The Witch Apprentice Trilogy

The Apprentice Witch #1-3

by James Nicol

Arianwyn fluffs her witch’s assessment. Awarded the dull bronze disc of an apprentice – to the glee of her arch-rival, Gimma – she’s sent to protect the remote, dreary town of Lull. But her new life is far from boring. Turns out Gimma is the pompous mayor’s favourite niece – and worse, she opens a magical rift in the nearby forest. As Arianwyn struggles with her spells, it’s soon clear there’s much more than her pride at stake...Arianwyn is now a fully qualified witch, but magic is never easy. The Hex has driven all sorts of supernatural creatures out of the Great Wood–some harmless, and others downright dark. The Spellorium has never been so busy! What’s more, the High Elder has set her a dangerous mission, while rival witch Gimma is acting weirder than usual. Arianwyn must face the toughest spell of her witching career–can she see it through alone?The war is over and Arianwyn has discovered the secret of the quiet glyphs, but her troubles are far from over. Her day-to-day work as Lull’s witch is tricky winter has set in, bringing bad weather, ice imps and befuddling Yule traditions. But when Arianwyn’s grandmother is abducted by the traitor on the Council, our witch faces her greatest challenge yet. What really makes a witch come true? Our lovable heroine is about to find out…

776 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 25, 2020

About the author

I always knew I wanted to write the kind of fantasy novel I had escaped into as a child, somewhere that felt safe and filled with characters that did brave things and had lots of fun at the same time. But I wanted the magic in my book to be part of the world, not a secret, and I wanted to see what happened after a witch was trained and was sent out into the world to work. When I was thinking about all this, one day I got a really clear image of a scene for the book – I wrote it all down as quickly as I could and then thought, now what happens next ...

James Nicol has loved books and stories his whole life. As a child he spent hours absorbed in novels, watching epic 1980s cartoons or adventuring in the wood at the bottom of the garden searching for dragons and witches. He has worked in bookshops and libraries and now spends all his spare time writing! He lives near the city of York in a house with too many books and too many musical instruments with his husband and daughter and a black and white cockapoo called Bonnie.