Review: The Lost Witch

The Lost Witch by Paige Crutcher
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

A town damned and the healer who damned them. A sister who sacrificed everything and a daughter lost in time. That was her story. 

The Lost Witch was a story that at times took a movie Memento like concentration by me because of it's use of flashbacks. Brigid is a witch that lives in the village of Evermore, floats off the coast of Ireland. She lost her mother when she was young, had a father that seems to have chased her sister Agnes away, and wants a child. The problem is that Brigid's goddess Brighid (yes, that did get confusing at times) tells her that in order to become a mother, she would have to give up her destiny of becoming one of the nineteen that tends the flame. So Brigid turns to the lough, a lake that it is said to have immense power but is the opposite of the light powers of the Goddess. Readers see Brigid make a deal with Luc Knightly, the God of the lough. Then when Brigid's daughter Dove, turns twelve, she becomes very sick and Brigid must turn to the lough again. This time, Brigid living in 1922 gets sucked into the lough and transported to current times and without her memory. 

Brigid was a lost witch, one with no memory of where she’d been or how she could get back home. 

In 2022, Brigid learns that she broke the seal of the lough, causing The Damned (monster like creatures) to periodically come out and terrorize the town, a town no one can leave now. She runs into her distant relative Ophelia and Ophelia's roommate and friend Finola who live in Brigid's old home and try and fight the The Damned to protect the townspeople. Brigid also runs into Luc Knightly who has the memories Brigid lacks and seems to want to help her but his dark magic is what has lead to the problems in the first place. A coven of 4 witches serves him, lead by East, who work to empower the lough and want to destroy Brigid and her good magic Goddess. They have six months before the lough is fully opened. 

“She took what was mine, and I want it back.” 

Brigid leveled him a look. “Good luck with that.” 

“You need me,” he said. “And I need you, so why don’t we help each other?” 

Because Luc Knightly never helped anyone but himself. 

A lot of this happens in the first couple chapters and I felt a little lost at times, wishing I had some kind of witch primer to understand what was completely going on. As the story goes on, the reader learns that Brigid is not only missing some memories but the reader doesn't know the full story of what happened between Brigid and Luc. Around 30% we get some of Luc's point-of-view (Ophelia, Finola, and East also get povs) and it's clear there was some romance between Luc and Brigid. We do get some flashbacks of their relationship but there wasn't much showing the emotional development or depth between the two. The romance felt pretty weak to me in this. 

His touch a light caress, his dimple dug deep into his cheek, his heart in his eyes, and her happiness in the palms of his hands. 

I'm not going to lie, 50-70% I felt pretty lost as I tried to follow the story, past excerpts from Ophelia and Finola's podcasts get inserted to catch up and inform the reader about certain things and a cauldron that can give you what you want enters the picture. Now remembering her daughter, Brigid, of course, wants to be reunited with the daughter that had to go into the lough to be saved from her sickness. The cauldron ends up separating Brigid, Luc, Ophelia, and Finola, they lose some of their memories, and then come together for an ending battle scene where they fight the evil coven. There's some happily ever after aspects but clearly some story plots that were given a less happy conclusion in favor of continuing this on down the line in a series. A story of the continuous battle between light and dark magic that had it's confusing moments.

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