I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Witch of the Wolves by Kaylee Archer Series: Witch of the Wolves #1
Published by St. Martins Press on September 30, 2025
Genres: PNR
Pages: 352
Format: eBook
Source: NetGalley
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Caught between spells and savage beasts, Cordelia Levine must unravel the secrets of her dual heritage—half witch, half werewolf—and face her desire for the one creature who holds her future in his hands.
Cordelia Levine, a twenty-three-year-old witch hidden in the human world, leads a quiet life in London with her aunt, managing an apothecary for the supernatural. But her life is upended when a brooding and handsome werewolf, Bishop Danvers, kidnaps her on her estranged father’s orders—the Alpha of the Albion Pack.
It is at Trevelyan, her father’s estate, that Cordelia learns she comes from a long line of witches with secondary werewolf traits—a powerful and unique bloodline that must be protected from foreign packs.
Not everyone in the pack is happy about Cordelia’s arrival, and as danger closes in, she wonders if the man who ripped her from her life could be the one to save it.
The genre Victorian Paranormal Romance has long been an underused one. I almost always snap up a Victorian PNR.
Our heroine Cordelia is a witch from a powerful line of witches, but she’s also half lycan. She lives with her aunt who has both taught her, and protected her. Her aunt is the closest thing she has to a mother. And one day Cordelia realizes she’s being followed. The main thing is she’s very confident that she can handle anything, except at one point she realizes she can’t. But she doesn’t really learn from that experience, because while I’m all for confidence, with Cordelia, it does tend to border into arrogance.
That being said, the story is interesting and I liked the hero, Bishop. Basically Bishop has been groomed to take over the pack, however their alpha, who is horrible, has been stringing him along. Their alpha is Cordelia’s father and he is plotting something. Cordelia doesn’t know him, and she really wants to believe he has the best of intentions, so it’s really difficult for her when she realizes he’s terrible. She’s attacked one day in her aunt’s home, and the catalyst was her father (one of his plots), although she doesn’t know that. She winds up kidnapped and staying with her father and his pack. But it’s not going the way she had expected.
Bishop is a solid guy, and he does everything he can to be a buffer between Cordelia and her father, but Cordelia is basically thrust into this world, and doesn’t necessarily realize that’s what Bishop is doing. At least not at first. But when the plan her father comes up with is for the two of them to marry, it’s a push/pull game between Bishop and Cordelia. This is where everything intensifies. She’s able to see her father for who he is, and she begins to see Bishop as someone she can rely on, and potentially love.
I’m intrigued by this world, and the series, and I’m excited to see for what this author does with the next book.
