Sashi. ( )

I love when authors give us novellas with back story for main characters. This Old World story didn't disappoint. ( )

Short and a bit sad. Good novella of the Old World from two perspectives. I enjoyed it enough to read straight through. ( )

Set in the same world as the Scarlett Bernard series, this story is a prequel following two women. Sashi is a thaumaturge witch who is expected to follow in her renowned oncologist mother’s footsteps in devoting her life to healing. Astrid is a werewolf whose alpha beats and rapes her into submission as he needs a mate to balance out himself and the pack. Astrid hates him. Besides being set in the same world, where humans are not allowed to know about the Old World population of witches, werewolves and vampires, the tie-in to the series is Will, a human who has struggled with cancer his entire life.

It’s never taken me so long to read such a short story. I’ve read a number of books where the point of view switches between characters, but in this case it’s pretty much telling two different stories that converge a few times before a combined climax. Each time the point of view changed, I felt like I had to play catch-up on where we’d left it. Not especially difficult, but it slowed me down. For me, that made the story drag and I just wasn’t feeling engaged in it until we get closer to the end.

Do you have to read the Scarlett Bernard series first? No, I don’t believe so, although if you’ve read that series you’ll know most of the outcome.

I can say that I’m glad I read it and liked learning more about Will, but don’t believe I’d ever re-read this one. ( )