The Lightness of Water

Water Witch: A Romantic Fantasy Adventure, Book 1

De: Toni Cabell

Narrado por: Lisa Lynn Sandlin

The only thing more dangerous than divining for water is falling in love with the enemy…

**2022 B.R.A.G. Medallion Award

****2022 Winner - The Wishing Shelf Book Awards

****2022 Gold Medal - Best Fantasy Romance - Global Book Awards

Solace is beautiful, strong-willed, and called the water witch by her neighbors. She divines for water in the arid hills of her home—a dangerous pastime across the border, where the king controls access to all the water.

Rhees is brooding, bitter, and hiding a deadly secret. But he’s determined to find a way to help the thirsty people of his land—even if it means kidnapping the last living water diviner.

But divining for water is against the law, punishable by death. Should Solace risk everything—including her heart—in a daring race to find water, or flee across the hills at her first chance of escape?

If you love warring kingdoms, strong, sassy heroines, and clean enemies-to-lovers romance, discover Water Witch, a complete romantic fantasy series for fans of Shari L. Tapscott, Kenley Davidson, and Melanie Cellier.

**Content Note: The Lightness of Water depicts an assault on Solace in which her blouse is ripped by her assailant**

©2022 Toni Cabell (P)2024 Toni Cabell

Reseñas de la Crítica

"An exquisitely refined fantasy adventure that will keep you reading well into the night." (Indies Today)

"A cleverly crafted fantasy packed full of mystery, adventure, and romance! Highly recommended." (The Wishing Shelf)

"The Lightness of Water by Toni Cabell was a riveting novel that held my attention from the first chapter." (Readers Favorite)

An enticing tale of rebellion and romance

I enjoyed this story and I am looking forward to the next in the series. Parts of it reminded me of Romanov by Nadine Brandes

At times I felt like the narrator was reading to a child. Many words were wrongly pronounced and it took me out of the story.

Content:
No explicit language or content
Good vs evil
Doing the right thing when it could cost your life

Fast moving fantasy romance

This is an unusually well-written and well-narrated fantasy romance using the enemies to lovers trope. It struck me as kind of a beauty and the beast retelling. The author includes some plot surprises and many sympathetic characters as well as an evil ruler monopolizing the world’s most precious resource —that’s not gold or oil, it’s water! The story has a kidnapping and ably told fights and battles in addition to the strong love story and the unique magical water divining ability of the heroine. Enjoyed listening to it very much.

Love it!

Water divining is such a rare gift in this country and those who can often make a decent penny off of it, but of course the services are only needed if the current wells run dry and their services are only used. If the the spots where they tell them to dig for wells helps the well actually survive more than a couple years. After dividing for a well for a fellow neighbor, on her way back home, she is kidnapped, and she soon find out that she is kidnapped by the air to the throne of their neighboring kingdom, who is a very forward and very grumpy man. I am quickly finding out that I do enjoy grumpy sunshine books, and this is definitely one of those books the different twists and the turns that they had to take to be able to be successful and defeat the ruling tyrant king.

Perfect!

This book has amazing worldbuilding and characters that are very well written. I easily felt like I was a part of this book. I fell in love with these characters and was rooting for them the whole time. There are so many challenges and obstacles that Solace and Rhees face, but each one made them stronger. The growth of Solace is my favorite thing about this book. Rhees' determination to save the people makes his character so lovable. The side characters are even written with so my detail. I feel like Toni truly knows her characters inside and out, and it really shows in her books. I really enjoy this world that she has created, and I'm looking forward to reading book 2!

As always, Lisa Lynn did an amazing job bringing this story to life. ♥️

💧Enemies to lovers
💧Rare gifts
💧No Spice
💧grumpy/sunshine
💧Character growth
💧Amazing world building

Excellent choice to start reading fantasy!

Fantasy is not a typical genre for me, as I don’t like having to figure out the pronunciation of made-up words or struggle to bring the book to life. Having the narrator made all the difference! I also liked how Lisa was able to make the male voices sound authentic and not just like a woman trying to sound like a man. She is a favorite narrator because of that!

Solace’s gift as a water diviner seemed almost like a skill she had learned. Her mother did teach her to use her gift, so I suspect it was a mix of both. She is the type of person who focuses on others and ensures they feel included, needed, and loved—no matter who they are. Rhees is gruff and single-minded in his desire to help the kingdom, so much so that his plans cause harm to others, particularly Solace. The book had me on the edge of my seat with the action. While the entire book was good, once I hit Chapter 13, I couldn’t stop reading and stayed up late to finish. There was just so much going on; I was anxious for Solace and Rhees and had to keep reading, even though it meant staying up late.

If I had one complaint about this book, it’s that Solace is 17. While I appreciate that this is a young adult book, I would have preferred Solace to be in the 18–20 range, given the things she has to deal with. Not that anyone should have to go through them, but for the sake of young minds, having her be older would have felt more appropriate.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, which I received from the narrator. All opinions are my own.

Engaging Fantasy

This was my first experience with this author's work, and I was very entertained by it. Once the audiobook started, I was so enmeshed in the story that I listened to the whole audiobook in one sitting. I admired the worldbuilding. I liked the romantic fantasy as it was based on one of my favorite tropes that of enemies-to-lovers. I liked the characters as they were both strong and driven to succeed in their individual goals. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series. I thought Lisa Lynn Sandlin's narration was great, and her performance kept my attention. I was given a copy of the audiobook. I volunteered, without financial gain, to post this review which reflected my honest opinions regarding this audiobook.

Fun story!

I thought the story was quite interesting with Solace basically being able to sense water in the ground so her ability helps others know where to dig wells. Unfortunately, a tyrant rules the kingdom next to hers and now Rhees is trying to help free his countryman from the dictates and taxes of the evil king so he kidnaps Solace.
I love watching them both grow and see the good and bad in each other. I feel like the story was fairly believable because of them both seeing the other's faults then realizing that good can be found in anyone and everyone if you only look as they work to help free the country from the tyrant, finding freedom and friendship in some of the most unlikely places.
This is the second story I've listened to with Sandlin as the narrator and she is definitely one I will look for in future audiobooks!

Interesting premise, flat characters

The performance was very “Minnesota” which worked for some of the characters. The characters don’t have much depth and the dialog is full of verbal cliches that get distracting after a while. The premise is interesting and I wish the author would have dug more into the magic system of the water divining and promoted character growth through that unique aspect of the story