Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

The Federal Witch #0.5

Born a Witch...Drafted by the FBI!

Rate this book
Agatha Blackmore came into her powers early as a child. Her first spell was a thing of beauty and wonder. It brought terror into the hearts of her family. Who wanted to accidentally become a pink chicken? Now that she's older her magic is out of control. She needs a teacher and none of the Witch Schools will take her. How about a career in law enforcement? The FBI needs serious help in catching law breaking Paranormals. It's a match made in heaven or is it in Hell? God only knows what happens next.

55 pages, ebook

First published September 1, 2016

332 people are currently reading
396 people want to read

About the author

T.S. Paul

112 books348 followers
I was born in 1968 in Mineral Wells, Tx. I have lived all across the country:Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Alaska, and finally Missouri. I have worked as a Disc Jockey, Bookstore manager, Cook, and bowling alley attendant. I have a Telecommunication degree and a Culinary degree. I was a history major before I discovered multimedia. Gardening and cooking is my passion. My wife and I live outside of St Louis, Missouri. I have always been a Huge fan of Science Fiction and fantasy I bring my love of the genre to my writing. I'm a first time writer.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
773 (43%)
4 stars
577 (32%)
3 stars
322 (18%)
2 stars
79 (4%)
1 star
30 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 108 reviews
679 reviews
July 5, 2018
I found the writing too simple, stilted, and amateurish for my taste; it felt like a grade school paper. None of the characters grabbed my attention; our main character, Agatha, goes on about how her magic goes wrong and she has no control over the ‘bigger’ spells, then proceeds to ‘teach’ the FBI agents a lesson by using magic against them as easily as flipping a finger at a gnat and stating they had better treat a witch better than they did. Her familiar, a micro-unicorn she spelled years ago, is obnoxious rather than funny. Not to mention the cover art has nothing to do with the story (a full grown woman and a unicorn-Agatha was quite young when she spelled the unicorn). If I get a free next book I may read it to see if the writing improved, but I certainly won’t go out of my way to find other books by this author.
261 reviews
September 12, 2016
Eh

Not a bad story, but the writing is quite stilted. I think I will read further in the series and other works by the author, but I am not quite sure I will seek them out.
Profile Image for Clare O'Beara.
Author 25 books371 followers
May 2, 2019
This could have been a fun story but the writing lets it down. The first half is entirely backstory told by two women conversing as a child spies upon them. Then the child gets taken by the hand and told more backstory. I was wondering if anything was ever going to happen forwards. Since nobody is in any danger, we don't really care about the outcomes of all the gossip. So the young lady who is, we now understand, a witch with a small familiar, is asked to join the FBI because 'since the witches and supernaturals came out of the closet' there is a demand for their skills. In a good way, we hope.

Two points struck me; the Nazi Party would have put vampires to use, especially those described here, who would have certainly come forward to the evils of the day. Saying vampires only came out of hiding after the war makes no sense. And if this young witch has the unstoppable powers she demonstrates, the FBI are not the ones who would want to control her. Some of the concepts are certainly interesting.

The writing style also falls over a few times with phrases like "Personally, she should have...." No. Rewrite as "Personally, I believe she should have..."
I'm glad we're seeing a young lady with strong powers and a sense of her own calling.

This is an unbiased review.
Profile Image for Krystyna.
5,134 reviews55 followers
July 23, 2018
How to make the FBI pay attention

Loved. Humour and a good storyline give us a great introduction as to how she started at the FBI. Wonderful characters and great banter. Her magic had always been off the scales. From turning squirrels purple at the age of 4 to turning her 7th birthday present, a full size unicorn, into a talking micro unicorn. This hasn't exactly endeared her to some members of the family. However when she gets the chance to join the FBI she jumps at it. Perhaps her arrival was slightly unorthodox..........
Profile Image for Elizabeth Hulse.
23 reviews12 followers
May 25, 2017
I thought the title was interesting. Unfortunately, this prequel? to the actual book was poorly written, and a number of misspellings made it almost impossible to read. (Yes, I am old). Bottom line: Great idea and concept, poor follow=through. I will probably read more, but not at this time, just to see if the book is better than this (how could it NOT be?). So sorry.
Profile Image for Ugochi Akwiwu.
330 reviews6 followers
March 19, 2017
More of a novella. Tells how Agatha came to start her adventure in the FBI. Good start.
Profile Image for J.
12 reviews11 followers
March 21, 2021
I really wanted to like this book, the premise sounds incredible. I love strong witchy characters and even better if they're into private investigating, law enforcement, or other strategic career fields. I was slightly put off by the writing style, but I'm not super picky about it as long as there's a good story to tell. I was willing to just accept that everything that was going to happen would be predictable, I could still enjoy that. I even got excited when the WWII backstory came up, I love this as a concept and would absolutely love to read a story about that taking place.

