The Witch

Waterspell #4

by Deborah J. Lightfoot

In the House of Verek, it’s five years later. The waters are troubled. Memories are darkening. If the story is to end “happily ever after” for Carin and Verek, old demons must be laid to rest.

Readers of the Waterspell fantasy series will welcome this long-awaited fourth book for the answers it provides to questions raised in volumes 1 through 3: Does the wysard Verek regain his powers, and will Carin make her way back to him? Have Carin’s parents survived the plague that devastated their world, and will she ever see them again? Did Lanse survive the attack by Carin’s defender? Is Lord Legary really dead? And not Did the necromancer die in the jaws of Carin’s conjured dragon? there was no blood in the water. These questions and more are answered in Waterspell Book 4: The Witch, which picks up the story of the lovers, Carin and Verek, half a decade after readers saw the pair separated in the closing chapters of the original trilogy.

By the blood of Abraxas, it’s about time we learned what happened next.

Genres: Fantasy

252 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 18, 2022

About the author

Castles in the cornfield provided the setting for Deborah J. Lightfoot's earliest flights of fancy. On her father's farm in Texas, she grew up reading tales of adventure and reenacting them behind ramparts of sun-drenched grain. She left the farm to earn a degree in journalism and write award-winning books of history and biography. High on her bucket list was the desire to try her hand at the genre she most admired. The result is Waterspell, a complex, intricately detailed fantasy comprising the original four-book series (Warlock, Wysard, Wisewoman, Witch). In the "Nina sequels" to that earlier quartet — The Karenina Chronicles and The Fires of Farsinchia — new generations of powerful wysards carry the saga into the magical future of an ancient world. Having discovered the Waterspell universe, the author finds it difficult to leave.

Deborah is a professional member of the Authors Guild . She still lives in rural Texas. Find her on Instagram @booksofwaterspell and explore her overflowing, catch-all website at waterspell.net.

Waterspell Book 1: The Warlock
Waterspell Book 2: The Wysard
Waterspell Book 3: The Wisewoman
Waterspell Book 4: The Witch
(Available in a four-book bundle)

The sequels:
The Karenina Chronicles: A Waterspell Novel
The Fires of Farsinchia: A Waterspell Novel

Thank you for reading. If you enjoy the Waterspell books, please leave a review at any bookseller’s site or here on Goodreads. Reviews are so important, and deeply appreciated.

Original quartet:
Waterspell Book 1: The Warlock
Waterspell Book 2: The Wysard
Waterspell Book 3: The Wisewoman
Waterspell Book 4: The Witch

Nina series:
The Karenina Chronicles: A Waterspell Novel
The Fires of Farsinchia: A Waterspell Novel

Instagram: Books of Waterspell
Facebook: Waterspell Series

Reviews

[Martin Dukes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deborah J Lightfoot creates such an immersive and convincing world in her Waterspell series that I feel saddened to reach the end of it. In particular, the depth of characterisation she achieves is truly impressive, leaving me with the sense that I know the people she writes almost as well as my own family. Accordingly, it was a delight to spend more time with these characters as Lightfoot navigates a perilous way with them through fresh challenges and adventures. In particular, it was good to see all the loose strands from the previous books brought together and thoroughly addressed. There is a completeness in this series and in the journey of her characters that it is very satisfying to read.
In addition, Lightfoot’s prose is a real pleasure to read. She has a light touch with regard to language and her world building benefits from excellent descriptive powers, as well as a sure instinct for balance. She knows just how much to show us, just how much to paint of her world without diminishing the pace of her narrative.
It was a great pleasure to read the Waterspell series. I now look forward to listening to it too. The audiobooks are now available and my first few minutes of listening have been sufficient to convince me that I shall very much enjoy this new dimension to experiencing her work.

[Deborah Lightfoot]

[UPDATE: May 2022]: The audiobook is finished! It's published, with a June 1 release date! I'm excited for the world to hear the outstanding work that narrator Simon de Deney has done on the Waterspell Complete Series audiobook .

