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A review by abumblebeee
The Winter Witch by Paula Brackston
3.0
Number of days it took to complete: 5 days
Number of hours spent reading the book: 8 hours
"Calamity surrounds you. Destruction is ever at your heels."
The Winter Witch is the tale of Morgana, who at a young age, through the loss of her father no longer speaks. This by no means determines her intelligence, though most who meet her deem her to be simple due to her choosing not to talk. Knowing that no one in the village they live in will marry Morgana due to her eccentricities, her mother knows that she is sick and arranges a marrige for Morgana to Cai Jenkins who is a drover that needs a wife in order to be "porthmon: a man of honor, integrity and worth" for the village he lives in because his village has the belief that if a porthmon is not married he will not return from the drove because he will have nothing to come home to. Once back at Ffynnon Las, Cai and Morgana struggle to gain the towns acceptance of their marriage, in part due to the loathing of prominent parties in the town, and in part due to strange occurrences that always seem to center around Morgana. Will Cai become a successful porthmon? Will Cai and Morgana's new relationship flourish? Will the town ever accept Morgana?
This book is a solid 3. If you want a lot of action and adventure, this is not the book for you. A large part of this book is highly in depth descriptions of every little thing, that truly paints the most beautiful picture of the world these characters live in. While reading you almost feel as if you are at Ffynnon Las and are working the ponies and cattle on the farm.
Cai and Morgana certainly are not a case for insta love. They are put into an arranged marriage, and during the betrothal Cai announces that he is not getting married for love because he believes his first wife Catrin who died was his true love. Throughout this novel their relationship is tested time and time again and they have to overcome every obstacle, both from outside the marriage and also from within. You truly feel that these characters get to know each other body and soul in this novel and you want everything to work out for them.
After moving to Ffynnon Las, Morgana faces her first foe Isolda Bowen, and from the start their is instant dislike. This dislike grows as the story continues. Honestly her part in the story was highly predictable and I had no doubt how the book was going to end. There are some original parts to the story that may not have been guessable; however, as a whole the book is pretty predictable.
The magic in this book was very hard to understand. I still do not think that I have a full grasp on it, other than there are good witches and bad witches and they can harness power. A lot of the mechanics of the magic were not explained and how it is used was also glossed over. I understand that in part this was due to Morgana denying she was a witch and her magic throughout her entire life, but I do feel that it could have been more properly explained.
This book was on my TBR shelf for a very long time and I am happy that I picked it up, while it is by no means my favorite, it was a very solid read and I would consider reading another book by Paula Brackston again.
Number of hours spent reading the book: 8 hours
"Calamity surrounds you. Destruction is ever at your heels."
The Winter Witch is the tale of Morgana, who at a young age, through the loss of her father no longer speaks. This by no means determines her intelligence, though most who meet her deem her to be simple due to her choosing not to talk. Knowing that no one in the village they live in will marry Morgana due to her eccentricities, her mother knows that she is sick and arranges a marrige for Morgana to Cai Jenkins who is a drover that needs a wife in order to be "porthmon: a man of honor, integrity and worth" for the village he lives in because his village has the belief that if a porthmon is not married he will not return from the drove because he will have nothing to come home to. Once back at Ffynnon Las, Cai and Morgana struggle to gain the towns acceptance of their marriage, in part due to the loathing of prominent parties in the town, and in part due to strange occurrences that always seem to center around Morgana. Will Cai become a successful porthmon? Will Cai and Morgana's new relationship flourish? Will the town ever accept Morgana?
This book is a solid 3. If you want a lot of action and adventure, this is not the book for you. A large part of this book is highly in depth descriptions of every little thing, that truly paints the most beautiful picture of the world these characters live in. While reading you almost feel as if you are at Ffynnon Las and are working the ponies and cattle on the farm.
Cai and Morgana certainly are not a case for insta love. They are put into an arranged marriage, and during the betrothal Cai announces that he is not getting married for love because he believes his first wife Catrin who died was his true love. Throughout this novel their relationship is tested time and time again and they have to overcome every obstacle, both from outside the marriage and also from within. You truly feel that these characters get to know each other body and soul in this novel and you want everything to work out for them.
After moving to Ffynnon Las, Morgana faces her first foe Isolda Bowen, and from the start their is instant dislike. This dislike grows as the story continues. Honestly her part in the story was highly predictable and I had no doubt how the book was going to end. There are some original parts to the story that may not have been guessable; however, as a whole the book is pretty predictable.
The magic in this book was very hard to understand. I still do not think that I have a full grasp on it, other than there are good witches and bad witches and they can harness power. A lot of the mechanics of the magic were not explained and how it is used was also glossed over. I understand that in part this was due to Morgana denying she was a witch and her magic throughout her entire life, but I do feel that it could have been more properly explained.
This book was on my TBR shelf for a very long time and I am happy that I picked it up, while it is by no means my favorite, it was a very solid read and I would consider reading another book by Paula Brackston again.