However, this book failed me because, as much as I love suspending my disbelief, it was so incredibly unrealistic.

The idea for this story is beautiful, but the execution of it is so painful that I won't continue reading the story. If the author goes back someday and tries to tell this story with the help of an editor (or any other person that gives him honest feedback) I would gladly give it another shot.
Profile Image for Erin Penn.
Author 4 books23 followers
July 18, 2018
This story is a quick introduction to the characters of the Federal Witch series. There is no plot, just three vignettes.

I found the main character, a Mary Sue, to be overpowered, the unicorn story somewhat uninteresting, and the other backstory items a little unbelievable. Showing the FBI training facilities to be on par with the Keystone Cops in ability and organization felt improbable. And I did not like the constant references to how horny unicorns are.

The one thing done extremely well is the backstory of the vampire war. I can totally see that permanently impacting relations being the magic community and the world governments. (Oh look, worldbuilding. If you follow my reviews, you know how much I love that stuff.)

I can see the series being a fun read for people who enjoy things just shy of being a farce. Overblown craziness makes a grand romp.

Picked up while free on amazon.
Profile Image for Stephanie Franklin.
182 reviews15 followers
August 10, 2018
This book hits a few of my "why God, why?" buttons. Some of the writing is a little blah, there are disastrophes (apostrophes in places they don't belong, or missing from places they should be) and a few typos that are easily fixed, and the main character hasn't been fleshed out that much.

So why am I interested in reading more in this series??

The world-building is interesting, the plot was engaging - it would have been so easy to let the protagonist get everything she wanted without batting an eye, but she has realistic (for the setting) obstacles in her way! And Fergus. I do kinda love Fergus.
Profile Image for Anniken Haga.
Author 10 books90 followers
July 25, 2020
Actual rating: 1.5/5 stars

So this book really wasn't for me. It was really info-dumpy on things that weren't necessary for the story, the writing felt a little unfinished, and the characters were many and didn't leave any distinct impressions. And I’m really finished with the ‘’disaster MC’’-trope.
I... don't think I could even tell you what the story was about. I spaced out a lot while reading this book, and ended up reading it mostly to prove to myself that I could regularly read rather than for the story.

Honestly, I don't know what would be best: A low rating or a DNF shelving?
Profile Image for Sam Martin.
176 reviews4 followers
May 28, 2022
A funny and cute story!

A back story of The Federal Witch Series. I love the story but the narrator wasn’t right for the story! She sounds to old for the main character and she pauses a lots narrating the story! Read the story instead of listening to it on audiobook is my advice if you truly want to make a connection with the story! If you don’t have time to read than don’t let the narrator turn you off from the series!
The story give you background of the history of the supernatural and the governments.
I really enjoy the story and getting ready to read / listening to the next book!
Profile Image for Christy deSade.
473 reviews11 followers
January 28, 2018
EDITOR needed

Interesting enough story, although the world history info dump was tacky. There wasn't much character development since it was stories from childhood told multiple times, but at least the world building was comprehensive enough.

That being said, OMG did this need an editor! An apostrophe before the letter "s" DOES NOT indicate more than one of something, capitalisation was used incorrectly throughout, there were homonym issues and the dialogue used didn't match the character profiles of the ones speaking.
2,868 reviews11 followers
September 9, 2022
A great introduction to Agatha (witch) and Fergus (her familiar). She's got more power than she can understand or control. This title introduces her to the FBI as a recruit. Her arrival at Quantico was a bit more exciting than she expected. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.

Action-packed. Easy-to-read. Entertaining. Funny. Great world building. Page-turner. Scary. Unpredictable. Whimsical. Wonderful characters.

I received a review copy of this book from a third party. This is my honest review.
65 reviews1 follower
November 14, 2017
Good, intriguing concept.

Makes me want to read more about this young witch who has agreed to work with the FBI. --which, of course, is one of the the main reasons for writing a pre-story: to get the reader so interested that he or she feels compelled to buy more books so that they can follow along and read about the weird situations that the protagonist gets herself into. MW
Profile Image for Richard E..
180 reviews4 followers
December 16, 2017
The Federal Witch Book 0 Origin

Agatha Blackmore goes to Quantico. Back story info on Agatha, a Prodigy Witch. she made purple Squirrels when she accidentally came into her Witch Powers at age four....NOW, she wants to Be A FBBIE, in their Paranormal Division. She's the Only witch in the FBI selection course. ANND she has a Smart-AZZ, Talking, miniature Unicorn as her 'familiar' and a female Were-Cat as a Roomie. Gonna be interesting.......
Profile Image for Gustavo.
201 reviews
July 10, 2020
This is not a perfect book, but it works great as a series starter.

