red Witch Magic. 

When she realises that a King has raised an army of Blue Witches with the intent of claiming the throne, she dedicates herself to ridding the world of the despot.  But hankering her pursuit of vengeance is the matter of Renwick.  

Renwick, the new king of the North and nephew of the usurper.  He was a bit of a shady character in Book 1 but was also a surprising ally.  There is magic galore, action, adventure, daring do and some romance that came out of the left field!  Some of my favourite characters were lucky to survive this book.  There were more than few eeeeeeek moments.

Zoe P

Holy slow burn this was good. Dare I say that I liked Rua more than Remy? I loved that her and Renwick were incredibly flawed and still actively working through their trauma together. The ending was a tiny bit lackluster but I feel like it’s setting itself up well for the next book. I love this little series!

Alison James

This book was good, but not as good as book 1 in my opinion. 

This kind of gave me A Court of Silver Flames vibes. With how it switched from Feyre to Nesta’s POV. 

It was hard for me to get into the POV change from book 1. In book 1, I loved following Remy and wanted more of her. So to go immediately into a book that didn’t focus on her and followed a character that disliked her, was tough.

But, once I got into Rua’s story, I really was rooting for her and wanted to know what happened next. 

I was not sure how Renwick was going to be redeemed as a love interest. I mean.. all of book 1 he was referenced as the Witch Slayer and this bad guy. And now he is kinda turned into a softy whenever Rua is around. I really enjoyed learning more about his character and seeing all the misconceptions about him.

Kristen Lee

I received this book as an ARC and here is my honest review. 
Spoilers!!
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Okay, So I LOVED THIS BOOK. This series is so interesting to me. AK Mulford's world building is absolutely incredible. I have never read a book that I can visualize so clearly.
This books picks up where The High Mountain Court left off, after the battle at Drunehan which left all of Okrith shook and bare, ready for reconstruction. Rua is Remy's younger sister and she is the wielder of the The Witches Blade, a magical talisman used "as a blessing, or a curse" that can flatten an entire army in one swing. Tasked with tracking down and stopping the former King of the Northern Court's estranged brother, Balron, and reuniting the North, Rua is sent on an adventure fueled by heart break, shame, grief, childhood trauma, and just outright pain. She is left in the North with Renwick, the "Witchslayer" who is the son of the the former King of the North and is now crowned King himself after his fathers death. They have a tense relationship, obviously, since Renwick is known throughout the courts as a heartless, evil man that hunts witches for sport. As the story goes on and they chase down Balron together Renwick begins showing redeeming qualities, which I love, and it becomes clear to the reader that there is something between him and Rua that cannot be ignored. The story between the two fits perfectly into AK Mulford's style of trauma bonding, miscommunications, confused feelings, and denied attraction. The growth of the two characters together and apart is so beautiful. 

Additionally, the friendship between Rua and Aneryn seems to be the first relationship Rua forms that really means something to her. She struggles so hard connecting with the people around her and for Aneryn to also accept the dark corners of her soul was so wonderful. She truly needed that kind of friendship and I am so happy she had her through it all. 

Once again, I love how casual and normal it is for the people of Okrith to just be queer. It's not some hidden secret or shameful thing. I love that. There is a small comment made by Rua in the beginning of the book about her "infatuation" with a girl at the Red witch camp she grew up in that just made my little bi heart swell. 

Anyways, to wrap it up, I love AK Mulford and I loved this book. I was so surprised at how much I grew to love Rua and how relatable her character is. She struggles with her identity and where she considers home and who she considers family and in the end she learns her worth and feels the love of her several homes throughout Okrith from her blood and chosen family. 

I can't wait to read about the Spring Solstice celebration and whatever happens to Augustus Norwood, in the next book which I also assume will follow Bri, considering the ending of The Witches Blade. (also a character I love and can't wait to read more about)

Thank you for letting me read this book early because I was dying waiting on this story to continue. Ugh. I loved it so much.

A magic sword. A powerful curse. An untested fae princess. Eighteen-year-old Ruadora Dammacus now possesses the Immortal Blade. But when Rua discovers the Northern King's uncle is alive and has cast a spell on a blue witch army, she realizes that the battle is just beginning. Venturing into the Northern Court, Rua finds herself with an unlikely ally in the new King. Her problems are mounting, and the handsome King is only one of them. With the eyes of her newfound family on her, can Rua prove herself worthy of the Immortal Blade or will its magic be too powerful? Danger, intrigue, and thrilling passion ensues as Rua battles to break the witches' curse. Enthralling and adrenaline-filled, The Witches' Blade is the second book in the gripping high fantasy saga, The Five Crowns of Okrith.

Sarah S

The novel picks up right where The High Mountain Court ended, except now we are following Rua, Remy's younger sister. As we jump right in, there is zero introduction to Rua, yet we are supposed to care deeply for her. Instead, we find her insufferable. Her pathetic poor me attitude makes her extremely unlikable and offers no drive to engage in her story.

The build up to Rua and Renwick feels so forced, like its trying too hard to duplicate Remy and Hale but with a character you don't like and a character you don't care about. Renwick grows on you and he was the only character pushing me through.

The drops of Remy and Hale are more annoying than anything. All of a sudden their whole personality changed to typical "royals". Perhaps this is the intention of the author as this book is Rua's Story and that is just got Rua sees them.

I will give the book a positive, as at about 80% through, the character development does it's job and we are happily on the Ru+Ren train.

Overall, The Witches Blade was a letdown of a follow up to The High Mountain Court. I'm hoping book 3 will pull me back in.

*I received an advance copy of this book and this is my honest review

Kelly Graham

Perfect sequel 

I LOVED this book, Rua was such a relatable and real character. All the dark and sad things she was thinking and feeling made her the perfect character. She had emotions that people just don't like to talk about and it made it feel more real knowing characters have these deep emotions. Rua is one badass lady and I loved it, she certainly knows she isn't some simple minded, helpless princess!

Brandie States

~Received ARC for honest review~
Loved the story! I wasn't sure how I would feel when I started the book, because I loved reading from Remy's POV so much! However, Ru was an amazing character as well, and I am so glad that I got to get the story from her POV afterall. Renwick was an iffy character for me for awhile, but I grew to love him as well! Highly recommend this series for those of you who haven't tried it yet, and I cannot wait until the next installment!!!

The Witches' Blade

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