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Amendyr #3
The Witch's Daughter
Ailynn Gothel has always been the perfect daughter. Thanks to her mother's teachings, she knows how to heal the sick, conjure the elements, and take care of Raisa, her closest and dearest friend. But when Ailynn's feelings for Raisa grow deeper, her simple life falls apart. Her mother hides Raisa deep in a cave to shield her from the world, and Ailynn must leave home in search of a spell to free her. While the kingdom beyond the forest is full of dangers, Ailynn’s greatest fear is that Raisa will no longer want her when she returns. She is a witch’s daughter, after all—and witches never get their happily ever after.
208 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 31, 2015
11 people are currently reading
276 people want to read
About the author
Rae D. Magdon
28 books281 followersRae D. Magdon is an author of queer lesbian fiction. Her stories celebrate lesbian, bisexual, queer, and trans women falling in love, and she cares deeply about including characters of color in her work. In addition to publishing novels about all kinds of women and their adventures, she has an extensive fanfiction collection available for free online.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
March 30, 2017
4.25 stars.
Rae Magdon has definitely matured in her writing and I think this is the best story of the three so far.
First off, I loved the premise. In this third book, we are told the story through the perspective of Ailynn, the daughter of Mogra. If you've read the second book in the Amendyr series, "Wolf's Eyes", Mogra is the evil witch that wreaks havoc for Cate and Larna as well as the rest of Amendyr. I thought using the daughter of the villain from the previous book as the main character in the subsequent story was really clever and is something I haven't read before. Despite being raised by her mother, Ailynn manages to be a really balanced, respectable character with integrity so it's satisfying to see the story through her eyes.
Like the first two books in the series that are allusions to popular fairy tales, this one alludes to the fairy-tale of Rapunzel. However, this time, the reference seems less so and the book's content is completely original on the whole. Ailynn is a pretty unique character in that her life is completely isolated and her only contact with the world is through her unstable, albeit highly gifted mother. Her mother, in an act of selfishness and a strange act of love for her daughter, extorts a baby girl and brings her to their home to be raised as her daughter's companion. As the girls grow in life, so does their love for each other until it becomes a romantic interest. Yes, that sounds a little creepy (or a lot creepy) but the author finesses it enough to make it believable and not too weird.
Through Mogra's warped perception of the world, she decides to lock Raisa away in an enchanted cave, to be held prisoner there for her protection. The rest of the book is about Ailynn's quest to find the spell to break the enchantment and to get them both away from her crazy mother.
The dynamic set up between the two romantic leads, Ailynn and Raisa, is more complex and mature than the relationships in the previous books. These young women have known each other their entire lives so the love feels more substantial and the author chose to introduce betrayal and guilt into their union which makes for interesting development and conflict. Like the other books in the series, this one has explicit sex scenes, as well. If you're a lesbian reading the book, there's a pretty big ick factor that shows up along the way that's the cause of a major conflict for the rest of the book. The author delivered that well and I think it was her point to do it in such a way so we'd feel the same repulsion and/or feelings that Ailynn struggles with.
A bonus in the book is a cameo by Cate from the previous two stories. And, when she arrives, she's pretty bad-ass. A good portion of the book feels like it takes place maybe a year or even two after the second book in the series ends and it gave Cate enough time to mature and get even stronger. I really love her character.
The book's ending sets up that a fourth book will be coming in this series. As a reader, I'm looking forward to it.
I most definitely recommend reading "The Witch's Daughter".
Rae Magdon has definitely matured in her writing and I think this is the best story of the three so far.
First off, I loved the premise. In this third book, we are told the story through the perspective of Ailynn, the daughter of Mogra. If you've read the second book in the Amendyr series, "Wolf's Eyes", Mogra is the evil witch that wreaks havoc for Cate and Larna as well as the rest of Amendyr. I thought using the daughter of the villain from the previous book as the main character in the subsequent story was really clever and is something I haven't read before. Despite being raised by her mother, Ailynn manages to be a really balanced, respectable character with integrity so it's satisfying to see the story through her eyes.
Like the first two books in the series that are allusions to popular fairy tales, this one alludes to the fairy-tale of Rapunzel. However, this time, the reference seems less so and the book's content is completely original on the whole. Ailynn is a pretty unique character in that her life is completely isolated and her only contact with the world is through her unstable, albeit highly gifted mother. Her mother, in an act of selfishness and a strange act of love for her daughter, extorts a baby girl and brings her to their home to be raised as her daughter's companion. As the girls grow in life, so does their love for each other until it becomes a romantic interest. Yes, that sounds a little creepy (or a lot creepy) but the author finesses it enough to make it believable and not too weird.
