From My Bookshelf to Yours: April's Top Reviews
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From My Bookshelf to Yours: April's Top Reviews (a recap)
Another month of great reading! I post my weekly reading recs on Facebook and Instagram first so follow me there to see them as they go live. To receive my monthly recap before anyone else, subscribe to my monthly newsletter where you'll find a link to the recap plus an exclusive, subscribers only, article.
༄˖°.☕️.ೃ࿔📚*:･
The Fire and The Rose by Robyn Cadwallader
Genre: Historical Literary Fiction
(Originally reviewed 1st April)
England, 1276: Forced to leave her home village, Eleanor moves to Lincoln to work as a housemaid. She's prickly, independent and stubborn, her prospects blighted by a port-wine birthmark across her face. Unusually for a woman, she has fine skills with ink and quill, and harbours a secret ambition to work as a scribe, a profession closed to women.
As I read this novel, I had the pervasive feeling that the social and political issues in 1276 are eerily similar to 2026. There’s a deep rift of racism and religion between Jewish people and the English church of the time, plus the restrictive inequality between genders.
In Cadwallader’s novel, we trace the deterioration of relationships and break down of community manipulated by King and Church. Ostensibly this is triggered by the death of Hugh of Lincoln (later: Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln). The story starts sometime after this incident but within the lifetime of the characters involved. It explores the impact of this as well as several “raids” of the Jewish community by the King where they’re all arrested, a number executed, others imprisoned, their property taken, and for those that survive, extra taxes.
The Walls Speak An interesting inclusion is the poetry every few chapters from the point of view of the stone that makes up the city walls. The stone has memory from before walls and through various reshaping by human hands. Their observation of humanity (more acute than Moss in The Bog Queen), touches on the life going on around them as they play “Silent witness endless memory”.
You don’t need to have read Cadwallader’s novel, The Anchoress, before reading this though characters in that novel are mentioned in this one. This is not an action filled story but a fine, diligently researched and well-crafted story. If you’re interested in learning the social history of England, then give this novel a try.
A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid
Genre: YA Gothic Fantasy
(Originally reviewed 1st April)
Effy Sayre has always believed in fairy tales. Haunted by visions of the Fairy King since childhood, she’s had no choice. Her tattered copy of Angharad—Emrys Myrddin’s epic about a mortal girl who falls in love with the Fairy King, then destroys him—is the only thing keeping her afloat. So when Myrddin’s family announces a contest to redesign the late author’s estate, Effy feels certain it’s her destiny.
My brain had difficulty separating the mysterious Emry Myrddin of A Study in Drowning” by Ava Reid, from the Arthurian wizard, Myrddin Emrys, out of Mary Stewart’s, The Crystal Cave. It’s been many years since I read Stewart’s series about Merlin and King Arthur yet still that’s where I landed when I picked up A Study in Drowning. A few pages in though and memory put Merlin back in his cave and carried on with Reid’s storytelling.
This Gothic fantasy novel deals with themes of sexism, sexual abuse, prejudice and racism wrapped up in academia, folklore and the old stones of a Gothic manor house being consumed by the sea.The fight for a young woman’s voice to be heard threads its way through every page.
As a child Effy was left out in the cold for the Fairy King to take. He haunted her every moment from then on even though her mother relented and retrieved her, even as doctors prescribed her anxiety and sleeping meds, even as she struggled to find her place in a disbelieving world. Her tale is as old as the hills and as new as every sunrise. And yet, Reid finds a way to give her characters and story the substance and power to keep a reader turning the pages.
The writing style is eloquent and unique in its expression of a story that has its roots in ancient fairytale lore. I didn’t twig that this was a YA. The themes certainly seem more mature.If you enjoyed Heather Fawcett’s “Emily Wilde” series, you’d probably enjoy A Study in Drowning as well.
A Treason of Thorns by Laura Weymouth
Genre: Dark Gothic, historical fantasy
(Originally reviewed 29th April)
Violet Sterling has spent the last seven years in exile, longing to return to Burleigh House. One of the six great houses of England, Burleigh's magic kept both the countryside and Violet happy. That is, until her father's treason destroyed everything.
Dangerous family secrets from a Gothic ruin of a magical House, political treason, exile and an unusual punishment, and a lifetime friendship blossoming into love. A Treason of Thorns has a lot going on, with plenty of twists tangled in with the vines of an intriguing magic system.
I realised this was a Young Adult novel within the first few pages. I really should check before I pick up books, but I’m attracted by pretty things, and the cover (and title) was intriguing. Also, it was free. I spotted it on a free library bookshelf nestled among a flotsam of used books.
What I liked:
𓏲ּ𝄢 The magical House and the way Vi, its unofficial caretaker, communicated. Excellent! They say the walls hold the secrets of the lives contained within, and Burleigh House does that and more. Also, stately English homes…
𓏲ּ𝄢 Great settings and characters. All the side characters were interesting and had good depth to them.
𓏲ּ𝄢 The tension between Vi, Wyn, and Burleigh House
𓏲ּ𝄢 The magic system: wow, all-encompassing of the Caretakers and the landscape around the house.
What I wasn’t sure about: the age of the main characters didn’t sit well with me considering the adventure they were embroiled in, their level of maturity and the passion they felt for each other. While 14-year-olds are, of course, capable of all of that, the characters came across as quite adult–too big in a way for their young teenage bodies.
Overall though, I enjoyed the read and the slow pulling back of the layers of story like peeling wallpaper from an old wall and finding more layers below… more stories of the house and the people who lived in it over time.
༄˖°.☕️.ೃ࿔📚*:･
From My Bookshelf to Yours - April's Top Reviews brought to you by my love of reading books and writing about them.
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