Bitter Night: A Horngate Witches Book by Diana P. Francis

Max used to be your normal girl with a normal life until the day her college roommate turned on her. While drinking one evening, her roommate, Giselle, asked Max if she would like to stay young forever, be stronger and other fairy tale questions. Half drunk, Max said yes. Unfortunately, when she woke up, she was something not quite human.

Giselle is a very powerful witch, and its the Shadowblade who guard her and the coven. Max is now bound to Giselle with spells so tightly wound, she cannot be away from her witch for long. A slave, she cannot wait for the day she can kill Giselle and get her freedom.

But Max is not like other Shadowblade guards. She has a few drops of witch blood in her, which make her even more powerful. When the Guardians decide that they want to scourge humanity from the earth with the witches serving them, Max needs to decide between saving humanity or getting her freedom.

Bitter Night is an excellent beginning to a wonderful new urban fantasy series. I couldn't put it down, I was so immersed in the story!! Max is a strong character who has so many layers, it will be interesting to see how she evolves. I wanted to hate Giselle, but there is some humanity there that makes it hard to do so, although I loved to hate her. The Shadowblade that serve under Max make for some interesting background stories and it will be interesting to see how they develop. The world is set much like ours today so it made it easy to follow; the focus the characters and storyline and not the world building. If your looking for a new gritty, action-packed magical urban fantasy, Bitter Night is a must read. Absolutely fabulous!!