A Resistance of Witches by Morgan Ryan is a rather intriguing historical fantasy novel. Lydia Polk is a recent graduate of the Royal Academy of Witches and the apprentice of the Grand Mistress, Isadora, of the academy. When WWII breaks out Isadora places the might of the academy behind the Allied forces and works with Churchill to help where they can. As word reaches the academy about a book of dark magic known as the Grimorium Bellum, they start sending witches into France to acquire it before the Nazis can. Something that gets increasingly tricky when a German witch manages to infiltrate the academy and kill both Isadora and Lydia’s friend Kitty. Knowing there is a coven of German witches on the continent, Lydia decides that the best thing to do is to head to the continent herself in order to track the book down before they can. Upon arriving she ends up befriending and working with Henry Boudreaux, who is Haitian American and seems to have some rather unusual abilities of his own, and Rebecca Gagne, a French resistance fighter, as she works on finding out where exactly the book currently is.
I greatly enjoyed this book and found it to be a rather entertaining read. Lydia was an incredibly fascinating protagonist and I was seriously impressed by her drive and commitment to fighting against the German coven but also fighting to recover and then destroy the Grimorium Bellum. The idea for the story was also rather intriguing though I will admit that with the Nazis general interest in the occult not overly surprising either. I can very easily picture Hitler being thrilled to have a witch coven on his side. That being said, I still found the plot as a whole interesting and enjoyed watching how the story played out, especially since there were so many different threads to be pulled. There were a few things that I was surprised by, more so towards the end, but nothing that was overly surprising overall. It did take a lot of twists and turns though and had some seriously interesting reveals towards the end. The story was good and thoroughly enjoyable. Something that I greatly enjoyed was seeing how the different characters ended up working together. Each of them felt so distinctly different but still fleshed out and real that it made for a really nice dynamic between them. Lydia was definitely the main protagonist but in the end Henry and Rebecca had just as large of a role to play. I ended up enthralled with the story and found myself hoping Lydia would be successful. This one gets 4.5 out of 5 stars from me.
As I already mentioned this book would probably best be classified as historical fantasy so I could easily see it appealing to readers who enjoy either fantasy or historical fiction, specifically those who enjoy reading about witchcraft and magic or about WWII. Considering the plot it does contain some rather dark and occasionally gruesome content so be prepared for that before diving in. The book is aimed at adults but I would still feel comfortable recommending it to older teens as well without any problems. Just keep in mind what I said about it being on the dark side, so to speak. It is a good book though and one that is definitely worth your consideration if you enjoy fantasy or historical fiction. If you do decide to try it I hope you will also consider sharing your thoughts about it in the comments.