A Review for A Witteck's Dream (The Witteck Chronicles #1) by Mirelle Chester

Posted by Melanie
Release Date: July 13th, 2013
Finished Date: October 13th, 2013

Publishers: Self Published
Genre: YA Paranormal, Romance
Source: For Review

Format: eBook
Pages: Unknown

Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US 

It's been five years since the Chosen One's war and Hayden's pack has been able to enjoy life once again. Of course, things can never stay calm and they soon find themselves caught up in another epic fight and this time it looks like Ternach might hold the key to winning.

Mortal since losing his powers in the battle of Paradin, Ternach decides to take a trip to Sageden in hopes that Hayden can help him get his magic back. Along the way, he meets Sarah; a woman with a secret and an agenda.

It doesn't take long before sparks are flying and Ternach starts to think that maybe being human has it's perks after all.

When he discovers Sarah's secret he needs to make a decision: Does he stay human so he can stay with Sarah, or does he attempt to become immortal again knowing he has what is needed to win

The Review: Awww it’s so good to be back in Quelondain!
Following the epic battle between Hayden & Braw, peace had settled on the land of Quelondain, it’s a tentative peace and holds a fine line as shifters & humans lack trust in each other and judge based on species & alliances – presumed or not – and none know this better than Ternach - former magical immortal and major player in the battle five years ago- as he sets out on his journey to finally face Hayden in the hopes she can restore his magic. On his journey he comes across many hostiles who readily believe the worst in him and beat him for his new found humanity, eventually he is taken by a pack and meets Sarah. As their time together progresses, a mutual attraction is felt and fondness turns to something special but Sarah has been holding out on Ternach and when he finds out, he is forced to make a difficult decision leading him straight into Hayden’s domain again as a new prophecy emerges and Ternach looks to be having a hand in this too. Running alongside Ternach & Sarah’s story is Red & Greg’s as they take tentative steps into a new life away from Paradin, after Red loses her mate in the battle & turns her back on her former life she is captured by a pack of humans of which Greg is a part and after a shaky start between them, their relationship slowly turns sweeter and it seems they have a hand to play in the events that are slowly unfolding elsewhere…. One thing is for sure, all need Hayden’s guidance and who better to help than the former chosen one.
I really enjoyed this book, as I said it was so good to be back in Quelondain, I’m familiar with the world and its characters so slipping back into this world was so easy. I liked that the main character was Ternach, he was and interesting character in the previous books and I like that we’re finding out what happened to him in the aftermath… which doesn’t seem to be good considering he has lost his magic & immortality. It has definitely affected him and he finds it difficult to adjust even after five years, always longing for his power back but even so, he still doesn’t jump at Hayden’s offer to hopefully restore his power… for Hayden always seems to bring him pain ;) it was nice when he met Sarah and they made a connection, warming to each other, she brought out a bit more life in him and made him feel like being human wasn’t so bad. Sarah was a good match for him and I liked how they got together, I think it’s more of a cosmic connection and we are witnessing the beginnings of a powerful couple. Sarah’s secret is quite interesting, I want to know more, again I feel that this will unfold more as the series goes on so I don’t feel we’re seeing her in her full potential yet. I really liked Red & Greg too, I felt more emotionally connected to those two because they seem to have been given a harder life, both being human, they are practically hunted and beaten at every opportunity when all they want is their own little piece of ‘perfect’. Red is a mysterious character, turning her back on her former self following the battle, we do find out a little about her but again, there is more to this lady than we get in this and I look forward to more from her. The relationship was just lovely between her & Greg and I really routed for them to be happy.
The storyline is only in its early stages so we only get fed snippets of what’s at play but what’s important is that there is a prophecy! And I’m all over that, I love prophecies and by the sounds of this one, I know I’m going to love it! Let’s just say, it involves magic orbs & mated couples… even just that makes me happy! This focuses on introducing a few of the players, building the relationships that will come into play, understanding the magic that surrounds the prophecy, its origins & how the chosen will come into play. I have a feeling that the other continents are going to be ventured into for this series, there are mentions of the possibility of some of the orbs being displaced to them and I’m glad of this because it will open up this world even more and I have been curious about them since ‘The Chosen One trilogy’. We are definitely getting a new bad guy which we have yet to meet but already appears to be sinister through the descriptive prophecy so I’m curious to see what his game is. I think this book was an excellent introduction to The Witteck Chronicles, obviously it opens up a lot more questions than answers but I know Mireille will follow through with what promises to be another epic adventure in the land of Quelondain. 

