Historical Fantasy

Book Review: THE WITCH BELOW THE DREAMING WOOD by H.G. Parry

| Jessica Crawford

The Witch Below the Dreaming Wood by H.G. Parry is a 448 page standalone novel to be published July 21, 2026 by Redhook.

Genre

Historical Fantasy, Retelling

Description

From the author of The Magician’s Daughter comes a captivating historical fantasy where dreams come to life and Arthurian legends are reborn.

Wales, 1941. As the second world war ravages the globe and bombs fall from the sky, people all over the world begin to dream of King Arthur. The dreams spread like a fantastical plague, flooding people’s sleep night after night. Whispers arise of wonders and unexplained sights – dragons in the London Underground, and strange lights over Stonehenge. Self-proclaimed prophets claim they are miracles, heralding Arthur’s return at the time of Britain’s greatest need.⁣
⁣
Elaine Ambrose has never dreamed of Arthur, and she doesn’t believe in miracles. A librarian at the British Museum, she wants only to protect the museum’s collection from the Blitz, and is frustrated to be sent instead to catalogue a reclusive professor’s private library on the coast of North Wales. But all is not as it seems. Soon Ellie must confront what she’s tried to ignore: she dreams not of Arthur, but of Nimue – the Lady of the Lake. And her dreams promise not salvation, but a return to the darkness of the last days of Camelot. 

Opening Line

When we were children under the Lake, my other would tuck us into bed every night with the same words.

My Thoughts

“That’s the trouble with destiny, and with despair. Both make it too easy to tell yourself you had no choice.”

The Witch Below the Dreaming Wood is an Arthurian legend love story that transcends space and time.

The tale unfolds in chapters that alternate between Nimue’s story (told in the first person POV), and that of Elaine Ambrose (third person), a librarian working in London during the second World War. As their nation is embroiled in warfare, the people of the United Kingdom collectively begin dreaming about the once and future king, Arthur. Is the phenomenon spreading by the power of suggestion on the minds of a stressed population, or is there actually something otherworldly afoot?

It was as though the incendiaries had cracked open the earth and allowed something old and primal to slip through.

At first, Ellie resents being sent away from where she can be of most use to the war effort in order to catalogue the library of an isolated manor house in the north of Wales. But events at her new lodgings lead her to believe that Camlan House might in fact have a much bigger role to play in looming world-shattering events than she could have imagined. She teams up with the estate’s groom, honorably discharged RAF pilot Tom Wilder, to try to puzzle out what is behind the unearthly goings-on they witness there.

Both parts of the story were excellent, but I especially delighted at Nimue’s narration of how she was raised by the Lady of the Lake to be Merlin’s doom. Her entire life has been solely about preparing to enact her mother’s vengeance against the mighty wizard and advisor to the king in Camelot through subterfuge, never mind how Nimue herself might come to feel for the man.

Oh, the joy the repartee between Nimue and Merlin brought to me!

“As it stands, I owe you an apology, and probably an explanation. I don’t have an explanation for you, but would you like to learn how to turn into a mouse?”

“I’d better get going. I promised Arthur I’d join him in council.”

“I thought you said you were going to be completely useless this morning.”

“I never promised him I wouldn’t be useless. I never even promised him I’d be awake. I did promise him I’d be human, which is a shame, but he’s learned to be specific over the years.”

And of course we also have the other usual suspects in this part of the tale: Morgan le Fay and Mordred, Queen Guinevere and Sir Lancelot.

Poor Lancelot. So brave and so honourable, so determined to be all things to all people that he was constantly hurting them in the process… “He can’t turn aside from Arthur, and he can’t turn aside from you, and so he’s going to tear himself apart trying to be everything to both of you at once, and deep down he can’t believe that it will end badly.”

If he could be the best knight in the world while betraying his liege lord, then it meant that knighthood wasn’t what he had believed it to be. It meant that perhaps his standards meant nothing, and never had. It meant everything was falling apart.

