My friend recommend The Crimson Moth to me due to my recent love of a fantasy-series witch. Yes, I do mean Manon Blackbeak. The Crimson Moth is indeed a fantasy series (well duology, this is book 1 of 2) that centres around witches, however it has be said, Rune Winters, the lead witch in this story, isn’t actually anything like Manon. I don’t mean anything bad by that, The Crimson Moth explores a whole other type of witchcraft lore…
Opening sentence: When the Blood Guard suspects a girl of being a witch, they strip off her clothes and search her body for scars.
Blood magic and secrets
The Crimson Moth focuses on witches with blood-magic. As in, they need blood (their own and of others) to power their spells. They are therefore usually covered in scars in intricate designs that they wore as badges of honour under the rule of the witch Sister Queens.
However, the three Sister Queens used powerful and evil spells and were generally not very nice, so were overthrown by a rebellion. Now the Blood Guard, headed up by captain of the guard, Gideon Sharpe hunt down any remaining witches and purge (murder) them.
Our lead character Rune is a witch but only her two closest friends, Verity de Winter and Alex Sharpe actually know that. Alongside, Rune is living a secret life, as the Crimson Moth… she’s a vigilante who rescues witches from the Blood Guard and she is top of their capture list.
She was the Crimson Moth – a wanted criminal, not to mention a witch, hiding in plain sight.
Love a good-old enemies-to-lovers story?
Then you’re in luck. Gideon and Rune’s positions obviously put them at odds: hunter and hunted but… I think you see where this is going… things are a lot more complex than that. They both embark on personal missions to get info from, and deceive, the other with highly readable consequences.
Between the romantic plot and the vigilante one, plus a few extra plot-twists thrown in too, I found The Crimson Moth to be such a fast-paced, entertaining read. While I would say after reading a series like Throne of Glass, it felt a bit more simplistic in terms of plot and execution, that’s not to say I didn’t highly enjoy it.
The ending genuinely took me by surprise and I’m very much looking forward to the next (and final) book in the series, The Rebel Witch.
- Get your copy of The Crimson Moth here;
- Published by Magpie 2024;
- 410 pages;
- My rating:
