I have been dying to read this book for way too long. When I finally got my hands on a digital arc, it sat in my kindle app. Then it was release day and I bought it, where it sat on my shelf. It’s only a couple weeks later and I got my hands (ears) on an audiobook from the library… and I’m kicking myself for not reading it sooner.

This has everything I love. It’s queer (sapphic to be exact), it’s a retelling (Rapunzel), it has vampires (Alice from Twilight, anyone?), witches (Bonnie from Vampire Diaries???) and it’s (Friends to) Enemies to Lovers!!! I devoured the story, to the point that I wanted to slow myself down to really get everything. I’m sure I’ll be rereading it at some point, I loved it THAT much!

So Ava & Kaye used to be friends, but they had a bit of a falling out after Ava disappeared on the night that vampires broke into their town’s wards and killed Kaye’s mother. Ava has been kept in a tower by her VAMPIRE MOTHER and evil step father. You see, Ava was turned on the night of that attack, and every time she tells her step father a name of one of her friends from school, they turn up drained of blood the next day. She’s been keeping one name from leaving her mouth though.

The most special part about her is that even though she was turned, she’s still retained her connection to root magic. Which is the reason her mother is keeping her locked away. So that she can steal it for herself.

Kaye on the other hand is gifted with flame magic and she vows to use it kill the vampire who took her mother’s life. After Ava finally escapes and they reconnect, Kaye finds something among her old friend’s belongings which may be the answer to all of her questions from the past 2 years.

This was full of mystery, albeit I felt like I knew who was good and who was bad early on. I did love that you really never know which side is right, because there are heroes and villains from each. I mean, what is a hero or villain anyway. We are all just chaotic neutral when you get down to it.

3.4

This cover - gasp! The plot - creative and queer. Witches and Vampires? Unfortunately this awesome combination did not inspire my enjoyment of this book.
Ava - forced to become a vampire to save her mother
Kaye - trained to kill vampires to avenge her mother's death
Two long time friends - and maybe something more.
It was a struggle to finish - plot was all over the place.

Despite a long-standing enmity between witches and vampires not all is as it might appear, as revealed during a journey through a cursed forest in The Witch and the Vampire by Francesca Flores.

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Locked away in a tower of her home by her mother for the past two years, Ava has been kept from the world and Kaye, a Flame witch who had been her best friend and has been training to hunt vampires; being locked away was for her own good since she’d been turned into a vampire, which are hunted down when they venture beyond the magically walled off forest, and sometimes even within it. Ava still has her Root witch powers, which her mother siphons to obscure the fact that she’s also a vampire while serving in leadership role within the community. Finally escaping confinement and determined to stop her mother’s plans that would destroy the town, Ava flees to the forest to seek help from Casiopea, the vampire queen, using the chaos of an attack as cover; following Ava’s tracks in to the forest, Kaye catches up and convinces Ava to travel together despite her plans to turn Ava over and get vengeance for the death of her mother. As the pair travel through the forest they both reminisce about how their relationship used to be, questioning what they thought they knew about one another, as well as what they’ve been taught to believe, while trying to avoid the dangers in the forest and emerge alive.

Using Rapunzel as a base for some initial plot points and characteristics in shaping Ava, the story has familiar basis from which to build and reform itself from the fairy tale’s basic frame as it incorporates its own lore regarding witches and vampires. Scheming and plays at power in order to serve the “greater good” from the adults of the story provide both intrigue and moral conflict for Ava and Kaye, playing out across chapters from their respective perspectives, which alternate to build out the story; the oscillating backsliding and growth of their relationship dynamic felt primarily surface-level and a bit forced to fit within the narrative and help drive the action, yet still came across as relatively authentic for melodrama associated with young teenagers. The magic within the world has a well-thought out origin slowly presented as events evolved, but the way it functions in actuality and how it impacts those who wield it or have been turned to vampires is not as thoroughly detailed or contextually fleshed out as it might have been, leaving a flatness to the world that has rich potential.

Overall, I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.