Mark Stay – Babes In The Wood

This is the second book in the Witches of Woodville series. I am lucky enough to have read the first book of this series as well as other books he has written. He is an author who I really admire as he manages to be funny and insightful while keeping his work of a brilliant quality.

Babes In The Wood picks up after the unusual happenings of the first book. Woodville is back to the ‘normal’ village it was or as close as anyway. Then the war decides it will make sure Woodville is aware of it’s presence. Faye Bright rescues three Jewish children and their guardian who have arrived as part of the war rescue efforts. A brave young woman who even stands up against the villagers who make their displeasure to having Germans in their village. Faye wants to make a difference in some way, which does look likely as she is also a witch, and one who is receiving magic lessons. She is frustrated though, because she is very aware that she feels she isn’t progressing as she wants/should. Mark Stay has excellently portrayed this frustration as I could almost feel it. I loved the fact that I was as happy as Faye as she got better and progressed in her magic. Again, the feelings were almost palpable and that is due to the author’s skill in crafting a story.

We see Faye having disturbing visions whenever she touched the refugee children and she off course wants to protect them, and as the story unfolds we see her protecting them from evil forces and that’s not just the Nazi’s.

Mark Stay’s world-building is fantastic. Woodville immersed me as it did with the first book. I couldn’t get enough! I was through this book in a day. He takes his time to set the scene and grab the reader while slowly building the tension that makes this book so readable. He weaves serious issues into his story without making them any less important. This book is about the Holocaust and he deals with it perfectly while still bringing humour magic and war to create a perfect story.

A massive thank you to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours and Mark Stay for inviting me to the book tour and for my copy of this highly immersive book.