Rebel Witch – Love Worth Fighting For

A witch and a witch hunter have finally met their match in each other in Rebel Witch, the final installment of Kristen Ciccarelli’s Crimson Moth series. A LOT happens in this book, and Rune and Gideon’s relationship jumps through more than a few hoops as they stand on opposite sides of a war featuring a cruel witch queen and an authoritarian human regime.

Gideon has caught the Crimson Moth’s trail and has tracked her to a kingdom across the sea. But instead of finding a desperate witch on the run, Gideon sees Rune Winters, powerful witch and once-beloved aristocrat, in her element and on the arm of the kingdom’s prince. Yet as Rune plays her part to give her people a fighting chance, she discovers that her witch queen has been hiding some terrible plans. Both Rune and Gideon will clash and collide once again as they attempt to create a future they both believe in, as more powerful forces start to close in.

As most of us know, romantasy puts its energy on the romance and less so on other story elements. But Rebel Witch is weird for the fact that it has the romance operating within a pretty complex plot. The only problem is, it doesn’t want to stray from the romance, so Rune and Gideon are having their relationship drama on a very shallow but complicated stage. The world is quite literally burning down around them, but the reader isn’t allowed to focus on that. We are constantly refocused to watch how the witch and witch hunter dynamic plays out. It was strange for the story to hint at heavier themes of trauma and genocide and have them linger around the edges of the story, but not flesh them out. It felt wrong to read a romance set in some sort of trauma story that doesn’t meaningfully explore both the characters’ experiences and the complications of their violent world. In addition to that, there is a ton of plot forced into this second and final book, which made the story feel even more shallow and hurried. It is very common to have a romance with the interests on differing sides, but Rebel Witch hinted at such heavy darkness in some instances that I was uncomfortable being made to care if Gideon liked Rune more than his previous girlfriend or not. 

The cat-and-mouse nature of Rune and Gideon’s relationship carries over to this story, which makes sense after the final events of book one. However, in Heartless Hunter, their dynamic was fun and intriguing, and here, it’s repetitive and uninteresting. The tension that was created in the first book devolves quickly because even though we constantly hear the inner monologue of each character wanting to betray the other, they never actually do. We spend the entirety of Rebel Witch flip-flopping back and forth between Rune and Gideon, who can’t follow through and betray the other. And after they fail so many times to actually hurt the other, all the energy gets sucked out of their game, and I lost interest in their relationship because at that point, it was only ever going to end up one way.

I found Rune’s character arc to be interesting in this story. She has the biggest departure from her initial characterization in book one, going from gutsy vigilante to someone fearful and ready to flee at her first opportunity. Rune confronted her role as the Crimson Moth with such confidence, but the events in book two have hurt her both mentally and physically. She’s seen the consequences of that bravado and now starts to shy away from it. Her evolution happens slowly in Rebel Witch, and it mostly reveals itself toward the end, so her final metamorphosis doesn’t blossom for long before she evolves again. 

I’m curious to know if romantasy fans are getting tripped up by the intense plot happening behind the scenes of Rebel Witch, or if they’re loving the high, but vague, stakes of Rune and Gideon’s relationship. If you’re looking for a romance with a plot that refuses to slow down and crystallize, then this is the story for you. 

Rating: Rebel Witch – 6.0/10
-Brandee