Wishtress by Nadine Brandes Book Review
Hello, lovely readers! Welcome back to the Nook! I can’t believe it’s been three months since I posted over here. I’ve been posting on my other blog for the past few months that I didn’t realize until now that it had been so long since I posted on TWN. I’ve really missed this place. But with the start of the new year, I’ve got new blog post ideas, and I can’t wait to share them with you all!
For today, I have a book review to share. I know book reviews aren’t something I do a lot on TWN, but this one is longer than my normal reviews that I post on Goodreads and it’s of a new favorite book! After reading Wishtress by Nadine Brandes, I loved it so much that I wanted to share my thoughts with you all. If you haven’t heard of Wishtress before, maybe after reading this post you’ll want to give it a try. 😉
Review
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Genre: YA Christian allegorical fantasy
Rating: 5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
(You can read Wishtress‘s blurb/summary on Goodreads here.)
Wishtress by Nadine Brandes
Another amazing book to add to my favorites list! Nadine Brandes is such a Talented author!! (See what I did there? 😉) She never fails to amaze me! Her creativity is incredible, and her themes are impactful! I just love her work so so much!!
Wishtress was such a beautiful book. Not just the cover (because, believe me, the cover is absolutely GORGEOUS), but the story itself was beautiful. I loved that throughout the story, Myrthe had to learn what the purpose of living is. I won’t say any more about that so I don’t spoil the story, but I will say it was perfect and what she learned stuck with me. I especially loved the quote in the book that goes, “Your life was given to you. . . . A gift. And just because it’s yours doesn’t give you the right to end it.” This was probably one of my favorite quotes, even if it was said by Oma. (For those of you who haven’t read the book, I did not like Oma very well . . . like, at all.) But anyway, Wishtress affected me deeply (in a good way of course!). I was invested and experienced all the emotions—mostly anxiety though. I was very stressed out for the characters. And the theme, as I already said, stuck with me and left me pondering over it days after finishing the book. I was left in awe, and it made me want to be even more devoted to God and focus on using my “talents” for Him. I just love that both Wishtress and Brandes’ other novel Fawkes inspire me to have a deeper relationship with God, and I hope my stories will do the same for others.
Not only did I love Wishtress’s theme, but I adored the characters as well! I loved both Bastiaan and Myrthe equally! Which I was so happy about because I loved reading from each of their perspectives rather than only loving one and not caring as much for the other as I sometimes feel with other books that have dual POVs. Oh, and I loved Bastiaan and Myrthe’s relationship. They were so cute together! And Bastiaan—aah!! He has such a good heart. I also loved that Bastiaan and Myrthe both understood each other. I thought that made them even more perfect for each other. Eee, I could probably squeal over these characters all day long!
Some of my other favorite aspects of Wishtress were the little phrases that some of the characters used, the made-up words, and the magic system. The Talents were so cool! I loved Myrthe’s wish-granting Talent and Bastiaan’s time-stopping Talent! The phrases they frequently used were cute too! (“Winter’s breath” was my favorite one though, hehe.) Oh, and I loved that seasons played an important role in this fantasy world. It was so much fun. All of the minor details in this fantasy world were so cool and made it a world you wanted to live in!
I think it goes without saying that I looooovvved Wishtress, and I need the sequel so desperately! If there ever is one, I will be buying it for sure!
Magic content:
Magic in the form of magical abilities (like superpowers), magical water that gives you magical abilities (one type of water represented God while the other represented Satan), curses, and calling someone a witch. A mention of a dragon used as a comparison.
Language:
Clean. Uses of “stupid,” “idiot,” “curse it,” and “blasted.” Mentions of cursing.
Romance:
Clean. Some kissing.
Violence:
Mentions of murder, someone getting whipped, cutting someone’s finger off, and a mention of carving out someone’s eye with a spoon.
Other:
Mention of a girl being sold as a prostitute.
I hope you enjoyed this review, and thank you so much for reading today! Have you read Wishtress or any other book by Nadine Brandes? What book is at the top of your tbr for 2024? I can’t wait to hear from you!
Happy reading!
~Katherine Perry
12 Comments
Hannah
I READ WISHTRESS WHEN IT CAME OUT i am so normal about this book (lying). It’s the first book I read by her but someday I am so excited to read all her books. I’m hyped for the nightmare virus later this year too, and I have Wishtress on my tbr for this year because I loved it so much, I read it over the course of two days and would love to read it in one day sometime. I adored the charactersssss altho I gotta admit. Runt my beloved. *squees*
Katherine
AAAHH, THAT’S AWESOME!!!!!!😃 Lol, I’m not normal about it either. XD You’re in for a treat then, because her books are amazing!!! Outside of Wishtress, the other books I’ve read by Brandes are Romanov and Fawkes. Both are fantastic, but Fawkes is one of my favorites!! I can’t wait till you read that one!!😉 Eee, I’m hyped for The Nightmare Virus as well!! Oh, that sounds like fun!! I hope you are able to read it in one day!! Aaah, I loved Runt as well!! He is so sweet! *squees with you*
Saraina
AHHH YES! I absolutely adored this book, and I love your review!!!! The theme of Wishtress also stuck with me long after I read the story…so powerful. <3
Katherine
Eee, I adored it as well!! I so hope that Nadine Brandes writes a sequel. I need one so badly! Aw, thank you!!!!<3 Ah, yes, I agree about the theme being powerful. My mind is just blown away with how Brandes writes her themes! She does an amazing job with them!
Kimberly J Perry
This sounds like a GREAT book to read. I love the names (Bastiaan and Myrthe) – so unique. It is definitely in my TBR jar. Thanks for sharing your review.
Katherine
Yes, it DEFINITELY is!!! You should read it soon! Aah, me too!! And their names are so fun to say! Yay!!! Aw, you’re welcome!! Thank you for reading!
Hannah Ruth
Ahhh, I just reread Wishtress a couple months ago, and it was just as good as the first time! I could do without some of the violence, tbh, but the depth of the storyline… ahhh, I love it so much. Both for Myrthe and Bastiaan. Those two always get me to the core, and the ending… I WANT A SEQUEL TOO! It’s such a good book and a fabulous allegory. Great review!
Katherine
Aah, that’s so fun!! Rereading wonderful books is the best!! Oh yeah, I know what you mean. The violence was a little rough, and I was especially sad that you know whose finger was cut off.😭 Eee, yes, I love the storyline’s depth and Myrthe and Bastiaan as well! The whole book is purely EPIC!!! I could squeal over it for days. NADINE BRANDES PLEASE WRITE A SEQUEL! WE NEED ONE! Yes, I agree!
Thank you so much!!
Diamond
I should give this one a try! I’ve read Romanov and I have Fawkes on my TBR, so I’ll probably get to that one first though. I’m glad you liked Wishtress!
Katherine
Yes, definitely! I think you’d like it. 😉 Ah, that’s cool that you read Romanov! What did you think of it? Eee, I’m happy to hear that because Fawkes is one of my favorite books ever!!! You’ll have to let me know what you think once you read it. 😉
Journey Bloomfield
Um, I have this book! I definenty didn’t forget about it…um, I guess I should go read it now! *Moves it to the top of my gigantic to be read pile.* it sounds great! Wait, it actually might have been you who suggested it on Goteenwriters.com…
Katherine
Yay!! I’m happy to hear you own Wishtress!! Eee, yes, please go read it!! *makes puppy dog eyes* It’s sooo good; you’ll love it!! If you do read it, let me know what you think. I’d love to hear your thoughts about it! 😉
I could have suggested it over there . . . but I don’t really remember if I did, lol.