CloudlessRayne, I think I must have missed the Two Brothers references. All the other ones I knew about. I'm just excited you knew about Baba Yaga!
As far as your draft not having a 'hook', I'm about a third of the way through and so far I disagree. The two plots are moving along together, and what is shown to happen in the past actually correlates with whatever's going on in the present at that time. That, to me, is interesting, and not boring at all.
Sadly I didn't finish the whole thing over the weekend, but a third of the way through isn't bad. I can probably finish the rest sometime this week.