Through Mogra's warped perception of the world, she decides to lock Raisa away in an enchanted cave, to be held prisoner there for her protection. The rest of the book is about Ailynn's quest to find the spell to break the enchantment and to get them both away from her crazy mother.
The dynamic set up between the two romantic leads, Ailynn and Raisa, is more complex and mature than the relationships in the previous books. These young women have known each other their entire lives so the love feels more substantial and the author chose to introduce betrayal and guilt into their union which makes for interesting development and conflict. Like the other books in the series, this one has explicit sex scenes, as well. If you're a lesbian reading the book, there's a pretty big ick factor that shows up along the way that's the cause of a major conflict for the rest of the book. The author delivered that well and I think it was her point to do it in such a way so we'd feel the same repulsion and/or feelings that Ailynn struggles with.
A bonus in the book is a cameo by Cate from the previous two stories. And, when she arrives, she's pretty bad-ass. A good portion of the book feels like it takes place maybe a year or even two after the second book in the series ends and it gave Cate enough time to mature and get even stronger. I really love her character.
The book's ending sets up that a fourth book will be coming in this series. As a reader, I'm looking forward to it.
I most definitely recommend reading "The Witch's Daughter".
October 26, 2023
I wanted to like this one more than I ended up feeling about it. I didn’t realize it was the third book in a series, so although they seem to be disconnected from each other, plot wise, and just set in the same universe, there might have been some world building things that I was missing out on, and slightly confused by. So that’s on me. But… idk. I remember quite enjoying Lucky 7 and Lucky 8 (the only other books I’ve read by this author) but this one fell pretty flat for me. Rating it lower than 3 stars feels mean, bc I tend to reserve that for ones that rlly bother me, but this just felt very surface level, both in characterizations and plot. It zipped by, I read most of it in around 2 hours and finished the rest a bit later in the day, but it felt like I didn’t know the characters hardly at all. I’ll def give this author another try, but this was a little bit of a bummer for me, bc it seemed like it could have been a fun and unique Rapunzel retelling, and (for me) it fell flat.
August 2, 2015
If there was a ZERO STAR, I would've rated this that. The book was good at the start but it got very disappointing by the second part. Rapunzel does not deserve Ailynn, and honestly it is bullshit to get yourself pregnant just to get away from the castle and find Ailynn, personally I think she likes getting fucked. Rapunzel turned out to be a whore in this book and her chemistry with Ailynn never came back to me ever since that scene with the thrusting, fuckihg gross! Did not need to read that on my lesbian reading! Shit why do you think people read lesbian? Its to get away from all those stinking meat and bloody sperm! Fuck this book. Fuck Rapunzel, Mogra should've just killed her. After all the shit Ailynn went through she was at her tower, enjoying the fuck of her life! No shit this book is an insult to lesbian romance! Shit shit shit give me the hours I spent reading this junk!
When will the nonsense of putting dicks in lesbian books and unwanted shit babies and stupid drama with denial uncomfortable insemination stop! This book is not worth it and it is one of the books I will curse till I die and tell everyone to not even waste their time to read.
When will the nonsense of putting dicks in lesbian books and unwanted shit babies and stupid drama with denial uncomfortable insemination stop! This book is not worth it and it is one of the books I will curse till I die and tell everyone to not even waste their time to read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 12, 2015
This started alright and I was quite curious as to how the romance between Ailynn and Rapunzel would develop, but it completely fell apart in the second half of the book. OMG, I cannot believe the author did that. Anyway, I do still like the first Amendyr book very much (The Second Sister) and would rec it, but it's probably best to steer clear of the second and third book. What a waste, sigh.
December 24, 2015
Man, I wanted so badly to like this. But I hated it. The story is written well, but the characters are truly horrible. I mean evil and cruel and so infuriating. Plus, it ends in a stupid cliffhanger. Not cool. Sorry.
May 24, 2017
Great story
I found this story really incredible because not only did we get to read the romance between the women but we also got to understand more about Mogra.
I found this story really incredible because not only did we get to read the romance between the women but we also got to understand more about Mogra.
