Rating: 5⭐️
It’s rare that I come across a book that pulls me in for over 500 pages, gives me a compelling set of complex characters, enthralling dark storylines, hints towards the ending and still manages to leave me devastated.
Honestly, I knew where the author was taking us and the characters. She told us. And Marshall still managed to pull off an incredible dramatic ending. One of multiple revelations.
In a book that has so many excellent elements (another thing I rarely write) let’s start off with the main characters.
Thraga, when we meet her, is in a cell, waiting to be hanged. She’s definitely one of the best written, compelling characters I’ve read recently, and not just in fantasy fiction. Her story, in terms of her dark past and darker history, is slowly revealed throughout the narrative. It’s who Thraga is as a person that is so powerful and intriguing. She’s OCD, counting her magical knives that she uses as a runewitch, as she gets lost in her own thoughts, spiraling out in certain situations, unable to pull herself out, and the reader is in her head with her, as lost as she is. The author describes how she battles with this herself and how it became the inspiration for the story. Outstanding work.
But among the many extremely dark layers here in the plot, there’s one dark side to Thraga’s that I should mention because for some it’s going to be triggering. Thraga has been in a controlling abusive relationship with someone and not realizing it. This is an important thread here. Marshall makes it believable, raw, and so damaging, as it should be. Everything about this reads real.
Then you add in the other main character, the necromancer, Durlain Averre. He’s equally beautifully written. Darkly crafted with his own deep scars, unbelievable pain, and plans for Thraga and himself, he’s powerful enough to be her equal on the page and have enormous depths, that no matter what he says, you hope for more.
The world building is incredible, it expands with the storytelling and everything about this feels so immersive that I read right through it.
Even the simplest of characters feel memorable. And the magical elements, including the darkness and cruelty of how necromancers are created is extraordinary.
My only quibble is having to wait for the next book to be released.
Please note that this is easily classified as dark fantasy horror fiction while others see it as romantasy. I feel the fantasy horror is more accurate.
Highly recommended but do think about whether you might be sensitive to certain aspects of the story.
Cover designer: Fay Lane
Runewitch Saga (2 book series to date)
The Death-Made Prince #1
The Thorn-Marked Witch #2 – April 13,2027
Buy link
Book 1 of 2: Runewitch Saga e book
Blurb
A runewitch on the run has only one option left: join forces with the sarcastic, unpleasantly gorgeous necromancer she loathes
The man Thraga loved is dead, and her future is in shambles. When she’s sentenced to the gallows for killing her lover’s murderers, it’s a relief more than anything… until, the night before her execution, a necromancer is thrown into her cell.
Escaping with him is her only chance to bring Lark back to life – and also the start of all her troubles.
Because her new almost-ally is not just any man returned from death. Fire mage, rogue prince, and son of the man who killed her mother, sharp-tongued Durlain Averre is everything Thraga hates. Worse, he won’t revive her lover unless she joins him on a mission of his own first, using her forbidden rune magic to free his sister from the dungeons of an enemy king.
But their quest turns into a deadly chase when Thraga’s violent past catches up with her. And as the net of court intrigue and old fears closes around them, she begins to find out Lark was not at all the man she thought he was…
And neither is Durlain.
The Death-Made Prince is the first book of the Runewitch Saga, an epic enemies to lovers fantasy romance featuring two morally grey leads, OCD rep, and a Norse mythology-inspired world. While it is a slow burn romance, the first book does contain spicy content intended for 18+ readers.
October 21, 2025
Language
English
Print length
547 pages
Book 1 of 2