Both strands of story weave together epically at the end. There is no time loop here, but if “timey-wimey” plots hurt your brain too much to enjoy a book, you might want to skip this one. However, if you love fantasy stories inspired by Arthurian legend, WWII historical fiction, and grand wistful romances all packaged together with strong moral lessons, you must give this a read!

It will end one day, of course. Everything does. Until then, we have the ground we hold against the dark, and the stories we fill it with.

A thousand thanks to Redhook and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

Book Review: THE RED WINTER by Cameron Sullivan

| Jessica Crawford

The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan is a 535 page novel published by Tor Books in 2025.

Genre

Historical Fantasy

My Thoughts

What do I think? Let’s see. In less than a minute on the job, you’ve fallen foul of the bishop, got involved with some fancy twit and attracted the attention of a man with the biggest gun I’ve ever seen…Even for you, this is remarkable! That’s what I think.

I loved a lot about this historical fantasy imagining of the real story behind the Beast of Gévaudan, the man-eating animal that terrorized a region of France over a period of years in the late eighteenth century (there are several other works of fiction based off of this part of history, and the one that comes to mind foremost for me is the movie Brotherhood of the Wolf). It’s dark and bloody, it’s got elements of mythology and the paranormal, and it features a doomed queer romance.

The main character, Professor Sebastian Grave, has lived for centuries hosting a Spirit (it’s considered uncouth to use the phrase “possessed by”) called Sarmodel. This book is Sebastian relaying the story of the time a young nobleman called him back to Gévaudan for a contract unfulfilled. As the two travel there together, Sebastian in turn tells him the story of when he first signed the contract some twenty years before. He, among many others, had answered the call of the king of France to hunt down the Beast that had been slaughtering livestock and citizens alike. During this time, Sebastian had carried on a love affair with the nobleman’s father, and shared some of the secrets of his true nature with the man. A couple of decades later, the slaughter has begun anew; it seems the Beast may be back, and the professor practiced in the Arcane arts may be their best hope.

If you’re on board so far for the grisly werewolf origin story, know that this is the kind of novel that involves footnotes – I understand this is a big turn off for some readers, but it tends to really work for me. Here the footnotes are not overused, are often employed to explain some Arcane aspect of the book’s universe, and are occasionally laugh out loud funny. Some of the inner-dialogue between Sebastian and Sarmodel also provide moments of humor, as do the interspersed addendums written by Livia, the succubus bound to Sebastian’s service. (These portions of story reflect back on a period in fifteenth century France, when our protagonist first finds himself up against the figure behind the Beast – and so another thing to know before deciding if this book is right for you is that it does alternate among multiple timelines.)

I do think this story crammed in an awful lot: demons, Archangels, Greek mythology, sorcery, werewolves, Joan of Arc, romance, the French Revolution. I personally enjoyed each of these aspects, but I do feel that the book failed to fully manage to pull it all together into a cohesive whole that 100% satisfied me. Between that and the fact that it felt a bit overly long, I would rate this 4.5 stars in a system that allows for half stars (or even 4.75 if we were going with quarter stars). That’s still fabulous, of course!

In the Acknowledgments section, the author implies that this might in fact be only one book in a potential series of adventures had by Sebastian, Sarmodel and Livia. Considering they’ve had centuries of them, I am curious to see what the next story will be about!

Book Review: WAYWARD SOULS (HARKER & MORIARTY #2) by Susan J. Morris

| Jessica Crawford

Wayward Souls by Susan J. Morris is the second book in the Harker & Moriarty series, with a publish date by Inky Phoenix Press of Bindery Books of March 17, 2026.

Genre:

Historical Fantasy, Paranormal Mystery

Blurb:

The delightfully dark sequel to the gothic supernatural mystery Strange Beasts.

Six days before Samhain—the night when the veil between worlds is thinnest—Samantha Harker, daughter of Dracula’s killer, and Dr. Helena Moriarty, daughter of the famed criminal mastermind, are thrown into their next the mysterious disappearance of two Society field agents in Ireland. Only this time, the Royal Society is sending Jakob Van Helsing to keep an eye on them.

