I really enjoyed the first half of the book, but the second half went downhill fast and rolled all the way to absolute rock bottom. My biggest problem with the book is that the author gave up good character/worldbuilding and skillful writing (particularly dialogue) just to get her point across. This book ended up reading like the fantasy cousin of Pilgrim's Progress, which would be fine if this were labeled Christian Fiction, but everywhere I've seen it, it's labeled just straight fantasy. In my opinion, if you can't communicate the moral of your story through the story itself, then you haven't told the story properly; you shouldn't have to insert stilted dialogue and preachy conclusions. Again, if this were labeled Christian Fiction, I would have walked in with different expectations, and getting preached at wouldn't have felt like it came out of nowhere. On top of that, the battle between good and evil included none of the nuances of human nature. Rather than portraying humans as complicated, the good and bad people behaved exactly as you would expect. What's the point in trying to portray a human struggle if you don't portray humans properly? It felt like a fable or allegory due to how clearly the author cared first and foremost about portraying the moral. Also, a slightly smaller gripe, but the author did absolutely zero research on scorpions before inserting them into the book. Fun fact: scorpions don't have teeth. That being said, the idea for the plot was incredibly interesting, and the magic system was fresh. If the latter half of the book had been executed like the first half, I probably would have given the book 3-4 stars.

I really enjoyed the twists and turns of this novel but got tired of the decisions made by the main characters.

The wishtress is about Mrythe who has the power to give wishes. When she is killed for a bad accident she causes, her world falls down around her. Our male love interest Bastiaan has one of the best and interesting powers. He can stop time for as long as he wants. We are introduced to him so wonderfully that I was hooked instantly.

What I didn’t like about this book was that banes were “evil” and talents were “good” which was intriguing at first but when we reached the end when people come together and have choices, they still determine it as evil. For literally no reason. Myrthe had a full scene with the nightwell befriending it and still banes are seen as bad? It just got tiring and was such a let down in the end. I’m actually wondering if it’s an allegory for the good and evil inside warring you and u have to choose good to be good??? But the nightwell was never even bad it just gave people talents that benefitted them. It just doesn’t make sense and really ruined the ending for me. The people started off being looked down on if they had a bane and it ended that way.

This book is published as Christian fiction which is notorious for having battles of good and evil so I really think that that’s what is happening here now that i think about it LOL Which is quite disappointing. Why let religion dictate how u write your fantasy fiction?

Still a great read though just know the ending isn’t very satisfying! And don’t even get me started on the final scene and how selfish it was.