Quick Review: The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

From the Back Cover:

At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.

After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa’s new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.

And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa’s stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.

As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed—this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse’s most frightening tales.

My Thoughts:

Looks like I'm going to be the voice of dissension on this one. I'm sure you've seen the hype surrounding this book. It's hard to miss. Ads were everywhere when it was released, featuring one accolade after another. And the description sounds amazing, doesn't it? I so wanted to love it. I love Russian historical fiction, and I went into it expecting to love it, to be wowed, to be swept off my feet. Alas, none of that happened. While it's not a bad book, at the end of the day, I honestly found it to be just plain boring.

I loved the folklore and magical elements, and I liked Vasilisa, but the pacing is soooo slow. Agonizingly slow. And the omniscient style means we get the point of view of way too many characters, some who don't even have a name, that's how insignificant they are to the story, yet we get their fleeting thoughts anyway. And if you know me, you know I'm a stickler for a tight, focused point of view structure. The author's writing has been described as beautiful and lyrical, but I thought it was rather on the simple side. And then when I got to the end and discovered this is the first in a trilogy, I couldn't help but note that the story would not need to be a trilogy if this book had been trimmed down, the pace quickened, and the rest of the story added in. I actually groaned at the thought of reading this story stretched out over two more books at a snail's pace.

I don't mean to sound harsh, and I know plenty of readers are loving this, but it just didn't live up to my expectations. I'm still giving it three stars because I did stick with it till the end, and I did find some things to admire about it. But not enough to continue on with the other books.

My Rating:  3 Stars out of 5

*Please Note: This review references an advance digital copy received from the publisher via NetGalley, and therefore the final published copy may differ. Though I received this book from the publisher, these are my honest and unbiased thoughts, and I was not compensated in any other way for reviewing this book.

Blog Tour Review: Daughter of a Thousand Years by Amalia Carosella

From the Back Cover:

Greenland, AD 1000

More than her fiery hair marks Freydís as the daughter of Erik the Red; her hot temper and fierce pride are as formidable as her Viking father’s. And so, too, is her devotion to the great god Thor, which puts her at odds with those in power—including her own brother, the zealous Leif Eriksson. Determined to forge her own path, she defies her family’s fury and clings to her dream of sailing away to live on her own terms, with or without the support of her husband.

New Hampshire, 2016

Like her Icelandic ancestors, history professor Emma Moretti is a passionate defender of Norse mythology. But in a small town steeped in traditional values, her cultural beliefs could jeopardize both her academic career and her congressman father’s reelection. Torn between public expectation and personal identity, family and faith, she must choose which to honor and which to abandon.

In a dramatic, sweeping dual narrative that spans a millennium, two women struggle against communities determined to silence them, but neither Freydís nor Emma intends to give up without a fight.

My Thoughts:

Two women, similar struggles, one thousand years apart.

Freydis, only daughter of Erik the Red, is faced with a decision: marry a man she doesn't love or respect in the hopes of one day commanding her own sailing ship, or face an uncertain future under her brother's thumb in a land rapidly converting to Christianity and abandoning the faith and traditions that are so important to her. Against counsel, she chooses marriage and discovers that it still isn't enough to grant her her heart's desire, or to protect her right to worship her gods, particularly Thor, in whom she places her utmost trust and faith. So when a stranger appears offering her physical and spiritual comfort and promising her the life of her dreams if she only stays true to her faith, she accepts and determines to forge her own destiny, though she will have a difficult journey ahead of her.

In the twenty-first century, congressman's daughter Emma Moretti struggles to reconcile her departure from Catholicism with her place in her community and in her own family. But the middle of her father's brutal reelection campaign isn't exactly the best time to announce that she's a Heathen, and her excitement at teaching Norse history at the local college is quickly dampened when her views are challenged in the classroom. To make things worse, a reporter has gotten hold of information about her faith that gives her father's opponent ammunition to take him down right before the election, and Emma has to decide if standing up for her beliefs will cost her more than she's willing to lose.