The main character is the one with the greatest issue, as her magic is not completely predictable. But since it's a plot driven thing, I didn't find it really troublesome. Other than that, it's a likeable character, and the supporting cast, while reduced, did it's job quite well.

I hope further book get more into councils and packs, because that is the most interesting things in the book for me.
Profile Image for E.S. Hazard.
Author 11 books10 followers
September 9, 2020
Fun Interesting story with a likable main character.

I enjoyed this story. An engaging plot, but one I have seen and even used before. A good amount magic which for me is important. I recommend reading this quick succinct story.


This is a short beginning to I assume more to come.
157 reviews1 follower
March 17, 2022
A great book full of the unknowns, and action. Witch action that is. Put into
the FBI because of her uncontrollably powers, so she was drafted into the FBI.
A great mystery with a lot of magical spells and paranormal bad guys and
Women. So read it today for some laughs and bringing bad guys down in
the FBI. Learning how to deal with her new life and her team partners, who
are nothing like her.
Debra
Profile Image for Montzalee Wittmann.
5,213 reviews2,340 followers
December 18, 2016
Born a Witch...Drafted by the FBI! (The Federal Witch, #0) by T.S. Paul is a cute prequel about a teen witch and her many mess ups. But out of the blue, she is drafted to go to the FBI. She has a familiar that is a mini unicorn that hates cats. It is a cute short story that leads the reader up til she gets to the Academy. Sounds like it might be a cute teen series.
Profile Image for Lori.
803 reviews1 follower
February 24, 2018
Fun read!

I spent a lot of time smiling as I read this book. It seems to do a good job as a prequel, giving us what appears to be background info touching on many subjects. We also get a good introduction into the main character. I'll definitely be getting the next book when I leave here, about now! 🐺
Profile Image for Spinneretta.
2,853 reviews20 followers
June 4, 2020
Amusing

An amusing, very quick read about a young witch who decides to join the FBI. With a micro unicorn, magic that doesn’t always work the way she’d like it to, and a whole lot of people terrified of her, it might take a while before Agatha can get her dream job!
For those who love Urban Fantasy and snarky familiars.
973 reviews4 followers
September 28, 2021
I am not sure what to think of this. I think it’s how the main character gets to the setting of the series. But … it is so short and direct in its movement through events that I didn’t feel like I’d gotten a real story from it. I think I’m willing to start the first full book of the series, because I think the idea has potential, but I wish I’d skipped this short prequel.
Profile Image for Julie.
938 reviews
January 26, 2017
Great prequel

I very much enjoyed this prequel. It built up the main character and gave you an idea of what the other books in the series will be like. Very much looking forward to reading the next one.
813 reviews8 followers
August 21, 2017
Not sure if this is really worth a review. It's not so much a short story as extended world building prior to book one. There's no real plot, just character interaction and some drama. But entertaining enough that I'll check out the first book, so I guess it served its purpose.
Profile Image for Elizabeth Meadows.
232 reviews11 followers
January 26, 2018
Agatha goes to FBI school

What a fun introduction to Agatha goes to FBI school. The world building was pretty tidy and explanations of it fit right into the storyline. The ending whet my appetite for more.
Profile Image for Jim Kratzok.
1,070 reviews3 followers
April 17, 2020
Off to a great start !

This book is a prequel to additional stories about Agatha, a young witch who has lots of power but not such great control. In this story she joins the FBI as a trainee. I'm sure much hilarity will ensue.
29 reviews
Read
October 11, 2020
Born a Witch

Very nice easy flowing story. Does appear to be the intro to see if there might be a novel, or series here. My answer is yes to both or either.
I admit this is in my favorite style of reading and I'll be looking for the hardbacks by T. S. Paul
Profile Image for Vera.
152 reviews
February 9, 2021
Delightful

I love Agatha already. I can’t wait to read the rest of this series. Our girl has a level head, is cool under pressure and she has a pocket sized unicorn. What is not to love?
361 reviews2 followers
October 17, 2023
Looks Like A Fun Series

Who hasn't wanted to make the idiots you work with understand what they are up against? This prequel was a quick, fun read to give me an understanding of what to look forward to in the series. Very good book!!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 108 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.