Venus Stoneheart lives in a world of humans and witchers. Witchers like Venus and her family have different magical powers and now aged 18, Venus has been using hers for a while in order to support her family.

Venus is a brewer of potions. She is paid handsomely to brew and deliver potions to make another fall in love – with a unrequited or scorned love, a parent seeking their child’s forgiveness, or even fall in love with an idea. This would be straight forward except for the many repercussions of brewing.

One is the physical toll – each brew breaking Venus down into pieces until she takes special potions to rebuild herself. This is painful and takes much from Venus, body and mind.

Another is the fact that brewing is illegal, and the human police force never needs an excuse to beat on witchers, torch their property or arrest them for witchery, or even just a suspicion of it.

Venus is also dealing with a deviant – this ‘inner demon’ has a life of its own within her, always eager to escape and cause havoc, mayhem and death if she isn’t strong enough to reign it in. She calls it, IT, and is constantly willing it to shut up. This deviant came into being through trauma in Venus’ life, and she must drink daily serums to keep it in check.

But when her mother is killed, keeping IT is even harder, as she struggles with yet more trauma, and the desperation to protect her younger, fiery, impetuous sister, Janus.

Venus feels all of Janus’ emotions, as Venus is also an empath – having to deal with waves of anger, fear, or whatever those around her are feeling at any one time. All of this is a lot to constantly copy with, especially after she is hired to make three powerful love potions – with no right of refusal.

The person hiring her is all powerful in the Witcher World, has a political agenda, and a will to protect the future safety of Witchers.

The more Venus learns as she researches and collects what she needs for the potions, the more she learns about her mother’s past, and extended family. Will she be able to source all she needs, save Janus from her impulsive actions, and even survive the process?

The world building behind this story is impressive – through the multi-layered plot and the chapter tasters of Witcherpedia postings or snippets of Witcher excerpts from Witcher tomes.

Venus has got a LOT on her plate – more so than any character I’ve read lately, and accordingly sways through emotions, trying to deal with it all. She is strong, loyal, grieving over a mother that rarely showed love for her daughters, and trying to put things right in her world of feuding humans and witchers.

This is a complicated read and can’t be hurried. It’s not a fast-paced read but has parts that definitely get the heart pumping in fear, revenge, or rage.

All in all, the world Venus lives in is very believable, as we place it up against our own.

Thanks to Sourcebooks and Net Galley for the ARC of this book.

Author – Bethany Baptiste

Age – 16+

(2024, Sourcebooks, Witchers, Magic, Powers, Portal, Empaths, Family, Grief, Love, Revenge, Power, Agendas, Politics, Lobbying, Lies, Secrets, Half Siblings, Sister, Fantasy, Prejudice, Murder, Mystery)