The Witch with No Name by Kim Harrison

Title: The Witch with No Name (The Hollows, 13)
Author: Kim Harrison
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Harper Collins (9th September 2014)
Blurb:

In 2004, Kim Harrison made her debut with Dead Witch Walking, an electrifying urban fantasy novel full of action, mystery, romance, and humor, which introduced bounty hunter and witch Rachel Morgan. Over the course of twelve books, Rachel confronted numerous threats, vanquished a range of cunning and powerful enemies, risked her heart, suffered haunting loss, and nearly lost her life. Now, in The Witch with No Name, Kim Harrison brings back her wildly popular heroine for one final, epic battle.

Rachel Morgan’s come a long  way from the klutzy runner fleeing a bad job. She’s faced vampires and werewolves, banshees, witches, and soul-eating demons. She’s crossed worlds, channeled gods, and accepted her place as a day-walking demon. She’s lost friends and lovers and family, and an old enemy has become something more.

But power demands responsibility, and world-changers must always pay a price.

That time is now.

To save her best friend Ivy’s soul and the rest of the living vampires, to keep the demonic ever-after and our own world from utter destruction at the hands of fanatics, Rachel Morgan will risk everything.

Rating: ***** (5 stars)
Review:

In THE WITCH WITH NO NAME Kim Harrison brings her epic THE HOLLOWS series to a close. In concluding the story Harrison draws all the threads together from the previous books, and gives fans a final story which might just, possibly, answer the question all fans want to know – does Rachel get a happy-ever-after?

Where do I even begin to talk about this book? Following THE HOLLOWS series from its first book to its last has been one heck of a ride, and though I wasn’t there at the beginning I’m proud to say I made it to the end. For years I have been faithfully buying each book as it was published and following Rachel Morgan’s epic story. I’m sad to see that come to a close, but with THE WITCH WITH NO NAME Harrison ends the series on one heck of a bang. I have to admit that when I got the book I wasn’t entirely sure how to approach it – did I just dive straight in and read to the end, or did I read a chapter at a time and draw the book out? I ended up doing an odd mixture of the two, and was shocked to find myself on the final chapter – then the final page…

As the idiom goes, all good things must come to an end. And so too has one of my favourite urban fantasy series.  I can remember coming across DEAD WITCH WALKING years ago at the recommendation of a friend and just falling in love with the world and the characters. Now, having finished the final page of the final book I feel a little lost and a little sad too. Not because the book wasn’t brilliant, or because the story itself lacked something – it’s didn’t, trust me – but because this is it: there will be no more (well, apart from an e-novella coming in October I think).

THE WITCH WITH NO NAME is a really enjoyable read, and I think Harrison did a brilliant job bring her series to its conclusion. In this final book Harrison answers (almost) all my lingering questions, and wraps things up brilliantly so that although I would love to read more written in this world, I feel at the same time as if Harrison has said everything that needs to be said. I think in all honesty, THE WITCH WITH NO NAME is one of the best examples of how a writer can end a series that I have been lucky enough to read.

The basic plot of THE WITCH WITH NO NAME is fairly typical for a book in THE HOLLOWS series, and if you have enjoyed the previous twelve books in the series then you will almost certainly enjoy this one too. Harrison handled Rachel’s journey through the book brilliantly, and there were a few interesting twists along the way. Rachel has definitely come a long way from her first appearance in DEAD WITCH WALKING, and it has been really fun watching her journey through the series and in this book. I also really loved the way that fundamentally Rachel is still the same in the first book as she is in the last; she’s incredibly loyal to her friends and those she loves. Harrison also did a brilliant job concluding Ivy’s story, and though I wish a little more had been said about Jenks there was enough to leave me feeling happy. As a final book, this was everything I had hoped for.