Blog Tour Q&A: A Song of War by the H Team

Please join me in welcoming the H Team to Let Them Read Books! Christian Cameron, Libbie Hawker, Kate Quinn, Vicky Alvear Shecter, Stephanie Thornton, SJA Turney, and Russell Whitfield are touring the blogosphere with their third fabulous collaboration on a novel in parts, A Song of War: A Novel of Troy. I had the chance to ask them a few questions about writing as a team, and we had a little fun imagining movie casting and deserted-island scenarios. Their answers are hilarious! Read on and enter to win a paperback copy of A Song of War!

Troy: city of gold, gatekeeper of the east, haven of the god-born and the lucky, a city destined to last a thousand years. But the Fates have other plans—the Fates, and a woman named Helen. In the shadow of Troy’s gates, all must be reborn in the greatest war of the ancient world: slaves and queens, heroes and cowards, seers and kings . . . and these are their stories.

A young princess and an embittered prince join forces to prevent a fatal elopement.

A tormented seeress challenges the gods themselves to save her city from the impending disaster.

A tragedy-haunted king battles private demons and envious rivals as the siege grinds on.

A captured slave girl seizes the reins of her future as two mighty heroes meet in an epic duel.

A grizzled archer and a desperate Amazon risk their lives to avenge their dead.

A trickster conceives the greatest trick of all.

A goddess’ son battles to save the spirit of Troy even as the walls are breached in fire and blood.

Seven authors bring to life the epic tale of the Trojan War: its heroes, its villains, its survivors, its dead. Who will lie forgotten in the embers, and who will rise to shape the bloody dawn of a new age?

Amazon | Amazon UK | Kobo

Hello, H Team! Thank you so much for stopping by Let Them Read Books!

Russ: Thanks for having us :-)

What inspired you to write a novel about the Trojan War?

Simon: Coming up with an idea that can be tackled by several authors from several points of view seamlessly sounds troublesome but in actual fact it is really very easy. There are so many great tales waiting to be told. After A Song of War came out, in just one conversation there were a dozen or more ideas bandied about. Some were discarded as unsuitable or too divisive, but most were intriguing enough to hook at least one of us. Troy was just the idea that hooked the most people’s imagination, but some of the other ideas were not so much discarded as put on the back burner for future projects.

Libbie: I was brought into the project later than the others, as one of our good writer friends had to bow out of A Song of War due to some conflicting deadlines. So Troy was already the decided-upon topic when Kate Quinn approached me about filling the empty space. I’d never thought of writing anything having to do with the Trojan War before, but I immediately wanted to do it as soon as I heard about the project. It’s such a big, beefy chunk of history. It’s very hard to resist.

Christian: I was late to the party, but the Iliad has always inspired me. Really, almost anything to do with Greece, from Achilles to Byron.

Russ: I think it was Kate or Simon who came up with the idea of Troy… it sort of made sense as the first H Team project was took place over one day, the second covered the events of a year… so a decade seems like a natural progression from there. Handily, the Trojan War lasted ten years so that was that.

How did you determine who would write each part?

Simon: I can’t speak for the others, but for me, as soon as we decided on Troy I knew I had to write Aeneas. I am first and foremost a writer of Roman novels, and so with Aeneas being the mythological Pater Familias of the Roman people, the opportunity was too good to miss.

Libbie: By the time I came on board, I believe there were only two “songs” still unclaimed. The one I ended up choosing was the one where two major characters have to die (Paris and Achilles), and I knew I had to take that part. I love killing characters in the most pathetic and heart-rending ways possible. Plus Penthesilea had to die, too. Bonus! In addition, we cast Paris as the villain of the piece – or if not the villain, then the guy everybody really wanted to kick. So it was kind of fun to orchestrate his demise.