Sam and Hel may have solved the Paris case, but that doesn’t mean the Society trusts them. Sam has the power to slip into the minds of monsters, and Van Helsing has sworn to kill her at the first sign of corruption. And if Hel can’t prove her father’s existence, she’ll soon go down for his crimes.

Their investigation takes them from the crumbling ruins of Ireland’s untamed wilds to the occult societies of the rich and powerful. The connection between the Sam and Hel is electric, but as they fall deeper into each other’s orbit, their secrets only multiply. For Hel, it’s the sins she committed when she was her father’s pawn. For Sam, it’s a plague of death omens, mysterious black feathers, and a siren song no one else can hear. And then comes a chilling revelation that is poised to shatter The agents who disappeared were each haunted by a ghost. And so, it seems, is Sam.

With characters drawn from the worlds of Dracula and Sherlock Holmes, Wayward Souls is a twisty puzzle box of a historical fantasy—perfect for fans of Genevieve Cogman, Theodora Goss, Freya Marske, T. Kingfisher, and Gail Carriger.

Opening Line:

Samantha Harker folded her hands on the scarred mahogany table, grateful her emerald-green riding habit would disguise any hint of sweat.

My Thoughts:

Sam and Hel (the daughters of Jonathan and Mina Harker from Dracula and Professor Moriarty, the nemesis of Sherlock Holmes, respectively) are off on another adventure in this sequel to Strange Beasts. This time London’s Royal Society for the Study of Abnormal Phenomena have sent them to Ireland with Jakob Van Helsing accompanying to keep an eye on things, as they don’t quite trust Hel’s loyalties or Sam’s abilities.

Like its predecessor, the vibes in this book are perfectly on point! Steeped in the darker aspects of Celtic mythology and folklore, this story was perfect for my spooky season reading (but with the Irish setting being such a large part of the story, St. Patty’s Day would be a fine time to pick it up as well!) People in Ireland are disappearing in ways that smack of the supernatural and it’s up to our team of field agents to figure out who or what is behind it all, preferably before the night of Samhain, when the veil between worlds is thinnest and dangers from the Otherworld are at their peak.

A theme of this installment is that no one is only one thing – all good or all bad. Characters who were midlevel villains of the last book have the opportunity here to show that they have another side. Our heroines have to learn to allow themselves as much grace as they do the monsters they confront in their line of work, who are sometimes made the way they are by monstrous acts committed against them.

I hadn’t recalled from the first book that the story is all told with third person POV through Sam’s perspective, so readers can only really get an idea of Hel and Van Helsing’s thoughts and feelings through their interactions with her. I do think a reread of that one would have been beneficial, as I couldn’t recall much about the situation with Sam’s grandfather, which comes into play as a fairly major plot thread here.

One complaint I have with this book is the same one I had for the first in the series – I couldn’t always follow the characters’ reasoning when they came to conclusions about things in their investigation. The answers and explanations here were a bit convoluted, with a lot going on. I kind of had to just enjoy the ride and accept the characters’ determinations without fully appreciating how they arrived at them.

Still, this was overall a fun story and perfect fit for my October reading, and I am grateful to NetGalley, Bindery Books, and Inky Phoenix Press for the eARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

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Book Review: GRACELESS HEART by Isabel Ibañez

| Jessica Crawford

Graceless Hearts by Isabel Ibañez is a 488 page standalone novel with a publish date of January 13, 2026 by Saturday Books.

Genre:

Historical Fantasy, Romance

Synopsis:

A lush, atmospheric and achingly magical standalone adult fantasy romance set in Renaissance Italy from a #1 New York Times bestselling author.

In 15th-century Volterra, sculptress Ravenna Maffei enters a competition hosted by a secretive, immortal family who offer an invaluable boon to the victor. Desperate to win so she can save her brother, Ravenna reveals a rare magical talent-a dangerous act in a city where magic is forbidden. Her revelation makes her a target, and she is kidnapped by the Luni family and taken to Florence, a city of breathtaking beauty and cutthroat ambition.

There, Ravenna is forced into an impossible task where failure means certain death at the hands of Saturnino dei Luni, the family’s enigmatic and merciless heir. But under his cold reserve hides a vulnerability that draws her closer than she ever intended.