Excerpt for A Witteck's Dreams:

The question he’d been dreading was next.  “Are you shifters?”  He remembered how just a couple of years prior the question would have been ‘are you Namael or Maj’.  By the tone of the man’s voice, he wasn’t going to like the answer Ternach was about to give him.

“My friends are; I’m not.”  There was no use lying to them; all they had to do was get a look behind his ear to see he didn’t have either mark and he knew the beating he’d receive while they looked for it wasn’t going to be pleasant.  He frowned.  He’d gone from the most powerful being in Quelondain to this, a pitiful human dreading the next beating he was about to get.  Here, he’d sacrificed almost everything to save their kind and now he had to endure this.  He looked up from the fish and his white green eyes met the other’s light blue ones.

“What’s your name?”

Maybe he should just make up a name.  Maybe they’d leave him alone if they didn’t think he was trying to be the Evertimeless.  He decided against it.  Damn it, he wasn’t going to lie about who he was.

“Ternach.”

The light blue eyes widened and a few snickers could be heard from the men behind him.  Ternach took a deep breath.  Here came the beating.

“Prove it.”

Ternach’s temper flared.  This was ridiculous.  “By the moons, maybe it’s about time somebody sent out a note to let everyone know what happened in Paradin that day!  I can’t prove it!  I lost all of my magic when that blasted staff touched me!  Were you even there?  Maybe if you had been you’d have seen it happen!”  His tirade was ended by the fist that connected with his stomach.  He doubled over, his lungs screaming for air.  A knee came up and caught him in the face.  His head snapped back and he fell to the ground.  He could feel the blood running from his nose and he tried to scramble backwards to get away.  He looked back to make sure he wasn’t heading into the fire, his one eye already swelling shut.

“Stop!”

He frowned.  Who was that?

“Stop it!  He’s not lying!”

Ternach watched as a small woman with long auburn hair put herself between him and her pack.  She glanced back and her dark hazel eyes looked him over quickly as if to make sure she was right.  He couldn’t recall having seen her before today.  He stayed on the ground.  There was no point in getting up if they were going to ignore her and keep on with the beating.

“You’ve met him before?”  The blue eyed man frowned at her.

She shook her head and Ternach’s heart dropped.  The man made to step forward and she pushed him back before standing more defensively in front of him.

“I haven’t met him, met him, but I’ve seen him.  I was there in the courtyard when it happened.”

Ternach was so relieved he thought he’d cry.  He sat up, a bit more hopeful than a few minutes prior.

“When Hayden touched that staff, I was sure we were all going to die.  Ternach helped her kill the power.  I don’t know how he did it, but he did.  If he says that it killed his magic, then I believe him.”

“How do you know he’s not just some human who knows this story and is using it to his advantage?”

The woman looked back to him again and he could have sworn she was blushing.

“Because…well, because when a man looks like that, a woman doesn’t easily forget.”  There was a shocked, amused silence as everyone thought about this.

“Ternach!”

“By the moons, what do you think you’re doing?”  Peter and Cassandra came running to his side.  Peter stood by the auburn haired woman while Cassandra knelt beside him.  She looked him over and glared at the pack.

“They didn’t believe I was me.”  He tried to smile but the split in his lip widened and he stopped.  He shook his head and wiped a hand under his nose to wipe the blood that had soaked into the stubble there.