Vicky: My initial choice worked better for someone else so I ended up with Odysseus, kind of at the last minute. Which worked out just fine because if I’d thought too long and hard about it, I would’ve been terrified about taking on such an iconic figure. But put a deadline in front of my face and nothing else matters.

Kate: I’ve always loved Andromache, so it was easy. And Hellenus, a lesser prince of Troy, made a wonderful Everyman foil to all these larger-than-life Capital-H heroes.

Russ: We bandy around suggestions, but most people I think knew who they wanted to write from the get go. Agamemnon was a bit of a challenge to be honest because he’s almost universally despised, but it was one that I fancied taking on because I don’t think that many people wake up in the morning thinking, “How can I be eeeevil today?” So the thing was to try to find something in Agamemnon that would explain why he acts the way he does. I don’t think that anyone reading his story will like him at the end of it, but I’m hoping that I did enough for readers to maybe understand him a little more.

Blog Tour Guest Post: Aphrodite's Choice by Christy English

Please join me in welcoming author Christy English to Let Them Read Books! Christy is touring the blogosphere with her brand new release, Aphrodite's Choice, first in the Goddess Diaries series, and I can't wait to read it! I'm thrilled to have Christy here today with an insightful guest post about her vision of Aphrodite and delving into the mind of a goddess. Read on and enter to win an ebook of Aphrodite's Choice!

Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, still walks the modern world. No longer thronged by worshipers, Aphrodite heals the bodies and souls of the men she touches, one man, one night, at a time. But not everyone thinks of her as a long-dead myth. Someone is stalking her. The men who have hunted her kind as witches for centuries have passed their hatred on to their sons.

As she flees her enemies and tries to warn her sisters of the danger facing them once again, Aphrodite is followed by one of the members of the Brotherhood, a man who has been given the task of killing her, and any of her sisters who cross his path. But it does not take her long to discover that Steven Wharton is not a murderer, and his soul is one she has known before.

In this paranormal romance, a goddess’s past is brought to life, from the Greek city of Corinth to the shores of the island of Cyprus, at the court of Versailles to the burning city of Persepolis. But it is not until she meets Steve that Aphrodite falls in love for the first time. As she faces an ancient enemy, Aphrodite discovers that the love she feels, not the love she gives, is the root of her soul. And that love might even be the path to her freedom…

What Does a Goddess Want?

By Christy English

What does a goddess want? This was one of the questions I had to ask myself as I began writing my paranormal thriller, APHRODITE’S CHOICE. Why would a goddess come down to earth and deal with humans at all? Why would a powerful, immortal being risk her life over and over again for millennia to serve humanity?

As the book opens, we find Aphrodite living in modern Boston, calling herself Addy, working as a philanthropist by day. By night, she roams the bars and galleries of Boston, choosing a man to heal through sexual congress. It sounds sexy, right? But for Addy, a conduit of Divine Grace, sex is simply the modality in which she works, in which she gains the consent of the human she’s with, in order to open the door to healing from the Great Mother.  Once a man lies down with her to make love, he is healed of old wounds and the scars on his soul, waking in the morning with no memory of the goddess who spent time in his bed.

Of course, nothing is ever so simple, not even for a goddess, and Addy finds herself hunted by an old enemy once again before we even reach page fifty.

So our goddess wants to bring healing, but what does she want for herself?

Blog Tour Review: By Helen's Hand by Amalia Carosella

From the Back Cover:

With divine beauty comes dangerous power.

Helen believed she could escape her destiny and save her people from utter destruction. After defying her family and betraying her intended husband, she found peace with her beloved Theseus, the king of Athens and son of Poseidon.

But peace did not last long. Cruelly separated from Theseus by the gods, and uncertain whether he will live or die, Helen is forced to return to Sparta. In order to avoid marriage to Menelaus, a powerful prince unhinged by desire, Helen assembles an array of suitors to compete for her hand. As the men circle like vultures, Helen dreams again of war—and of a strange prince, meant to steal her away. Every step she takes to protect herself and her people seems to bring destruction nearer. Without Theseus’s strength to support her, can Helen thwart the gods and stop her nightmare from coming to pass?

