Blog Tour: The Witch’s Heart – Genevieve Gornichec
Today, I’m thrilled to present my stop on the Titan Books Blog Tour for The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec. This has been out for a while in the US, but the shiny UK paperback just came out this week! While I’m personally partial to the US cover, Genevieve has been lucky to get two very different but gorgeous covers for her debut based on Norse mythology. I absolutely loved it, and can wholeheartedly recommend this with a full five stars.
SUMMARY: Angrboda’s story begins where most witch tales end: with being burnt. A punishment from Odin for sharing her visions of the future with the wrong people, the fire leaves Angrboda injured and powerless, and she flees into the furthest reaches of a remote forest. There she is found by a man who reveals himself to be the trickster god Loki, and her initial distrust of him—and any of his kind—grows reluctantly into a deep and abiding love.
Their union produces the most important things in her long life: a trio of peculiar children, each with a secret destiny, whom she is keen to raise at the edge of the world, safely hidden from Odin’s all-seeing eye. But as Angrboda slowly recovers her prophetic powers, she learns that her blissful life—and possibly all of existence—is in danger.
Angrboda must choose whether she’ll accept the fate that she’s foreseen for her beloved family—or rise to remake it.
OPINIONS: Hi you need to read this queer story based on Norse mythology. I love Angrboda. She is a wonderful leading lady, a complex character not easily reduced to anything. And Loki is just… Loki. Smug bastard, in all his weird and wonderful glory as a trickster. I might also be slightly in love with Skadi, just as Angrboda is. She is amazing, and while she is a badass, she is also kind of a cinnamon roll and super supportive and just, everything that one might wish for in a partner.
Genevieve manages to take these elements of Norse mythology and craft them into a magnificent tale of her own, an epic fantasy that is nevertheless contained in a volume that does not threaten to smother its reader by sheer volume. All the pieces of the story fit together, and when I read it, it was exactly what I needed in that precise moment. I am already looking forward to rereading it – and these days, I don’t get around to doing a lot of rereading, so that’s high praise!
I can’t wait to see what Genevieve comes up with next, and I look forward to seeing where her journey as a writer takes her – if I enjoyed her debut this much, and found it this well-crafted, it can only get better from here, and I have high hopes. If you enjoy epic historical fantasy along the lines of Madeline Miller or Lucy Holland’s Sistersong, or even more Grimdark takes on Norse stories such as those by John Gwynne, you’ll probably like this one a lot.
Add The Witch’s Heart to your Goodreads here, or order a copy via Bookshop here (affiliate link).