“Lay back and I’ll fix you up.”  Cassandra waited until he was situated and ran a green wave over his face.  He sucked in a breath as everything healed.

“What do you mean you had to make sure he was who he said he was?”  Peter sounded outraged.  “When’s the last time you saw a human, or even a shifter for that matter, with eyes that color?”

The dark haired man stood his ground, his face turning red.  “White Ones have eyes that color!  I’ve seen Queen Melana.  Hers are just like that but blue.”

Cassandra grunted from where she still knelt by his side.  “Well, obviously he’s not Queen Melana, and if you thought he was a White One, then you mean to tell us you were beating who you believed was to be the next king of the Namaels?”

“I didn’t say that’s what I thought he was.”

Ternach got up.  “Leave it be, Cassandra.  No harm done.”  He started off toward the creek to clean the blood off.  What he really wanted was to have a sliver of his power for just an instant so he could fry the idiot where he stood, or to have a fair one on one fight without the chance of the whole pack jumping in, but since that wasn’t going to happen, there was no use in getting everyone more riled then they already were.

He pulled his tunic over his head then knelt by the creek so he could wash his face.  When he was clean he submerged his shirt and tried to get all of the blood out of it.  Thankfully, the one he’d been wearing was a dark brown so any stains wouldn’t be too noticeable.  He wrung it out and set it to dry on a branch.

Maybe you should go back, he thought to himself.  Back?  Back where?  To the camp?  The Northern Regions?  Well, he planned on going back to the camp eventually; right after his adrenaline quit pumping and he knew he was going to be able to keep his mouth shut.  As for the Northern Regions… that too, was an eventuality.

He sat with his knees up, his arms wrapped loosely around them, and watched as the water ran by.

“Ternach?”  It was the auburn haired woman.  “Can I… I mean, do you mind if I sit down?”

He looked up and squinted in the sunlight.  “Not at all.”

“I’m Sarah, by the way.  I wanted to apologize.”

He frowned.  “For saving my life?”  He was fairly sure the dark haired captain would have taken things past the regular beating.

She blushed.  “For the others.  They get a little carried away when it comes to humans.  Robert’s mate was separated by Braw’s staff about five years ago.  I don’t think he ever forgave himself for not being home when they took her.”

He grunted.  “I’d love to say I can relate, but I can’t, never having had a mate myself.”  They were both quiet for a moment and he glanced at her.  The setting sun was making her hair look red.  “Doesn’t he realize that not all humans hate shifters?  There were quite a few humans in Hayden’s pack when we attacked Paradin.”

She shook her head.  “I’ve tried telling him, but he doesn’t want to hear it.”

Ternach grunted again.  She looked over to him.  He was just a breathtaking as she remembered him.  His hair was as black as the darkest night and his eyes were such a huge contrast with their white green coloring.  The high cheekbones, the tanned skin; she couldn’t stop her gaze as it ran over his wide shoulders and down his side to his narrow hips.  She fought the urge to poke him to see if the muscles in his arm were as hard as they looked.  She remembered one of the human girls talking about him after they’d attacked the keep of Paradin.  ‘Built like a Greek god’ was what she’d used to describe him.  Sarah had never seen a Greek god, but was sure she’d be able to tell if she ever came across one.

“Dog or cat?”  Ternach smiled in her direction.  He still didn’t understand women’s fascination with his looks.  As far as he could tell he didn’t look any different than the rest of the men; never had.  Now had he gotten stuck living as a rock man he might have understood the stares.

AUTHOR BIO:

Mireille Chester is a stay at home mom of three children and wife to an amazingly supportive husband. Her time is spent playing with the kids, reading, writing, and watching movies with her hubby.

Since starting her novelling debut, she has had the pleasure of getting lost in several worlds. Quelondain and Dorathan are where she likes to spend her time and she hopes others will enjoy going there as well.

Mireille's series come for those in all age groups.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4820829.Mireille_Chester

Website: http://mireillechester.blogspot.co.uk/