My Thoughts:

"Only fools bargain with the gods; only fools trust in their promises, their gifts. Fools and children and lovers."

Ever since reading Helen of Sparta, I have been anxiously awaiting its sequel. I loved getting to know Helen and what happened to her before she became known as Helen of Troy, and boy did I love Theseus! But after attempting to thwart the gods and their plans for war by running away with and marrying Theseus, Helen was cruelly separated from him by those gods and delivered back to Sparta and the fate she had so desperately been trying to avoid. And that's where By Helen's Hand begins.

It's hard to review this book without revealing plot points, but I'm going to try and hope that I still make sense while being vague enough to avoid spoilers. I have very mixed feelings about By Helen's Hand, and it pains me to say it. Amalia Carosella writes beautifully, but I found the first half of this book to be rather slow and repetitive as Helen mopes around missing Theseus, fearing Menelaus, and bemoaning her cursed beauty, and I questioned the necessity for the points of view of several of her suitors. The story really kicks into gear once the games for Helen's hand have been concluded and her fate as Menelaus's wife is decided. Plotting, deception, and intrigue abound as Helen tries everything she can think of to save her people from war and herself from Menelaus's jealous anger.

What I love about this story is that, rather than portray Helen's beauty as the sole cause of the Trojan War, Carosella paints a picture of a woman cursed by the gods with a beauty that drives men crazy, "a woman cursed to bring ruin upon men for the glory of her father." Men can't help but be bewitched by her. Combine that with many city-states just looking for an excuse to go to war and we have a much more complex picture of Helen and what actually caused the Trojan War. (Short answer: the gods!) I also love that we get to know Paris. We met him briefly in the first book, and we all know what happens when Paris sees Helen in Sparta, but I love that this story leads us up to that moment from his point of view as well. I really enjoyed getting to know who Paris was before Troy.

Blog Tour Review: The Last Wife of Attila the Hun by Joan Schwighardt

From the Back Cover:

Two threads are flawlessly woven together in this sweeping historical novel. In one, Gudrun, a Burgundian noblewoman, dares to enter the City of Attila to give its ruler what she hopes is a cursed sword; the second reveals the unimaginable events that have driven her to this mission.

Based in part on the true history of the times and in part on the same Nordic legends that inspired Wagner’s Ring Cycle and other great works of art, The Last Wife of Attila the Hun offers readers a thrilling story of love, betrayal, passion and revenge, all set against an ancient backdrop itself gushing with intrigue. Lovers of history and fantasy alike will find realism and legend at work in Joan Schweighardt’s latest offering.

My Thoughts:

I love learning about different eras in history. In a sea of novels about Tudors and French rulers, Huns can be hard to find. So I jumped at the chance to read this. Warning: If you are not familiar with the particulars of Attila's life, be careful when reading reviews. One review spoiled the ending for me in the opening paragraph by claiming it was common knowledge, but it wasn't for me. I knew next to nothing about Attila's life. And even when I do know a historical figure's life story, I still don't like having the manner in which the story ends spoiled for me. So this review will be relatively spoiler free!

The Last Wife of Attila the Hun is a mash-up of mythology and historical fiction, based in large part on the Poetic Edda and the Norse legends of Sigurd and Gudrun, where one of the characters is believed to be based on Attila, and there are several different versions of their stories. So if you're looking for a factual fictionalization of Attila the Hun, this isn't it. Rather, this is a story of what could have been if the old tales are to be believed, and I really like the way the author took these myths and wove them into the historical time frame. It gives the story a magical, otherworldly feeling and pays tribute to a woman who is often overshadowed by her rival, Brunhild, the valkyria who comes between Gudrun and her true love, Sigurd.