[ORIGINAL POST: January 2022]: Drumroll … Waterspell Book 4: The Witch is finished, it has a cover, and it's ready for publication! Release date is February 18 but it is already available for pre-orders. I'll be grateful for your support. 💙 The series-starter, Book 1: The Warlock , remains free to download in all ebook formats. You'll want to start there, at the beginning, if you haven't already. Thank you, dear readers! I am grateful for your enthusiasm AND for your great patience. 💙

Book 1 ebook: https://books2read.com/WaterspellBook1
Book 2 ebook: https://books2read.com/WaterspellBook2
Book 3 ebook: https://books2read.com/WaterspellBook3
Book 4 ebook: https://books2read.com/WaterspellBook4
Boxed Set (Books 1-4): https://books2read.com/WaterspellBoxe...

An Excerpt:
     Carin halted, dismounted, and crouched in the road to study the residue of her spellwork. Yes, it was as she had known it: the subtle but euphoric thrill of power flowing through her; the gritty texture of the sand she made; and most importantly, the absolute control she exercised over this wizardry of her own devising. It had not left her. Though for a time she’d lost all memory of it, Carin still had the mastery to bespell a single dewdrop or a lone blade of grass … or to destroy an entire hillside thick with trees, if she chose.
     Or, to blast to farsinchia the demon who had once escaped her justice.
     Not this time, Carin thought. This time, the witch will have nowhere to run.

Author’s Note:
Dear Readers: As some of you know, I was nonfunctional for a long time after my husband’s death in 2012. I couldn’t write, I had no urge or capacity to write. And even after I began to heal, years passed before I regained the emotional capacity that writing fiction requires. A numb writer cannot give convincing emotional life to characters.
     At last, however, I began to feel again, and to feel deeply. I could experience the joys and sorrows and fears of my otherworldly people, and at least hope to capture a glimmer of their passions with mere words on paper.
     During the 2020 Pandemic Year, in my isolation I wrote and revised this fourth book of Waterspell. In 2021, I revised it again, while simultaneously working with a narrator to produce audiobooks of the complete series. As 2022 got under way, I sought to answer the question of whether it was possible to relaunch a series after all of us—writer and readers alike—had spent a decade away from it.
     On that question, the jury’s still out: I don’t know if it is possible to regain this major part of what Life with a capital L took from me. But I’m working hard to reintroduce Waterspell to fantasy fans, and I could really use your help. Reviews mean the world to a writer. Word-of-mouth and personal recommendations are also valuable beyond imagining. Could you perhaps tell your friends about my books? Reviews from you and your circle would mean so much. ♥ Thank you. May your days be filled with magic, and may the years ahead see your dreams come true.

Merged review:

UPDATE (December 2023): The newest book in the series (we're up to No. 5) has been published! Continue the family saga that began in the Waterspell quartet (Warlock, Wysard, Wisewoman, Witch). Follow the further adventures of eldest daughter Nina in The Karenina Chronicles: A Waterspell Novel .

“Loved all the books in this series. Characters that I care about and want to see what happens next. Excellently written and enjoyable.”—Amazon review

“A marvelously complex and captivating fantasy series.”—The Published Page

Here's an excerpt from the fourth book in the Waterspell series:

