Book Review
Title: The Wounded Ones (Witch of Empire Book 2) by G. D. Penman
Genre: Urban, Paranormal, Romance
Rating: 4 Stars
The opening to The Wounded Ones has Sully dealing with the fallout of the first novel while trying to plan and prepare for the war that is coming. However, she takes some time off to be with Marie who she is planning to propose to when Ogden drags her back for more meetings so she is obviously upset. That isn’t what upsets her the most as Ogden wants Sully to speak with the demon, Mol Kalath but Sully has no interest in doing so as she still doesn’t fully trust the demons and they live to serve their own agenda but Mol Kalath seems to have something important it needs to tell her and it might have something to do with her childhood. We learn through a flashback that when she was tested for magical ability at school she didn’t produce any good results but we also see her mother might have made a deal with a demon regarding her so I am excited to see where this novel goes and how it is going to build up to the climax of the series.
Sully tries to loose Ogden and Mol Kalath as she doesn’t trust the demon and she isn’t happy with the fact that Ogden killed close to 300 people resurrecting Manhattan but they refuse to leave her alone. After attending her meeting, Prime Minister Pratt informs her of a strange case within the IBI who she no longer works for that he wants her to investigate privately and she agrees seeking some information from Ceejay about it but she notices something is off about the disappearances straight away. Afterwards Ogden invites her to Manhattan and she can’t refuse since Mol Kalath is going to be taking her to her destination meaning the demon will finally have the chance to talk to her that she has desperately been trying to avoid. There are many different political movements going on right now with the planning for war with the British and their allies aren’t willing to join them until they prove they can defend themselves against the British making them useless. It is a little hard to keep up with since these elements were introduced very close the end of the first book and there is a lot of ground to cover before we get to the final book.
The plan is once the Veil of Tears is brought down to use the demons as an army to invade the British. This seems to be going according to plan until they actually arrive at the white cliffs of Dover only to find that the British have used a wish making the demons unable to enter. Returning to their base, they try and figure out which demon made the contract that resulted in the wish and confirm that no more will be made with the British but this lands Sully in hot water as it was her plan that went badly. Pratt confronts her about it but as a soldier Sully knows that the British are stretched thin over their colonies and if they attack those eventually the British will give in and that is the strategy with war, to wear down your opponents until they give in but Pratt isn’t happy with this. However, they can’t debate this as they are suddenly attacked by a hydra which were thought to be extinct and Sully is losing the battle until Mol Kalath comes to help her. He earlier explained that she is his shadow twin meaning their destinies are tied together and if she ever tried to summon a demon, she would have summoned him even without meaning to.
Pretty soon Sully is running from the hydra that is tracking her and she learns that these creatures are immortals so they can’t be killed from Mol Kalath. It isn’t the hydra that attacks next but a gryphon and after a big battle she makes it back to Marie but the creature wasn’t killed as it can’t die. She talks to Ceejay about the missing people but the disappearances have now stopped although Marie’s mother might have been someone taken and a fake left in her place that Sully kills. Very quickly the gryphon tracks her down along with the Fury as they were summoned by the British and agreed to help them as they have allies strong enough to break their curses of immortality that the regular demons Sully is working with like Mol Kalath can’t and Sully knows she can’t fight them all. After a tearful parting with Marie is agrees to go with them as the British want her alive for some reason and she promises she will return to Marie but this might not be possible as she is cuffed with manacles that cut off her access to her magic leaving her entirely defenceless against whatever she is going to be facing in Britain but Sully can’t die as we have another book to go but that doesn’t mean she is going to make it out sane and in one piece after all. So far, The Wounded Ones bounces around in time a lot more than The Year of the Knife which makes the book a little confusing to follow but I can’t wait to see how Sully is going to get out of the mess she currently finds herself in when she has little in the way of allies and her only true ally can’t enter Britain because of the active wish.
While being held captive by the British, Sully learns that their wish came from the Fae and not from a demon which is really bad news. However, we do learn through Lord Blackwood that Sully seems to reincarnate herself every time she dies and when he kills her this time it will be the third time he has done it but she always seems to be come back. With memories of her past lives emerging, Sully remembers where her mother is and when she escapes she kidnaps Blackwood and takes him to her mother. Her mother doesn’t want anything to do with Sully since she abandoned Ireland but when she learns the Fae are involved who the witches have spent thousands of years fighting and pushing back she becomes more receptive. It is Sully’s mother who explains that when the Fae kidnap people they leave behind a block of carved wood and Sully realises that the disappearance in the Americas are linked to the Fae and the British and they now have a much bigger fight on their hands than they were first expecting. Learning that Sully is essentially immortal in her own way was interesting but she does have a drawback and she doesn’t remember the past lives and I want to see how this comes into play in the second half of this book and in the finale.
The final battle between the Fae and Sully along with her allies was amazing but it felt a little rushed for me. Honestly, the battle seemed really short compared to the rest of the novel when the entire novel was leading up to that. That being said I did really enjoy the banter between Sully and Mol Kalath and how Sully finally defeated the Fae as it was really interesting to see how her mind worked in that moment but it wasn’t without risks and complications. Because of her actions in defeating the Fae, Sully loses a lot of her memories including the ones about Marie, Pratt’s superiors obviously try to manipulate the situation by leaving Sully in her mother’s care but Mol Kalath is certain that the real Sully will return to them soon and they just have to wait for that moment. With the battle done and dusted I wasn’t sure what to expect in the final book but I am excited to find out what it has in store for me.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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