Quick Review: The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

From the Back Cover:

A sumptuous and epically told love story inspired by A Thousand and One Nights

Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi's wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch . . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend.

She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all.

My Thoughts:

I thoroughly enjoyed this new take on Scheherazade and A Thousand and One Nights. Renee Ahdieh has crafted a gripping tale filled with great characters, luscious, transporting description, and plenty of angst and emotional turmoil. I'll admit to being a bit put off by King Khalid and his behavior in the beginning, but it's the mark of a good writer when the villain becomes the hero over the course of a story. And Shazi is a heroine worthy of admiration. She's tough, determined, and oh so clever. As if telling tales for her life each night isn't enough, she has to navigate a court filled with political intrigue. Betrayals, secrets, and surprise twists abound as she fights for her life and fights not to lose her heart to her greatest enemy.

My only issue with this gorgeous story is that I thought the foundation for the premise was a bit shaky; a big part of the tension in the story lies in Shazi's quest for answers as to why Khalid keeps taking wives only to kill them the following morning, and the big reveal about why the women had to die was rather anticlimactic. I'm thinking there must be more to it and we'll get it in the next book, which I am anxiously awaiting!

My Rating:  4 Stars out of 5

*Please Note: This review references an advance copy received from the publisher through the Amazon Vine program. These are my honest and unbiased opinions, and I was not compensated in any other way for reviewing this book.

Blog Tour Review: An Immortal Descent by Kari Edgren

From the Back Cover:

Selah Kilbrid, descendant of the Celtic goddess Brigid, has been ordered to remain in London and leave any dangers in Ireland to her goddess-born family. They fear she's no match for Death's most powerful daughter and—if the legend holds true—the witch who once nearly destroyed the Irish people. But Selah has never been good at following orders, and nothing will stop her from setting out to find the two people she loves most—her dearest friend, Nora Goodwin, and her betrothed, Lord Henry Fitzalan.

Hiding from kin, traveling uneasily beside companions with secrets of their own, Selah is forced on an unexpected path by those who would steal her gift of healing. With precious time ticking away, she turns to a mortal enemy for help, heedless of the cost.

Selah would pass though hell to rescue Nora and Henry, but what if it means unleashing a greater evil on the human world? Her only chance is to claim the fullest extent of her birthright—at the risk of being forever separated from the man she longs to marry.

My Thoughts:

I was anxiously anticipating this final installment in the Goddess Born trilogy. I have enjoyed the Irish mythology references, the characterizations, and the settings of Colonial America and Georgian London, and I was looking forward to a final showdown between good and evil in Ireland. This book picks up pretty much where the second book left off, with Selah desperately trying to save her best friend, Nora, from the clutches of an evil witch and trying to find her fiance, Henry, who took off after them in an effort to prevent Selah from placing herself in more danger. But Selah is separated from her travel partners and fellow rescuers early on and has to make her own way to Ireland. And that turns out to be extremely difficult since the enemy has sent a gang of henchmen to stop her.

Unfortunately, I was very frustrated with the first half of this book. It started off very well, but it didn't take long for the story to veer away from the heart of the conflict. There was too much focus on new characters, and Selah ended up in several situations that prolonged her journey to Ireland to be reunited with her fiance and continue the search for her best friend. As Selah met one new character after another and was pursued by one new villain after another, I found myself thinking, "This is silly. We already have a central conflict in place and it's waiting for us in Ireland, so can we please hurry up and get there, for crying out loud?" Henry didn't even enter the story until the halfway mark. And if you've read my reviews of the first two books, you know that Henry is a big part of the appeal of these books for me.

