Rebel Witch

In the Crimson Moth duology, author Kristen Ciccarelli took inspiration from Baroness Emma Orczy’s historical novel The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905) and real-life historical witch hunts. The first installment of Ciccarelli’s duology, Heartless Hunter (2024), introduces Rune Winters, a wealthy aristocrat. She thrives in social spaces, playing the damsel to her friends and entertaining the attention of young bachelors seeking a partner. Among these friends is Alexander Sharpe—the younger brother of Gideon Sharpe, the man famous for killing the former Sister Queens and overthrowing the reign of witches in the New Republic. Though Alex doesn’t explicitly betray his brother, he also doesn’t betray Rune’s confidence. In fact, he actively aids her in her pursuits as the infamous vigilante, the Crimson Moth. Rune’s foolish mask among her peers hides her cunning intelligence from the witch-hunters in search of her alter-ego. While everyone simply sees a socialite who hungers for gossip, in reality Rune is efficiently gathering intel on where witches are held after capture and successfully rescuing them from execution.

In Heartless Hunter, witches cast spells by using blood—whether their own, blood freely given by someone else, or blood forcibly taken from the unwilling. This practice continues as an important element of the magic system in the second novel, Rebel Witch. In addition, several key characters from the first novel return in the sequel, including Gideon’s fellow soldiers, Laila Creed and Harrow; one of Rune’s peers, Bart Wentholt; and her grandmother’s old friend, Seraphine. Heartless Hunter ends on a cliffhanger as Rune is captured, Gideon sentences her to execution, and Cressida arrives to save her from the gallows. However, it isn’t a benevolent rescue, since Cressida causes severe bloodshed: In her efforts to take Gideon hostage, she murders his brother, Alex, devastating both Rune and Gideon.

Heartless Hunter introduces an extremely divided society in which both witches and witch-hunters have sympathetic reasons to oppose one another. In Rune and Gideon’s world, neither side is truly innocent. Though Rune is one of many “good” witches, those witches did nothing to oppose the cruelty that Cressida Roseblood and her sisters inflicted on others during the Reign of Witches. Additionally, while Gideon is a conflicted witch-hunter, he only aids the Republic in perpetuating cycles of violence and hate. The first installment introduces themes such as challenging limiting perceptions and the ethical dilemmas in a divided society, and these themes continue in Rebel Witch.

Ciccarelli is a best-selling author of crossover young adult fantasy and fantasy romance novels. Her debut was the Iskari trilogy, which includes The Last Samsara (2017), The Caged Queen (2018), and The Sky Weaver (2019), which she followed with the standalone fantasy romance novel Edgewood (2022). In addition, Ciccarelli champions aspiring writers and inspires them not to give up, drawing on her own experiences as a young author who faced many rejections (before receiving a push through the online event Pitch Wars).