Initial Impressions 2/15/16: Whew, just had to get that done. I started it as audio and really did not like the narrator at all so I switched to the print version. Sadly, it didn't really get much better for me. I had some serious trouble with the pacing and world-building specifically and I really didn't latch onto any of the characters. I kept waiting for something to really develop throughout the whole first half of the book and yes, there was a story going on but I just didn't feel like it was moving the plot forward. It felt like a lot of dialogue and characters going about their lives but I didn't feel like it was going somewhere. I didn't quite understand the purpose of everything and would have LOVED some more world-building to explain some more about the politics, why everything was important, and introduce some of the mythology/lore/history before super important pieces were actually revealed. 
 The characters really didn't grab me at all. You'd think two amazing friends and strong girls would immediately hook me but they didn't. Maybe it was the narration that soured me on this (I HATED the narrator's voice for these two girls. It made them sound whiny, impatient, and weak) but I never got over the fact that I didn't feel much depth to them. I think I connected more to Iseult than Safi because I had kind of a hard time with Safi's hard-headedness. 
 The romance didn't really get me either. I loved Merik and the dance scene was GREAT but other than that, I didn't feel the chemistry and then the cute romantic things that came later were just too late. I had already lost interest in the book at that point and was pretty much racing to finish (I READ THIS FOR A MONTH. It was time to come to an end) so nothing was really interesting me at that point in time. 
 I am super bummed that I just didn't latch onto much of anything in this book. I LOVE fantasy elements that attribute powers to characters based on heritage/clans/whatever and I would have loved to see any of that explored more. I feel like we didn't learn a whole lot about the details of the powers, what all of them were, why they were important, how they worked, and why some had them and others didn't. Things were touched upon but that's my favorite thing in fantasies so I just really wanted to know all of the ins and outs. 
 I just felt like the development wasn't there (I guess for me -- soooo many people loved it so maybe I'm just the black sheep here) and things were introduced with no history so I was struggling to realize what they were and why they were so important. Sadly not a hit for me. This may be my last Susan Dennard book because I really lost steam at the end of the Something Strange and Deadly trilogy and this one didn't shake it up for me. 
 Full review as originally posted HERE on The Book Addict's Guide 3/7/16: I wasn't going to pick up TRUTHWITCH -- at least not for a while -- simply because of the incredible, months-long hype that surrounded it. To be frank, it really killed my interest for the book and having finished Susan Dennard's previous series and ending up unimpressed, I wasn't anxious to dive right into TRUTHWITCH. I was offered a review copy of the audiobook from the publisher and with so many friends who had already given it high praise, I figured it was as good of a time to start as any. 
 My whole experience with TRUTHWITCH was a rocky one. I started the audiobook and was really enjoying the story but the longer I listened, the more the narrator bothered me. I actually was perfectly fine with her narration of the story but the dialogue was a killer. I couldn't stand the voices she used for the girls and Safi and Iseult ended up coming off as whiny, immature, and weak. Not wanting this to affect my whole experience, I ended up stopping the audiobook and I purchased a print copy instead. 
 Things were going okay until I realized I had hit a wall with just about everything. I couldn't bring myself into this book and I was struggling to pick it back up. I had some serious trouble with the pacing most of all and couldn't find a good balance between action, world-building, and character development. I ended up feeling like a whole lot was happening but it really wasn't moving the plot forward at all. I felt no closer to development, a surprise, a turning point, or resolution and it started to get really hard for me to keep reading. Quite frankly, I was bored. 
 I also really struggled with the world-building. It's one of my favorite parts of fantasy novels and I absolutely love learning about political and social structures, geography, lore, and history. I felt like there were a lot of missed opportunities in the beginning to introduced something in passing that gets used later in the book (Sarah J. Maas is a PRO at this) so the reader already has knowledge of what it is and is excited about its involvement in a major plot point. There were so many things that happened towards the end that I didn't realize were even important until the characters were discussing them. I also would have loved to learn more about each ability/power, why it was important, how it ranked in comparison to other powers, why Safi's Truthwitchery was so incredibly important, why stasis was so important to Iseult and her powers, the limits to the powers, how people ended up having them, etc etc. Some of these things were touched upon but I just wanted so much more detail and backstory and history that I found it really lacking for my taste. 
 The characters also really didn't grab me at all. You'd think two amazing friends and strong girls would immediately hook me but somehow they didn't. Maybe it was the narration that soured me on this because try as I did, I never really got those voices out of my head and I never got over the fact that I didn't feel much depth to them. I think I connected more to Iseult than Safi because I had kind of a hard time with Safi's hard-headedness at times. Instead of strength in Safi, I saw immaturity and a lack of patience. 
 The romance didn't really get me either. I really liked the introduction of Merik and the dance scene was GREAT but other than that, I didn't feel the chemistry. The cute romantic things that came later were just too late and I was already stuggling with the book. The chemistry just didn't feel natural for me. I had already lost interest in the book at that point and was pretty much racing to finish (I READ THIS FOR A MONTH) so nothing was really interesting me at that point in time and I really just wanted to finish. 
 I am super bummed that I just didn't latch onto much of anything in this book. I just felt like the development wasn't there (I guess for me -- so many people loved it so maybe I'm just the black sheep here) and things were introduced with no history so I was struggling to realize what they were and why they were so important. TRUTHWITCH was just sadly not a hit for me. This may be my last Susan Dennard book because I really lost steam at the end of the Something Strange and Deadly trilogy and this one didn't end up changing my mind on what I was missing from Susan Dennard's first series. I'm not sure hype or persuasion could get me to read another book since I seem to be the unpopular opinion on her books.