Spotlight: The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley

Publication Date: May 5, 2015
Atria Books
Formats: eBook, Hardcover
Pages: 480
Series: Book One, The Seven Sisters
Genre: Historical Fiction

Internationally bestselling author Lucinda Riley returns with THE SEVEN SISTERS, the first novel in a spellbinding new series (seven books in all) inspired by the ancient myth of the Seven Sisters of Pleiades. THE SEVEN SISTERS takes readers from the shores of Lake Geneva to modern day Rio de Janeiro to bohemian Paris of the 1920s in a sweeping saga of passion, sacrifice, and the enduring power of art.

Upon the death of their wealthy, enigmatic father, Maia D’Apliese and her sisters convene at their family home, a secluded estate on the shores of Lake Geneva. Each of the sisters had been adopted at birth from a different part of the globe. Maia, the eldest, is the first to learn of their adoptive father’s death. Confusion is added to her grief when the sisters — Maia, the beauty; Ally, the leader; Star, the peacemaker; CeCe, the pragmatist; Tiggy, the nurturer; and Electra, the fireball – gather to hear the reading of the will. Their father has left each of his daughters a simple clue about her birthplace.

Until now, Maia has constructed her life so that she does not have to leave the safety of the family nest. But spurred by her father’s final bequest, Maia embarks on a journey to Rio de Janeiro to discover the truth of her origins. In Rio, Maia is accompanied by Floriano Quintelas, a novelist and amateur historian, who is intrigued to discover that Maia is apparently descended from the Aires Cabrals, an aristocratic Portuguese family who have been prominent in the country for the past two centuries. Together, they delve into her complex family history, a quest that is helped by their discovery of the crumbling mansion where an elderly woman – Maia’s biological grandmother — is on the verge of death. When the old woman’s caretaker secretly slips Maia a stack of old letters, an astonishing family history unfolds.

Praise for The Seven Sisters

“A brilliant page-turner, soaked in glamour and romance.” -The Daily Mail

“Riley launches her most ambitious andexciting writing project to date……a labyrinth of seductive time-switchstories, the enchanting brand of novel writing which has made Riley one of thebest women’s fiction authors on the market… An epic start to an epic series.” -The Lancashire Evening Post

Blog Tour Review: Helen of Sparta by Amalia Carosella

From the Back Cover:

Long before she ran away with Paris to Troy, Helen of Sparta was haunted by nightmares of a burning city under siege. These dreams foretold impending war—a war that only Helen has the power to avert. To do so, she must defy her family and betray her betrothed by fleeing the palace in the dead of night. In need of protection, she finds shelter and comfort in the arms of Theseus, son of Poseidon. With Theseus at her side, she believes she can escape her destiny. But at every turn, new dangers—violence, betrayal, extortion, threat of war—thwart Helen’s plans and bar her path. Still, she refuses to bend to the will of the gods.

A new take on an ancient myth, Helen of Sparta is the story of one woman determined to decide her own fate.

My Thoughts:

I was drawn to this book because I loved the idea of Helen of Sparta, not Helen of Troy. What a brilliant idea to tell the story of who Helen was before Paris entered the picture.

Helen of Sparta is very well written, offering a fascinating glimpse into Spartan society. I hadn't been expecting to get so much of Theseus, and I was pleasantly surprised at his relationship with Helen and the strength of his character throughout the story. He's a dreamboat. There's a good cast of supporting characters too, including Helen's brothers, Pollux and Castor, Pirithous, King of the Lapiths and Theseus's best friend, and there's even an encounter with a young and then-unknown Paris. Even Menelaus comes off as sympathetic in the beginning before his desire for Helen and the power he believes is his due twists him into an unrecognizable version of Helen's childhood friend.

I hoped this book would give me a new view of Helen, of a Helen that was not just a prize or a pawn or nothing but a pretty face. And it does, though I can't say that I was totally enamored of her. She has a bit of a tough go of it. Her mother, Leda, despises her as the daughter of rape at the hands of Zeus, and Zeus has never made his presence known in Helen's life, something she is pretty bitter about. Suffice it to say she has some major daddy issues! Sometimes she was truly strong, brave, and smart, but other times she was incredibly obstinate. I get being pissed off at the gods, but after they've already proven how miserable they can make your life, as well as what they can do to your loved ones, to be willfully rude and disrespectful is just not a smart thing to do, and Helen ends up bringing a lot of heartache on herself. But her flaws make her more believable, and the reader can't help but root for her.