Meanwhile, Ravenna’s forbidden magic does not go unnoticed. The Pope, waging war against Florence, the Medici, and magic itself, has his own interest in her abilities, seeing her as a potential weapon in his ruthless campaign.

As alliances shift and war brews on the horizon, Ravenna must navigate the treacherous line between survival and betrayal, between love and duty. With time running out and her every move watched, the choices she makes will determine the fate of not just her own life, but the fragile balance of magic and power that could unravel Florence itself.

Opening Line:

Ravenna Maffei disliked magic because her parents did, but on the day her aunt took her to visit the quarry for the first time, she learned what it was to truly loathe it.

My Thoughts:

First of all, Readers, let’s please take a moment to appreciate the stunning cover of this Historical Romantasy novel. So pretty!

Okay, now with that out of the way…

Sculptress Ravenna’s story takes place in a version of fifteenth century Italy that includes elements of the supernatural and the magical: fae, witches, and vampyres, oh my! This captivating set dressing adorns a tale deeply rooted in actual history. There is a large focus on the political unrest that featured Lorenzo de Medici and his various family members and associates at its center. The story takes us from Volterra to the glittering jewel of Florence during the height of the Renaissance…and then there’s the pope of unholy greed. He condemns anything that bears even a whiff of magic, while using its power to his own benefit. Our main character Ravenna has inherited a hint of magic herself, and thus becomes a pawn in the machinations of powerful people.

The premise of this story is great, and the setting is ::chef’s kiss::. Unfortunately, I felt the romance part of the tale leaves much to be desired, and between that and what seemed to me an unnecessary length for the story being told, my final rating dropped down a star.

It was a bit frustrating that so much of what Ravenna does in this story she is forced to do by one party or another, rarely having any agency of her own. And while I often dig the morally gray characters and antiheroes, I have to agree with another reviewer that what homegirl actually experiences with Saturnino here is Stockholm Syndrome, not true love with her captor for showing her a couple acts of kindness amidst regular abuse. And while this is an “Adult” romance due to a few spicy scenes (mostly blanketed in euphemism, so not terribly explicit), the romance aspect came across to me as sort of…unsophisticated? I just mean that, although the characters were certainly unique, the writing specific to their romance felt like the same stuff I’ve read a hundred times before. It seemed like I could predict what would be said next in the writing, just when the hero would lean back against the wall with his arms crossed in front of his chest and his legs crossed at the ankles and say something condescending while looking smoldering hot and smelling like snow-covered pine trees. Really, in general this felt more like a YA book, but marketed as Adult simply so the sexy scenes could be included.

Additionally, when the switch flipped in the relationship between Ravenna and Saturnino, it was a sudden and complete 180. And I just couldn’t understand why Ravenna did some of the things she did, like so often doing risky things when she feared he was in mortal danger, despite knowing that he is, you know, immortal.

I also think the pacing here fell a bit short. After things being drawn out for so long, all of a sudden a lot of major things happen near the end – at least, the reader is told they are, without actually being shown much of it happening. At least up until the climactic scene, which was good (although I did predict the “twist” at least a couple hundred of pages earlier).

So there was certainly a lot to enjoy here, but by the end I felt let down. Still 3 solid stars for the things that worked well, though.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press/Saturday Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

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Book Review: THOSE FATAL FLOWERS by Shannon Ives

| Jessica Crawford

Those Fatal Flowers by Shannon Ives is a 384 page standalone novel from Dell of Ballantine Books with a publish date of January 21, 2025.

Genre/Subgenres:

Mythology Retelling, Historical Fiction, Romance

Opening Line:

The night before Ceres’ palace becomes a tomb, it’s halls are filled with music.

Synopsis:

Greco-Roman mythology and the mystery of the vanished Roanoke colony collide in this epic adventure filled with sapphic longing and female rage—a debut novel for fans of Madeline Miller, Jennifer Saint, and Natalie Haynes.Before, Scopuli. 