May 11, 2020
Like this author but I absolutely hated this book... so much, for many reasons. First being that no you cannot fall in love with someone you raised since birth and grew up with like a sister... gross. Their whole relationship based on her mom getting her as a gift seriously wtf. That could never be okay for them to be together. Also a romance can't start when one is a prisoner.. and she's the only person she knows.. and a minor... double gross. Plus m/f sex so fucking gross. Definitely had to be written before #metoo and everyone woke up to sexual abuse. DNF stopped after hetero sex scene when she fucks her angrily right after she was being fucked by a man... ugh so gross. to pissed to finish. I thought i was reading a lesfic book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 13, 2015
This book started off well with a bit of a steady pace in the writing to move the story along, but lacked in many ways. The book started off grabbing my attention and it had a lot of promise. As I continued to read I saw a few errors, which weren't excessive but enough to be noticeable.
The final moments when the story finally converges and gets into the main plot, the story falls short and is completely rushed. I'm not sure why more attention to detail wasn't added.
It pains me to say that Raisa's character came with a lot of baggage and it wasn't properly dealt with from an angst, realistic, human standpoint. Without giving any spoilers away, there were moments in the that were not thought through in my opinion. The angst and potential of any given moment were over shadowed by a random a sex scene or a declaration of something unrealistic in order to move the story along. I didn't fall in love with the main character's love story toward the end like it had built up in the beginning.
Overall, out of the Amendyr books, the first was by far the writers best. These past two additions were rushed and lacked emotion that were supposed to give depth and meaning to these human connections in the story.
There was so much potential for these stories to be amazing but unfortunately, moments that should have been lengthened and explained were rushed and brushed aside for a plot that wasn't as moving as what should have taken place between the characters and these 3D moments that fell flat.
I hope the writer continues to write of course! But needs to understand how drawn out drama and angst add life to a story. It's not supposed to be rushed and pushed aside. The journey has always been what's important not the end result.
The final moments when the story finally converges and gets into the main plot, the story falls short and is completely rushed. I'm not sure why more attention to detail wasn't added.
It pains me to say that Raisa's character came with a lot of baggage and it wasn't properly dealt with from an angst, realistic, human standpoint. Without giving any spoilers away, there were moments in the that were not thought through in my opinion. The angst and potential of any given moment were over shadowed by a random a sex scene or a declaration of something unrealistic in order to move the story along. I didn't fall in love with the main character's love story toward the end like it had built up in the beginning.
Overall, out of the Amendyr books, the first was by far the writers best. These past two additions were rushed and lacked emotion that were supposed to give depth and meaning to these human connections in the story.
There was so much potential for these stories to be amazing but unfortunately, moments that should have been lengthened and explained were rushed and brushed aside for a plot that wasn't as moving as what should have taken place between the characters and these 3D moments that fell flat.
I hope the writer continues to write of course! But needs to understand how drawn out drama and angst add life to a story. It's not supposed to be rushed and pushed aside. The journey has always been what's important not the end result.
April 23, 2019
Not sure where to go with this review, except to say that putting a hetero sex scene in a lesbian book is disgusting.
It seemed rushed, very poor world building and the lesbian sex scenes that were in this “lesbian” novel were incredibly bland, not sensual or romantic.
Thankfully with all the page breaks and rushed pace it was finished quickly.
It seemed rushed, very poor world building and the lesbian sex scenes that were in this “lesbian” novel were incredibly bland, not sensual or romantic.
Thankfully with all the page breaks and rushed pace it was finished quickly.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 14, 2020
Super fun and interesting world of mystery ... And *almost* incest ????
SO I really enjoyed this book, finished it in two days it was that compelling! The writing is succinct and easy to read, and the magical world very entertaining and well described!
HOWEVER - are we not going to talk about the fact that the lovers were brought up as siblings would be ??? Don't get me wrong, I know they aren't related by blood, and the author did tRY and separate them by assuring readers they aren't sisters ...BUT the fact remains that the main character practically raised her later girlfriend ??? Are we not ... Questioning this ????
I don't know what this unsettling kind of relationship did to the book, but it just kind of added an uncomfortable element that was never really resolved. I appreciate the efforts to diversify fantasy (a tragically heterosexual genre) and really enjoyed everything else about the narrative - I just wish I didn't know that 10 years ago Ailynn would be wiping snot from Raisa's nose, but today she fingered her and agreed to raise twins with her.
SO I really enjoyed this book, finished it in two days it was that compelling! The writing is succinct and easy to read, and the magical world very entertaining and well described!
HOWEVER - are we not going to talk about the fact that the lovers were brought up as siblings would be ??? Don't get me wrong, I know they aren't related by blood, and the author did tRY and separate them by assuring readers they aren't sisters ...BUT the fact remains that the main character practically raised her later girlfriend ??? Are we not ... Questioning this ????
