I received this book from BookTasters for a honest review.

This book is one of fantasy. Witches, demons, angels, blood-eaters, dark cherubs, etc. are the inhabitants of this dark story where a black witch Queen Amelia rules. Her misguided belief is that no rules apply to her. As such, she mates with a human and is furious when her daughter Annis is a mortal like her father. In her anger, Amelia kills her spouse and disappears, abandoning her child.

Annis embraces the evil that she is surrounded by. She too becomes a black witch. Her powers are legendary and she is known as Black Annis. She evades capture for centuries but her assistant is captured and gives the location of Annis. Annis is sent to the Lake of Flames in Hell. For 400 hundred years she is tortured until one day a Hellgate near her opens. Annis seizes the opportunity and snatches the body of the person opening the Hellgate.

Black Annis finds herself in a body that is imprisioned by the Priesthood. She has to overcome several demons in order to escape. The former inhabitant of her new body had a friend among the other prisioners. Annis wants to help this friend and also finds her desirable. They escape and meet an exiled angel. Before the angel goes to Hell, Black Annis steals the dagger that he stole from Heaven.

The Judas dagger is a prize coveted by all evil creatures. Annis knows that it is capable of great things and decides she needs to research how to best utilize this tool. During a battle, she loses the dagger. How can she recover it? Her powers are strong but it has been 400 years since she went to Hell and needs to practice.

I don’t want to give away the ending of this book but trust that it is very entertaining. Aubrey Law has created a world that is strange and magical. The character of Black Annis is intriguing. Imagine trying to adapt to a world 400 years in the future! Annis also feels the emotions of the body she inhabits and has to reconcile that with the rage and revenge decades in Hell have given her. What really draws me to the character is the author’s ability to convey the character’s reasoning. Knowing what motivates the character is so important and Aubrey Law has done a terrific job with this. I was left wondering whether Annis would feel additional emotions from the human body or if she finds a way to tamp them down and exert her evil nature.

My Rating: 🌻🌻🌻🌻

Additional Thoughts: I really enjoyed this story. The author includes a list explaining the characters in her story. It’s good to understand what the abilities of each is in the story. I know the second book in the series is already written but I hope that Black Annis gets to explore the modern world a little more. It would be interesting to see a witch’s reaction to some of the modern day miracle we use all the time. I’m also curious about whether she gets to stay with this body or if she will have to snatch another. I will be reading the following books in the series.