It has been centuries since Thelia made the mistake that cost her the woman she loved. As the handmaidens charged with protecting Proserpina, the goddess of spring, Thelia and her sisters are banished to the island of Scopuli, cursed to live as sirens—winged half-woman, half-bird creatures. In luring men to their death, they hope to gain favor from the gods who could free them. But then ships stop coming and Thelia fears a fate worse than the underworld. Just as time begins to run out, a voice emerges, Proserpina’s voice; and what she asks of Thelia will spark a daring and dangerous quest for freedom.

Now, Roanoke. 

Thelia can’t bear to reflect on her last moments in Scopuli, where she left behind her sisters. After weeks drifting at sea, Thelia’s renewed human body is close to death. Luckily, an unfamiliar island appears on the horizon—Roanoke. Posing as a princess arriving on a sailboat filled with riches, Thelia infiltrates the small English colony. It doesn’t take long for her to realize that this place is dangerous, especially for women. As she grows closer to a beautiful settler who mysteriously resembles her former love, Thelia formulates a plan to save her sisters and enact revenge on the violent men she’s come to hate. But is she willing to go back to Scopuli and face the decisions of her past? And will Proserpina forgive her for all that she’s done?Told in alternating timelines, Those Fatal Flowers is a powerful, passionate, and wildly cathartic love letter to femininity and the monstrous power within us all.

My Thoughts:

What happens when you mix a mystery from America’s history with mythology, feminist rage, and romance?

This book right here.

It presents an interesting case: what if sirens from Greco-Roman mythology were responsible for the disappearance of the inhabitants of the lost colony of Roanoke? The author explains that her aim with this story was to explore the effects of loss and guilt on the psyche while also examining structural violence. It does a fair job in this endeavor, while also including a sapphic love story.

Our main character is Thelia, one of three sisters who acted as handmaidens to Proserpina (Persephone), and who were transformed into winged creatures to assist in the search for their charge when she was abducted by Dis (Hades). When they fail to find and rescue the goddess, they are imprisoned on an island as punishment. There, they lure sailors with their singing. (This book alternately refers to them as harpies and sirens, but I think the singing and luring part indicates they were just sirens, not harpies?)

After centuries have gone by, Thelia learns there may be a way to lift the curse she and her sisters are under, but it requires the sacrifice of many treacherous men…something the English colony of Roanoke in the Americas has more then a few of.

I liked the unique premise of the story and the bits detailing the lives of Thelia and her sister sirens on the island of Scopuli, and the writing on the sentence level was good.

On the other hand, I questioned the reliability of the behavior and speech of the Puritans depicted here. The men and women of Raleigh drank an awful lot of alcohol in this book, and said things like, “Fun little secret for you, my lady” before revealing some bit of gossip. I’m no scholar of history, but these things didn’t seem right to me. And I just wasn’t much feeling the romance — it was a bit of instalove on Thelia’s side (although in part because the object of her affections apparently looks so much like her long lost love that for a time she is trying to determine if it might actually BE her); and also, when on a timed mission for redemption, shouldn’t a centuries old divinity be able to keep it in her skirts?

All the hate for anything male really bothered me, BUT this does get addressed later on in the book, as Thelia finally learns that “monsters are made, not born”.

So while this book wasn’t a home run for me, it was decent and presents some intriguing concepts. If I were allowed half or even quarter star ratings, I’d say this was a 3.25 or 3.5 read for me.

Thank you the NetGalley and Dell/Penguin Random House for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

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Book Review: STRANGE BEASTS by Susan J. Morris

| Jessica Crawford

Strange Beasts by Susan J. Morris is a 384 page novel published in 2024 by Bindery Books.

Genre:

Mystery, Gaslamp Fantasy

Opening Line:

Samantha Harker’s heels rang on the fine marble floors as she hurried past plaster reliefs of scenes torn from myth.

My Thoughts:

Are you interested in stories about government organizations dedicated to investigating supernatural phenomena? Are you curious what a partnership between the daughter of Mina and Jonathan Harker from Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the daughter of Professor Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes series would look like? Did you like the idea of the bookish researcher (with an academic and personal interest in the occult, like Ninth House) taking to the field like in the Emily Wilde books? The possibility of a quasi-religious/political group being behind horrific beastly attacks like in The Brotherhood of the Wolf? The scheming to trap a potential werewolf at the opera like in Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within? Do you appreciate queer representation in the books you read, with a gentle romance arc that takes a backseat to the adventurous and mysterious plot? Do you like your feminist rage to have actual, literal bite?

