Wishtress - Nadine Brandes

Author: Nadine Brandes

Genre: YA Fantasy

Rating: 4.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: A complicated YA fantasy handling the good vs. evil trope in a novel way. Clean. Lengthy. Engrossing. Slow. An outstanding ending. (Oh, and it’s also Christian, though I couldn’t make this out even until the end.)

Story Synopsis:

Myrthe has been born with a Talent she didn’t ask for – her tears can grant wishes. However, with a dictatorial grandmother taking control of her Talent as well as her wishes, Myrthe hasn’t figured out how to handle her role as the ‘Wishtress’, until the day she is cursed and her world turns upside down. Her only hope now is to travel to ‘The Well’ to rectify matters.

Bastiaan has earned a Talent without expecting it – he can stop time. Unfortunately for him, his latest tryst with this ability ends up with the king being dead. The new king wants the Wishtress delivered to him. Bastiaan sets off on this mission, but with his own secret intent.

When their paths collide, Bastiaan and Myrthe begin a new journey of hope as well as restoration.

The story is written in the first person perspective of Myrthe and a limited third person perspective, mainly from the point of view of Bastiaan.

Where the book worked for me:

😍 The plotting is impeccable. I loved how the various pieces fit into place. Other than the fantastical elements, nothing is left unexplained and no loophole is left unplugged.

😍 The magical elements were so good! I enjoyed the concept of Talents and Banes, of the two contradictory wells that provide these abilities, the variety of the magical qualities that people possess. It was all fun, even when dangerous!

😍 The characters of Myrthe and Bastiaan are detailed out wonderfully. Neither of them are the typical goody-goody characters but layered and flawed. You know that they will connect with each other but to my great happiness, it wasn’t an insta attraction. Other than these two, I loved Myrthe’s cousin Anouk and Bastiaan’s sidekick Runt. Runt steals the show with his spunky attitude.

😍 Extra positive point for having a female lead character dealing with a limp and an almost-lifelong chronic pain. The author mentions in her note that this comes from own health battles, and the personal experience shows in the writing. Well done!

😍 The idea of good vs. evil is amazingly explored through the fantastical elements. While things seem predictable at the start, the story soon makes you realise that not everything is that easy. The whole shebang sheds a wonderful light on human nature and the role of choices.

😍 While the pacing is very slow (it took me almost a week to get through this), the progress is steady and I enjoyed most of the journey.

😍 The writing is beautiful, with some really thought-provoking content. This was the main reason the slow pace and the length didn’t bother me much.

😍 Completely clean, because of the Christian publisher and Christian author. Then again, other than the good vs. evil trope (which is also quite neutral if you think about it – I don’t know why this theme is classified as Christian), you won’t find anything overly Christian in the content unless you are trying to push in religious themes where none are directly mentioned.

😍 I adored the ending. While I am still not sure if the author plans to write a sequel, (which I am totally in for!) the ending winds up things at the right point, with enough said and enough clues to know what will happen next. It’s not exactly a HEA, but also not sad or bittersweet or even a cliffhanger. It is the perfect ending for this story.

Where the book could have worked better for me:

😕 I didn’t like the changeover between Myrthe’s first person and Bastiaan’s third person narrative. While I don’t mind varied grammatical voices, it didn’t flow well in this story. Both the characters were central to the story (despite what the title suggests) and hence both should have been written the same way.

😕 Mixed feelings on the world building. The writing with its sprinkling of Dutch names and German words gave confused signals about the location, though every place is imaginary. At the same time, the magical detailing (the talents, the wells, the trials) are written so well that it isn’t tough to picture any of them in your mind. Basically, this book gives vibes of a medieval European village caught in a fantastical quandary.

😕 Some of the secondary characters are too clichéd.

😕 Some of the issues could have been resolved sooner if the characters had simply opened their mouths and revealed the truth instead of being so insecure and/or secretive about it.

⚠ Sometimes, things fall into place a bit too neatly. But as it’s a YA Fantasy, this is sort of expected. Not a major flaw for me (especially as these plot conveniences were still written well), but might not make some others happy.

All in all, if you go in with the right expectations, this is a beautiful character-driven story with plenty of good content and an outstanding magical ideology. Though I wish it had been faster in its pacing, I still enjoyed it quite a lot. Recommend to lovers of YA Fantasy and Christian Fantasy that doesn’t go ‘in your face’ with its Christian allegories.

4.5 stars. (Should have gone with a 4.25 considering the shortcomings but I just loved the magical bits and the ending.)

My thanks to Thomas Nelson, HarperCollins Christian Publishing, and Edelweiss+ for the DRC of “Wishtress”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.