Yaga is a half-immortal witch living deep in the woods of Russia, and has been for decades, since the untimely death of her goddess mother, Mokosh, many years before. She calls her hut Little Hen, for it is magical and rests on chicken legs which are able to lengthen dramatically and walk to a new location should the need arise. Due to the legend of Baba Yaga, sometimes a move is in order. It doesn't help that her beloved animal friends, Dyen the wolf and Noch the owl, are never far away and add to the air of mystery surrounding her.
One day, an old and dear friend comes to call and she doesn't look well. The friend is none other than Tsaritsa Anastasia Romanovna, whom Yaga has known since Anastasia was a young girl. Anastasia fears someone is trying to kill her and she needs Yaga's help. Although Yaga does determine Anastasia is being poisoned and she cures her temporarily, she isn't able to determine who is at fault, and the poisoning is eventually successful, even though Yaga relocates to the palace to protect her friend.
Sadly, Tsar Ivan has been receiving some bad counsel from an old acquaintance and one-time lover of Yaga, Koshey Bessmertny, who is an immortal and doesn't have the best interests of Russia at heart currently. This, combined with the loss of his beloved wife, sends Tsar Ivan over the edge into paranoia and he starts to attack Russian cities, seeing traitors in every corner. He creates the Oprichniki, his own army just for attacking whatever city he sees fit, meanwhile Yaga has fled the palace having been wrongly accused of Anastasia's murder.
Over the years, Yaga and a close group of friends, including Anastasia's son and the successor to the throne, Ivanushka, and Vasily Adashev, the son of one of Ivan's many former advisors accused of treason, fight against Tsar Ivan and his band of Oprichniki, but Yaga has been steadily digging to find out who killed Anastasia, only to determine that there are gods at play here. Selica, the Lady of Death, is determined to remain in the Land of the Living, and Ivan's deadly attacks on his own people merely provide her with more souls to help her cause. Meanwhile, Morozko, the Lord of Winter, is slowly turning Russia into a land thrust permanently in ice, snow and bitter winter. Can Yaga keep Russia from becoming permanently cold and unlivable, while protecting her people? It will take all of her wits and her friends, if they hope to save Mother Russia and send Selica back to the Land of the Dead where she belongs. The stakes are now higher than ever, since Yaga is not just a mysterious witch - she and Vasily have fallen in love and have young Marina, their daughter to consider. Yaga will stop at nothing to end Selica and Ivan's joint reign of terror, even if it means losing herself in the process.
I enjoyed The Witch and The Tsar and I liked the ending, but I found it took me a long time to get through the book. I am typically a very fast reader, but with all of the Russian names, nicknames, terms and locations, it just took me a long while to complete it. This isn't a bad thing, and is not meant to take away from the story, but is just a fact. It wasn't so bad that I didn't want to finish it. On the contrary, I really wanted to know how the story played out, especially since there is so much actual Russian history woven into the tale.
If you've ever been curious about the tale of Baba Yaga and the Russian history surrounding Ivan the Terrible's reign, you'll likely enjoy The Witch and The Tsar.
