The Witch & the Wolf 

By 

northlance

Reviewed 

by AmyMarieZ

Overview: The Witch & The Wolf is an upbeat fantasy story full of entertaining characters. Primrose, a young woman who just so happens to be a witch, is content to just practice her craft in the small village where she lives. However, her life is suddenly interrupted when she is accused of "Creating Divinity", a crime of heresy, and is brought to the Capital to stand trial. But that isn't the only bizarre thing going on. Prim's also been noticing strange knobby bumps growing on her head just above her temples. Clearly, a transformation of some sort is in progress, and it certainly isn't something Prim will just be able to ignore!

Structure: The story is introduced with a brief author's note. Currently, four chapters have been posted. The chapters are all a manageable length, neither too long nor too short. The writing itself is structured very well and professionally. However, in numerous locations throughout the story paragraph breaks are missing. While it is an easy fix, the missing paragraph breaks give the otherwise very well-structured writing a somewhat unfinished look.

The story is written in the 3rd person limited, focusing on the main character, Primrose. The narration has excellent voice and includes just the right amount of humor, making the story extremely entertaining and enjoyable to read!

Grammar: The grammar throughout the story is good. There are a few sentences where words are missing or have become jumbled, perhaps as a result of editing parts of sentences. The story appears to be in a second or third draft state. While there are grammatical errors, they are infrequent and do not deterred from the reading experience as a whole.

Pace: The pace of the plot development is good. The plot progresses quickly enough to keep the reader interested, but not so fast that it becomes confusing or feels rushed. However, at times it seems that the pace of individual scenes is a bit slow, specifically during dialog. A large amount of narration is included during some of the bits of dialog. As a result, at these points the story reads a bit slower than real time. While the narration is full of humor, well written, and a pleasure to read, it does occasionally slow the pace a little.

Character Development: The physical descriptions of characters are humorous, entertaining to read, engaging and well placed, making them memorable and easy to follow. Character personalities are developed almost entirely through action and dialog. The reader gradually and naturally discovers what each individual character's personality is, rather than getting all the information about each character in an info dump that would likely be hard to process. The characters themselves have strong, entertaining, varied, and memorable personalities. The main character Prim is relatable but also a bit spunky, making her a pleasure to read about.

Characters are introduced slowly, one or two at a time. This makes the story easy to follow because the reader is never struggling to keep track of characters. The character introductions are well thought out and consideration for the way the reader experiences the story is evident in the writing.

Vocabulary/Description: The vocabulary used is well suited for the narrative style and content of the story. The vocabulary is varied enough to keep the writing interesting to read. The narrative voice really makes the descriptions come to life and jump off the page, giving the story a unique flare and really just making it fun to read.

At times, sentences do seem to contain unnecessary words or bulk. Trimming the sentences down in just a few places would help to speed up the pace just a bit. However, in general the writing flows effortlessly and smoothly.

The world building is done naturally throughout the story. There are never points where paragraphs of description and information containing backstory about the characters and world are presented to the reader. Instead, the story allows this information to be revealed gradually and organically, so the reader discovers things as the story progresses. Although this means the reader does not understand everything about the world right from the start, the gradual method of divulging information makes it easy to follow and remember.

At times, it feels like specific details are missing that might really help with the world building. For example, places are not give names. The Capital is just referred to as the Capital, and the village where Prim lives does not have a name. Adding little details, such as a specific nickname the villagers have for the town, a name for the road/path Prim takes to the Capital, or names for general areas or specific places along the way to the Capital, could really help bring the world to life just that much more.

Plot: The story begins when Prim, a young witch, is accused of heresy. The first couple of chapters follow her journey to the Capital where she must stand trial. Along the way, she befriends a wolf. Although the wolf's stay in the story is brief and it runs back off into the woods when Prim and the escorting guards arrive at the Capital, it is fairly evident the wolf will be back to play an important role in the story!

In the first four chapters, the plot progresses steadily, gradually building suspense and mystery. It is difficult to tell exactly where the story is going with only four chapters, but enough clues and plot elements are provided to give the reader hints about the excitement that is sure to come! While the first three chapters are interesting, a lot seems to be set up and inciting incident. The events really start to gain momentum and excitement in the fourth chapter, leaving the story at a point where the reader is eager to find out what will happen next!

Summary: With an upbeat and entertaining narrative voice, The Witch & The Wolf is a fantasy story that any reader will enjoy. The plot is entertaining and suspenseful, and the characters are unique and fresh! Only four chapters have been posted so far, but this story is certainly one to watch!

Note: The review book offers several options. To review only grammar and sentence structure. To review only character development and plot. To review only vocabulary and descriptions. Or, the requester can ask for all of this to be reviewed. There are two options when making this request – for it to be sugar-coated or not.

This review is for it all to be touched on (not sugar-coated).