I love fairytales so I was excited about the prospect of a story being based on a fairytale being real. The only problem was the writing wasn't very good and the story seemed all over the place while the resolution seemed to be that the evil witch just gave up. 
 It had its cute aspects and I did finish it so it was so bad but I can't say I really liked the book. There was a moment when the hero, Ivan, tries to get his 9th century wife to where his shirt, which she is horrified about because it is a man's garb. His response is to drop it on the ground and exclaim. "Oh look, cloth on the ground." That was funny, though his wife didn't like it. 
 There was a weird mix of Christianity, Judaism and magic in this book which left me wondering and the evil witch had enslaved the god Bear. So yes there was a talking bear in the book. This book was odd.