I don't know what this unsettling kind of relationship did to the book, but it just kind of added an uncomfortable element that was never really resolved. I appreciate the efforts to diversify fantasy (a tragically heterosexual genre) and really enjoyed everything else about the narrative - I just wish I didn't know that 10 years ago Ailynn would be wiping snot from Raisa's nose, but today she fingered her and agreed to raise twins with her.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 23, 2018
Book three in the Amendyr series went by fairly quick, but it's definitely the best paced so far. The romance is more of a slow burn compared to the raging fires of the first two and it's heavy in themes of redemption and forgiveness both in love and in self. Rapunzel is the theme for this one while it's followed more closely to the theme than the last book it's still mostly a tenuous skeletal framework at best. The main characters are new to the series, but we get to dive so much deeper into the backstory of the villain introduced in the last book. Her fall from grace is almost poetic if not tragic. I'm really looking forward to this grand finale of a final book. There's a few loose endings to tie up after all and I can't wait to see how that happens.
February 17, 2025
DNFed at about 50%
My soul mate is my baby sister, whom my mother kidnapped for me. WTF? The main character literally named the love interest just after she was born. I knew I should have DNFed right away when I read the 5-year-old telling the newborn that she loved her in a romantic way. There was no undeaged smut and other reviews say this book handles these mature topics well, but I don't think I'm personally going to get over it. As soon as both characters were adults and their relationship actually started I had to stop.
My soul mate is my baby sister, whom my mother kidnapped for me. WTF? The main character literally named the love interest just after she was born. I knew I should have DNFed right away when I read the 5-year-old telling the newborn that she loved her in a romantic way. There was no undeaged smut and other reviews say this book handles these mature topics well, but I don't think I'm personally going to get over it. As soon as both characters were adults and their relationship actually started I had to stop.
July 20, 2024
Unfortunately i seem not to be a fan of this author's fairy-tale retells. Third book in the series and in a ways i can't fully describe, this felt creepy
November 29, 2024
5 stars. If you know anything about me you know that Tangled is one of my favorite movies of all time. Not just Disney but all movies. I love it so much and I'm always interested in Rapunzel retellings and this one was fucking fantastic. Easily my favorite book of the series so far. Ailynn and Raisa's story was so good and I loved that we got to see them as little bitty kids and their bond through the years as they grew up. They had great chemistry and you could really feel the passion between them. It was intense. I thought both characters were great. Ailynn and her feeling as if everything rested on her shoulders alone and Raisa and everything she went through just to escape her tower and Mother Gothel. Ugh, so good. I also really liked that we saw Cate and Larna from book two in this one and I'm excited to see all of the characters come together in the final book. I was not expecting to be obsessed with this series but I totally am.
August 31, 2015
My favourite of the series so far, the protagonist feels like she has more personal issues to work on than the preceding books and her relationship with her love interest is more complicated. Note the warnings from other reviews about .
That said, the ending felt a bit like a rushed prelude to the next book, and didn't fill me with satisfaction because the main villain still needs to be resolved. I'll still read the next one, though.
That said, the ending felt a bit like a rushed prelude to the next book, and didn't fill me with satisfaction because the main villain still needs to be resolved. I'll still read the next one, though.
November 11, 2015
A lovely addition to the Amendyr series. I own the whole series so far and I love all three books. Can't wait for book four.
December 16, 2015
The Witch's Daughter (Amendyr #3) by Rae D. Magdon: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwid... 2015 Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention (5* from at least 1 judge)
April 27, 2017
Book 3 of Series
Very well done! The story continues to build on the first two books, as we are introduced to two new main characters and a robust supporting cast. The world building continues to be great, as we learn more about Amendyr and the rebellion against the queen. I thought it was especially interesting getting to know a little bit more about the villain of the story, with insight into what caused their spiral into darkness. There's actually some interesting philosophical questions posed regarding family and what our obligation to support them is, when their behavior is morally reprehensible. Overall, this is an original and very entertaining story. I highly recommend it.
Very well done! The story continues to build on the first two books, as we are introduced to two new main characters and a robust supporting cast. The world building continues to be great, as we learn more about Amendyr and the rebellion against the queen. I thought it was especially interesting getting to know a little bit more about the villain of the story, with insight into what caused their spiral into darkness. There's actually some interesting philosophical questions posed regarding family and what our obligation to support them is, when their behavior is morally reprehensible. Overall, this is an original and very entertaining story. I highly recommend it.
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