     He raised Carin’s hand to his heart and pinned it there, his fingers gripping hers as though he’d never let her go. For a moment, Verek seemed unable to continue. When he did, his voice was husky, conveying a depth of emotion barely implied by his words.
     “It transpired that you had arrived on the shores of Ladrehdin well south of my borders. You were not so far down as Easthaven, but still you faced a lengthy journey alone, wending your way up the coast toward Ruain. You told me you would meet me at the sea cliffs … though as I hastened to saddle my horse and head east with all speed, I was prepared to ride as far as Granger, if need be, to reclaim you.”
     Granger, Carin remembered in every particular. But Easthaven? That name rang no bell … challenging her previous assumption that all her memories remained in her head, only broken, in a disconcerting number of instances, into pieces too small and scattered to read.
     She refocused on Verek as he continued, his manner absorbed, his head atilt.
     “I found it unnecessary, however, to ride so far. I’d barely begun leading my horse down the steepness of Ruain’s coastal edge when I spied you racing up the trail toward me. We had arrived at the sea cliffs at the same moment in time.”
     That part, Carin certainly remembered. The horse had been left on its own to scramble back up to the grassy tops of those cliffs, there to graze in solitude for quite a while. Verek and Carin had come together under wind-twisted trees high on the cliff face where the precipitous, zigzagging trail leveled off. They’d dispensed with words: actions spoke louder. Carin had not been heavy with child then, and her body had been neither overtaxed nor exhausted. All of that would come later, as together they recrossed the length of Ruain to return to the old stone mansion called Weyrrock. By the time they reached the house, Carin would be shockingly wrung out and mere days away from giving birth to Nina.
     But at the moment of her reunion with Verek on the nearly vertical face of the cliffs that looked out seaward, Carin was slim and fit, and needing her lover in ways heightened by a time of separation that had seemed infinite. Indeed, their separation had missed becoming permanent by only the space of a single grain of sand.
     The pair were a long time satisfying themselves, that day, that both were back where they belonged: in the magical land of Ruain and in each other’s arms, with liquid fire coursing through their veins.
     “I remember,” was all Carin could whisper now, as they sat safe at home in a firelit room, and she looked into Verek’s darkly brilliant eyes.

[Lynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am stunned!

I am a voracious reader and am usually readi two boo at the same time. I rarely read fantasy anymore preferring historical fiction of the Roman kind. The last fantasy I read that was memorable was by Tolkien. That was until I found the first Waterspell book in my large "to be read" pile.

I was entranced from the beginning! The word-building was amazing but the characters pulled me into the world of the Warlock and House Verek. I couldn't help myself. I kept buying and immediately reading each consecutive book. I just finished The Witch and I am thoroughly exhausted and satisfyingly sat.

But wait...there is another! 😊

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended! The author is a very gifted writer and quickly draws you into her world. It's easy to feel what the characters are feeling. I enjoyed the series overall, the first 2 books were a bit of a drag because the main characters were at odds.
I greatly appreciated the lack of profanity. And the way she concluded the series. There are plenty of opportunities for other books from this series as well.

[Norman Botwinik]

A decent series. good characters

The first book was great and The rest Did not disappoint. good character development. Not your typical hack and slash, you will be surprised by the outcome.

[Rnolter Nolter · Rating 5 out of 5]

very good ending

Thorough ending that wraps it up quite well. Great job in this world and excellent job in bringing it all together.

[Ariel The Tempest · Rating 5 out of 5]

After a long and immersive journey through Deborah J. Lightfoot’s Waterspell series, The Witch brings the original quartet to a profoundly satisfying close. It’s the kind of ending that feels both neatly wrapped up and emotionally resonant, a testament to Lightfoot’s skill at storytelling and worldbuilding.

From the very beginning of this series, I’ve been captivated by the rich, immersive world she creates, a place where magic is fading but still alive in the hearts and struggles of a deeply human cast. This final book honors that tradition, drawing together loose threads from previous volumes with care and precision. There’s a palpable sense of completeness here that gave me comfort even as I mourned leaving these characters behind.

The journey of Carin and Verek in particular felt intimate and authentic. I found myself truly invested in their growth, their hardships, and ultimately, their resolution. The emotional depth Lightfoot achieves is remarkable, her characters feel as close as family by the time you reach the last page. I’ll admit, there were tears as I closed this book, not quite ready to say goodbye but glad for the thoughtful closure.

Lightfoot’s prose continues to be a pleasure; light, balanced, and immersive without slowing the pace. She strikes just the right note between vivid description and narrative momentum, allowing the story’s tension and emotional arcs to unfold naturally.

What’s also worth noting is the respectful tone throughout the series, including this final installment. The absence of profanity and the focus on genuine character development make the reading experience all the more refreshing.

The Witch is more than just the conclusion of a beloved series; it’s a celebration of a world I’ve come to cherish and a cast of characters whose journeys have stayed with me long after the final page. For anyone who appreciates slow-burning fantasy with layered storytelling, richly drawn characters, and a fading magical world that feels alive, this series is a treasure, and this book is a perfect send-off.

I will absolutely be returning to the Waterspell series again and again. It’s a rare gift to find a world and story this compelling, and I’m deeply grateful to have experienced it.