In the world of Gadore, the Witch is the most feared person alive. Much like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, one Witch is born in every generation, but this generation's Witch is a mystery -- hunted and forced into hiding. The King's best fighter, Toran, teams up with Nes, a simple street thief blessed with the ability to smell magic, on a mission to find the Witch and bring her to the King to face justice.

Meanwhile, women are drowned every day under suspicion of being the Witch, who can only be killed by drowning in seawater.

The opening pages find Toran drowning himself in alcohol to numb the pain of losing the love of his life in a shipwreck. He finds new determination to hunt the Witch when he discovers that his lover had set out to find her, believing the Witch was responsible for the tragedy.

Nes agrees to help Toran in exchange for her father's release from prison. She has plenty of secrets of her own, especially since using magic is illegal -- and she openly relies on her gift to sniff it out.

I'll admit it took me a while to get into this story. The opening chapters felt complicated and introduced terms that weren't fully explained. But once I understood the rules of the world, I was completely hooked. I finished the book in just two evenings, and on the second night I stayed up far later than I should have because I had to know how it ended.

I'll avoid spoilers, but I will say that this story doesn't wrap up the way you expect. There are multiple plot twists. I did predict a couple of them -- a main character being orphaned around the same time the last Witch of her generation dies isn't exactly impossible to figure out -- but the biggest twist completely blindsided me. It was painful, shocking, and nothing like I expected.

This isn't a lovey-dovey fantasy with a tidy ending. It gets messy. It gets ugly. As the story unfolds, you realize the characters aren't nearly as noble as they first appear and, in the end, everyone faces the consequences of their choices.

This is Lyndsey Olsson's debut novel, and I'm excited to see what she writes next. I understand there's already a second book in the series, and I'm looking forward to reading it. But first, I'm tempted to reread To Drown a Witch and see if I can spot all the breadcrumbs she left leading to that ending.

And when the second comes out, I'll be there to let you know what I think about that one.