Book Review: Wizard of Most Wicked Ways

Title: Wizard of Most Wicked Ways
Author: Charlie N. Holmberg
Genre: Historical, Fiction, Fantasy

What It’s About: Owein Mansel has been living with Merritt and Hulda in Narrangassett Bay, and their three children, the oldest of whom has sugary—the ability to see the future. Beth and Baptiste had gotten married as well, and had their own child. Owein receives a letter from Cora, his betrothe, in London, and writes her a back a letter as well. Fallon, who has the capability of changing into a hawk and a dog, arrives, and the two of them spend time together over the coming months.

One day, a strange man arrives on the Island, whose smell Owein identifies—it’s Silas Hogwood, and it turns out that Silas had managed to save his soul upon his death by attaching himself to the little hut that he had been in when he was killed by Merritt and Hulda, and then had attached himself to the Warden, named Charlie, when the man had come through the house. In the two years since his death, Silas had been battling between being in control of his body, and Charlie’s soul taking control of Charlie’s body ending him up in jail and a few other places.

When Silas arrives at Blaugdone Island, a battle ensues in which Owein and Merritt barely manage to fend him off though Merritt is deeply injured and Silas flees. Owein writes a letter to Cora asking for the bead that she had used some time ago in order to strengthen his magic against Silas. Instead, the Queen’s League of Magicians come, including William Blightree, and one of them delivers a letter in a box from Cora to Owein. Blightree heals Merritt enough, and Owein reads the letter, in which Cora explains to him why she had not send him the beads. The group makes a plan to flush out Silas Hogwood, and so Beth and Baptiste head over to their family, while Owein, Merritt, Hulda and the three children head over to Hulda’s sister’s house. Fallon comes with them and Owein and Fallon spend time in a pond not too far from the house, during which they kiss, but Owein is not willing to cross the line as he had signed the contract to marry Cora.

Nothing happens, and Silas doesn’t show up, so the family returns to their home on Blaugdone Island. Owein picks up a letter from the postmaster and learns about a letter addressed to Hulda regarding a facility. Fallon tells him that she knows where the Facility is, and so the two of them take off, with only Blightree knowing that he’s leaving for something other than what Owein writes in his letter to Hulda. They make their way to the Ohio facility, and Owein uses his magic to get into the facility through the wall, and he discovers that they had been experimenting on magic. He also finds vials of liquid, one of which he takes with him to confront Hulda about in order to gain an understanding of what it is.

Hulda is in the BIKER offices with Myra, when they get attacked by none other than Silas Hogwood. Owein comes to save them, but watches Silas kill Myra. He decides that he has had enough with what Silas is doing, that he uses one of the vials that he had picked up at the facility and manages to essentially burn off Silas’s hand as it strengthens the power of necromancy that Owein’s body has. Later that day, Hulda explains to Owein what has been going on in the facility and they eventually send the children away for safety. Merritt’s half brother shows up as well, after he had been told by their father that Merritt is also their brother, which has left the family a bit in shambles. But they talk and Merritt helps him get a bit of control over his magic, which the brother had gotten later in life, just like Merritt.

At some point, there is an attack on the island while the family is away, and Blightree nearly dies. Owein goes to talk to him, and while he is at Blightree’s deathbed, Blightree takes hold of his soul, bringing it out from his body and they talk for some time, and Owein does him the honor of calling him Uncle. Hulda also agrees to call for the chemist who made the vials of magical liquid that Owein had found in the facility. The woman arrives, talks to Hulda, and then goes about making the vials of liquid magic for Owein, using his original body that had been buried and some of his blood.

Silas shows up, and another fight ensues, during which Silas overpowers many of the Queen’s League of Magicians, as well as Merritt, and Owein. Owein uses the magic vial, and at some point realizes that he will have to give up his body in order to save everyone he loves. He dies in his current body and turns into the house by attaching himself to the house on the Island. He then goes ahead and kills Silas as the house, before being pulled back into his body by Blightree, who had crawled from the other house on the island as a nearly dead corpse. Now that Silas is dead, the Queen’s League of Magicians take their dead and head back to England. Everyone returns to Blaugdone Island, and time goes on as they try to recover.

Then, one day, Adley returns with the reminder that Cora has turned 18, and Owein needs some time to make a decision—he thinks about everything and he realizes that there’s one path forward that he keeps seeing as the best way forward. As a result, he tells Fallon that he will always love her, but he’s made his decision. Fallon is mad and she flies off, and Owein suspects that he will never see her again. The next day, he tells his goodbyes to everyone, and gets on the ship with Adley to go to the United Kingdom, to start his life as part of the Queen’s League of Magicians and marry Cora.

My Thoughts: I struggled to get through the book—the story and the plot just felt very boring and slow. It was also almost recycled because the main villain of the story again is Silas Hogwood, and I just feel that we could have found a different villain, a different challenge or a different character to make it interesting. I do also feel like the storyline was rushed instead of fully developing Owein and exploring his feelings around what it’s like to be in his own body again after so many hundreds of years, and how it’s not really his body. I wanted to see him struggle a bit with that morally grey area, though I did appreciate his struggles with not having enough power and the fact that they removed his first body from his grave. Still, there’s so much more that the author could have done with this story than she did. And lastly, I wasn’t a fan of him being removed from his family in the end; that he made the decision to go back to England to fulfill the obligation of his marriage—I think that the author could have been a bit more understanding of Owein’s connection to the land and made him figure out a way to stay there; to get Merrit and Hulda to help him find a way to do that. Overall, not my favorite book in the series and in a way, I’m glad that I’m done with this series as it was getting a bit stale.