What happens when a fake engagement trope collides with out-of-control magic in a cozy small town? Honestly, I wasn't sure this combination would work for me. I started Rise of the Witch late on a Wednesday night, hearing aids out, captions synced on my tablet while rain streaked down my apartment windows in Capitol Hill. The kind of quiet evening where you just want something warm and low-stakes. And for the most part, that's exactly what Deanna Chase delivers — though Gabra Zackman's performance adds dimensions the text alone might not have earned.
Briggs's Magic Goes Haywire and So Does the Pacing
The setup is pretty standard paranormal romance territory: Briggs Williams can't control his magic, his ex shows up to make things worse, and the only person who grounds him is Melissa Benson — the woman he's been keeping at arm's length. Chase layers in the fake engagement angle early, and the first couple of hours move at a comfortable clip. Zackman gives Briggs this slightly gruff warmth that works well against Melissa's determined optimism. You can hear the tension between them even in throwaway dialogue about grocery shopping or town events.
But here's where it gets uneven. Around the midpoint, the story stalls. There's a stretch — maybe forty minutes — where Briggs and Melissa keep circling the same emotional conversation. "I can't be with you." "But we have to pretend." "This is getting too real." Rinse, repeat. Zackman does her best to inject fresh energy each time, shifting her delivery slightly, but the writing doesn't give her enough new material to work with. As a hard-of-hearing listener, this hit different — when I'm tracking captions alongside audio, repetitive emotional beats become extremely obvious. The text literally echoes itself.
Zackman's Voice Work vs. the Keating Hollow Ensemble
Gabra Zackman has over 300 audiobooks under her belt and you can tell. She's classically trained, and her control is evident — clean diction, consistent character voices, smart emotional pacing. Her Melissa is bright without being grating, which is harder than it sounds for a character who's essentially the eternal optimist in a room full of magical chaos.
What I found interesting is how she handles the ensemble. Keating Hollow is a town full of witches, and Chase populates scenes with side characters who pop in and out. Zackman differentiates them, but some of the secondary women blend together — there's a flatness to the supporting female voices that contrasts with her sharper work on the leads. Her ex-girlfriend character (the antagonist catalyst) gets this slightly clipped, cooler register that immediately signals "threat" without going cartoonish. That's smart narrator work. The performance is nuanced enough to feel the social dynamics even when the dialogue is doing surface-level stuff.
Compared to her work on Baby Teeth — where she had to channel genuine creepiness through a child's voice — this is a much lighter lift. And honestly, that's fine. Not every book needs the narrator to perform at maximum intensity. But I did wish Chase's script gave Zackman more to chew on. The magic system scenes, where Briggs's power flares and objects start flying or breaking, are described rather than dramatized. No sound effects, no production tricks. Just Zackman's voice telling you a lamp exploded. Missed opportunity for tone shift here — a little audio design would've elevated those moments from cozy to genuinely thrilling.
The Magic Reveal That Almost Saves the Back Half
Melissa discovering she has magic is the turn the book needs, and it comes just in time. There's a scene late in the book where she instinctively shields Briggs during a magical outburst, and Zackman drops her voice into this lower, steadier register — like Melissa is surprising herself with her own power. It's a small shift, but it reframes the entire character dynamic. Suddenly Melissa isn't just the grounding presence; she's a force. I rewound that section twice because the caption sync was perfect and I wanted to catch the exact vocal shift again.
At five hours, this is a quick listen. Almost too quick — Chase is juggling the romance, the magic system, the fake engagement, the ex subplot, and Melissa's self-discovery, and some of those threads get shortchanged. The resolution feels rushed, like the last twenty minutes are doing the work of an hour.
Who Should Listen (And Who Should Skip)
If you've been through the other Keating Hollow books, this slots in comfortably. If this is your entry point — it works standalone, but you'll feel like you walked into a party where everyone already knows each other. Brave gave me a similar lived-in feeling, the kind of small-town world that rewards readers who've been there from the start. The town's charm is assumed rather than built. Skip this one if you need your paranormal romance to have real stakes or sharp editing — the midpoint sag and rushed ending will frustrate you. But if you want a warm, low-commitment listen with a polished narrator? Pull up a chair.
Clarity over speed — always. And Zackman delivers clarity in spades. She's a professional doing professional work on material that's pleasant but doesn't push boundaries. I enjoyed it the way I enjoy a well-made latte — satisfying, familiar, gone in an hour.
My Accessibility Notes and the Bottom Line
Caption sync was solid throughout, no drift or timing issues. Zackman's diction is clean enough that I caught probably 90% on audio alone with my hearing aids, which is high for me. The production is bare-bones — single narrator, no effects, no music — which actually helps accessibility. Nothing competing for auditory space. Good accessibility, even if by default rather than design.
The book is sweet. It's safe. And at five hours, it doesn't overstay its welcome even when it repeats itself. Her Wolf sits in that same comfortable lane — paranormal romance that knows exactly what it is and delivers without surprises. Zackman elevates it from forgettable to pleasant. But I keep thinking about what this could've been with sharper editing and a little production ambition.