If you said yes to any of the above, then do I have a treat for you!

In 1903, Sam and Hel are agents of the London Field Office of The Royal Society for the Study of Abnormal Phenomena. Ostensibly, the group hunts dangerous monsters of the paranormal variety. Our two heroines are sent to Paris to look into a spree of brutal murders thought to have been committed by some kind of Capital B Beast. Their investigation takes them to illicit salons, the catacombs, the opera, and many other places besides.

The two women must learn to trust one another, which does not come easy. Sam is used to keeping her ability as a channel secret, as most people believe this means she will inevitably fall under the sway of monsters and is therefore a danger herself. Conversely, everyone knows the identity of Hel’s father, but what they don’t know is that by making the choice to free herself from his influence, she guaranteed that he will always target people she gets close to.

My one complaint is that it seems like this book tried to be and do a little too much. There’s Sam channeling, false visions, a hidden rage, Jakob Van Helsing (son of Abraham) foiling her wherever she goes in a bid to save her from her own inexorable descent into monstrousness, the men in the Royal Society discounting the abilities of the women, personal agency, the question of monster versus victim, alchemy, religious and political motivations, the potential for Moriarty to be manipulating their investigation, covert ciphers, messages sent via bees…all on top the of the basic premise of uncovering who is responsible for the murders and stopping them.

(And one extremely niggling issue: I understand that “wills o’the wisp” is probably the proper plural form, but it still sounds off enough to kick me from the immersion in the story, and it is a term that gets used SO. MUCH.)

Even with being a bit extra, this is a 4.75 star book for me. I really liked the characters, the early twentieth century Paris setting, the paranormal elements, and the investigation into the Beast killings. It was a lot of fun, and I wasn’t bored for even a moment. It does leave the door open for another adventure to come. I will be keeping an eye on this author, and this publisher, for sure.

Thank you to NetGalley, Bindery Books, and Inky Phoenix Press for the eARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

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Book Review: THE SECRET SERVICE OF TEA AND TREASON by India Holton

| Jessica Crawford

The Secret Service of Tea and Treason by India Holton is a 334 page novel published by Berkley in 2023. It is third in the Dangerous Damsels series, but can be read as a standalone.

Genre:

Historical Romance, Cozy Fantasy, Humor

Tropes:

Rivals to lovers, fake marriage

Opening Line:

It was the best of dress shops, it was the worst of dress shops.

Synopsis:

Two rival spies must brave pirates, witches, and fake matrimony to save the Queen.

Known as Agent A, Alice is the top operative within the Agency of Undercover Note Takers, a secret government intelligence group that is fortunately better at espionage than at naming itself. From managing deceptive witches to bored aristocratic ladies, nothing is beyond Alice’s capabilities. She has a steely composure and a plan always up her sleeve (alongside a dagger and an embroidered handkerchief). So when rumors of an assassination plot begin to circulate, she’s immediately assigned to the case.

But she’s not working alone. Daniel Bixby, otherwise known as Agent B and Alice’s greatest rival, is given the most challenging undercover assignment of his life— pretending to be Alice’s husband. Together they will assume the identity of a married couple, infiltrate a pirate house party, and foil their unpatriotic plans.

Determined to remain consummate professionals, Alice and Daniel must ignore the growing attraction between them, especially since acting on it might prove more dangerous than their target.

My Thoughts:

THE SECRET SERVICE OF TEA AND TREASON by India Holton 🫖☕️🕵️🏴‍☠️🧙‍♀️💗

A rivals to lovers, fake marriage historical romance with fantasy elements and neurodiverse main characters? Yes, please!

