The Last Lunar Witch (The Lunar Order Chronicles #1), by S.F. Henne
11 Aug 2024The Book
Synopsis:
I only wanted to control my magic, but a single potion catapulted my life into chaos…
I’m Nyssa Thornheart, a witch with broken magic. I escaped to the big city to pursue my passion for alchemy, and hide from my coven until I fix my powers.If my unstable gifts are exposed, they will be stripped away. To live without magic, that’s a fate worse than death. So I drank a long-forgotten potion in a desperate bid to harness my volatile powers.
But when I’m cornered by thugs, I unleash a rare and dangerous magic, tearing the veil between our world and a demonic realm. My new powers are growing stronger and resist every attempt to subdue them.Now I’m a hunted witch, pursued by both demonic creatures and authorities determined to protect our realm from the threat I pose.
Can I master my magic, or will I have to sacrifice my powers before the city falls to demons?
My Review
The Last Lunar Witch is an urban fantasy novel, which starts the Lunar Order Chronicles, written by the Aussie author S.F. Henne, part of the SPFBOX contest. A different approach to the genre, giving a cozier touch to the story, and going for a secondary world instead of the Earth, following a struggling with her powers witch, Nyssa.
Nyssa, a witch with broken magic, moved to the city with the hope of starting an alchemy business and fix her powers before the coven discovers it; desperate to solve it, she drinks a mysterious potion to harness her powers. All becomes much more complicated when cornered by thugs, she unleashes a new type of magic, tearing the veil between the world and the demonic realm; her new discovered powers resist to be controlled, and the outburst puts her in the focus of the authorities and demonic forces by equal. If she doesn't manage to control her powers with the help of her new familiar, she will be forced to forfeit them.
Henne uses a first person narration to put us in the shoes of Nyssa; a young witch which is struggling, but that is slowly prospering in the big city. Her powers are part of her, and she's suffering because she's unable to control them, taking desperate measures to solve it; but when she has the outburst, she has to fight to solve the situation that appears after.
The secondary cast plays nicely along with Nyssa, creating a found family for that girl that has come to the big city, and especially, adding a cozy touch to this kind of fast-paced urban fantasy.
The setting is quite interesting, as Henne's choice of using a secondary world opens the door to a better world-building, integrating magical elements into everyday life. The pacing is quite fast, as you could expect from the genre, but letting space to develop the characters.
The Last Lunar Witch is a solid debut, a great urban fantasy proposal that is perfect for Lindsay Buroker fans; there's much potential in the series, so I can't wait to see how Henne continues developing The Lunar Order Records.
The Author/s
S.F. Henne
Born and raised in Adelaide, South Australia, Sarah swapped beaches for the ski slopes of Whistler, B.C and started her adventure. Now residing in Washington State with her husband and daughter, she embarked on the next part of her story: telling the tales that have been rattling around her head for years.
Brought up watching Star Wars and playing video games she was too young for, it was not until all ill-fated Battlestar Galactic episode that annoyed Sarah and her sister enough to make them want to write their own stories. But it was not until Sarah was trapped at home with a newborn and a global pandemic that she finally decided write them down. And so the Rune-Forged Warriors were born.
Then along came the Inkfort Publishing Derby in June 2023 and turned her life upside-down. Given a cover, title, and penname, Sarah spent the next four months as Tara Davis writing "Witch of the Lunar Order" not once, but twice. While the cover was not her normal genre it stuck with her and one night Nyssa popped into her head. A young witch with problematic magic who discovers a love for baking. Once Nyssa started telling her story, she never stopped. And before Sarah was even assigned the cover, a sprawling world and an idea for a full Urban Fantasy series had been created.