My Books on Tap group (we meet at a different brewery twice a month and go around the table taking turns discussing whatever book we’re reading at the time) recently had a mystery book swap night. We each brought a book wrapped up to hide its identity, then wrote a few descriptors on the front. This was the book I picked (actually, I wound up picking two because the host brought extra in case someone came empty handed). It is the third in the Dangerous Damsels series, but worked perfectly well as a standalone. I could tell which of the characters here had wound up together in previous books in the series.

Alice and Daniel are the two top agents in an underground agency that trains “the help” (maids, housekeepers, butlers, footmen, valets) in espionage. They must join a party of pirates (who, by the way, use incantations to make their houses fly) posing as a married couple in order to thwart a conspiracy to assassinate Queen Victoria. What follows is a fun and absurd romp that prioritizes humor over a sensible plot. Chapters begin with amusingly modified literary quotes from the likes of Austen.

There are pretty explicit open door love scenes, and mild comedic violence.

One complaint that is exceedingly minor in the grand scheme of things: I counted four instances of characters’ mouths shrugging. Wut?

I had been wanting to try this author and am glad the book swap gave me the opportunity. It was a fun story that managed to be fairly swoonworthy to boot.

Book Review: THE FAMILIAR by Leigh Bardugo

| Jessica Crawford

This gorgeous book, The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo (author of Six of Crows and Ninth House, among others) is a 387 page standalone adult historical fantasy novel set in sixteenth century Spain.

The opening line:

If the bread hadn’t burned, this would be a very different story.

When Luzia’s employers discover that their scullion can work small magics, “miracles”, she finds attention drawn to her from all sorts of corners. She fears catching the notice of the Inquisition for multiple reasons, but the flames of her ambition are stoked by the opportunity to compete for a place in the king’s service. Her patron’s familiar, a man made immortal through an ill-gotten bargain, is tasked with teaching her how best to wield and control her powers.

I very much liked the romance in this book, unexpected at it was to the characters involved–but the story was about so much more than that and the magic. It was about class, political machinations, being a Jew in a land that would never trust you, and more. There is one particular side character whose journey and personal growth was quite lovely. 4.5 stars, rounded up!

All that being said, I feel as though some die-hard fans of Bardugo’s YA books, or maybe even Ninth House and Hell Bent, will be disappointed in this one. It is a “quieter” book– there is some showy stuff, but it’s more about the feels and reflection on some serious topics. Which is typically more my jam.

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Book Review: THE FOX WIFE by Yangsze Choo

| Jessica Crawford

An emotional and intriguing tale incorporating elements of Chinese folklore, presented as historical fiction with a side of magical realism.

Chapters alternate between two POVs. Snow’s chapters are told in first person past tense (presented as her diary entries), Bao’s in third person present. Both were equally fascinating, although I did at times take issue with being pulled from one storyline at a particularly good part to shift back to the other. But chapters were never super long, so you never have to wait long to switch back.

Snow is a fox, the kind that can take the form of a human. Once she planned on making the thousand-year journey, a morally refining spiritual pilgrimage, with her mate. But after the greed and cruelty of humans shatters their world, she sets out on a mission of vengeance instead.

Meanwhile, Bao is an older gentleman who has had the ability to hear when someone is lying ever since his childhood nanny prayed to a fox spirit for him. Using his talent, he has become a freelance investigator of sorts. When he is tasked with discovering the identity of a woman found frozen to death in an alleyway, he finds himself on a path that seems to be leading him ever-closer to the subject of a lifelong fixation of his: foxes.

I really liked the unique and fully fleshed characters in this book. The mythological elements added a very nice mysterious and enchanting touch (what is just superstition, and what is something more?). But what resonanted the most with me was the story of grief, and the changes people go through as they process it. I love how the Yangsze Choo’s novels always feature this beautiful mix of magical and moving.

There were several fantastic quotes in this book that had me wishing I was reading it on my ereader so I could highlight them with the swipe of a finger, but I was too lazy to note them any other way. Maybe the quotes other readers submit here on Goodreads will help me out here.

I definitely enjoyed this book a lot more than The Night Tiger (which I still really liked!), but I don’t know if it can oust The Ghost Bride’s spot for number one in my esteem — I think perhaps a reread of that is called for to be sure!

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