Review: A Grave Inheritance by Kari Edgren

From the Back Cover:

Selah Kilbrid may descend from the goddess Brigid, but her heart beats—and breaks—the same as any human. Yet enduring the scorn of London's most noble lords and ladies is a small price to pay for a chance at true happiness. Selah would endure much more for love, and her betrothed, Lord Henry Fitzalan, is prepared to challenge anyone foolish enough to stand in their way—even another goddess born.

But when a captivating young gentleman draws Selah into a world shadowed by secrets, she is forced to confront her darkest fears. What if some differences are too great to overcome and a future with Henry is doomed from the start?

With these doubts threatening her impending marriage and the very last of Brigid's fire draining from her soul, a violent attack on an innocent child pushes Selah to the very edge of her power. She must find a way to cross into the Otherworld and regain her strength—or forfeit the streets of London to death and disease.

My Thoughts:

Last year I read and enjoyed Kari Edgren's debut, Goddess Born, a novel of a lonely young woman with exceptional healing powers struggling to find her place in a superstitious community, though I had a few issues with it. But I was anxious to see how things would play out in A Grave Inheritance, the second book in the series, and I'm pleased to report that I ended up liking this one better than the first book!

The story picks up a few weeks after the first book left off, with Henry Fitzalan, the man Selah Kilbrid fell in love with believing he was an indentured servant, but who turned out to be heir to a dukedom and promised to a princess, back in England, and Selah, his affianced, preparing to follow him to meet his father and the king and secure her place as his bride. But the day before she is set to leave, an encounter with a strange man and an even stranger beast set her on edge. After a treacherous sea voyage, she arrives in London with her nerves and thoughts in a jumble, anxious to reunite with Henry but worried that his feelings for her and his determination to marry her may not have survived their separation. She quickly learns just how much the deck is stacked against them, with Henry standoffish in public, and a king, a princess, and most of English society condemning her as a gold-digging upstart. The one bright spot is the discovery of a fellow Goddess Born, a handsome young man keen to help Selah learn more about her heritage, to help her replenish her powers while in England, and to let him into her heart if he has his way.

Blog Tour Review: Goddess Born by Kari Edgren

From the Back Cover:

Pennsylvania, 1730

Selah Kilbrid keeps a dangerous secret: she has the power to heal.

A direct descendent of the Celtic goddess Brigid, it's Selah's sacred duty to help those in need. But as the last of the Goddess Born living in the New World, she learned from an early age to keep her supernatural abilities hidden. The Quaker community of Hopewell has always been welcoming, but there's no doubt they would see her hanged if her gift was revealed.

When a prominent minister threatens to try her with witchcraft unless she becomes his wife, Selah has only one hope--that her betrothed, a distant cousin from Ireland, arrives as planned. Marrying Samuel would keep her secret safe, preserve her sacred bloodline, and protect her from being charged as a witch.

But when news of Samuel's death reaches the Colonies, Selah is truly on her own. Terrified, she faces an impossible choice--forfeit her powers and marry the loathsome Nathan? Or find an imposter to pose as her husband and preserve her birthright?

My Thoughts:

A descendant of the Celtic goddess Brigid, eighteen-year-old Selah Kilbrid has the power of healing, though she must use it carefully and under the guise of the limited medical knowledge of the eighteenth century or else risk raising the fears of the superstitious community in which she lives. But with the death of her beloved father, Selah is a young woman alone in a world very much ruled by men. Hounded by Nathan, a Quaker elder obsessed with making her his bride, Selah has one chance to stay true to her heritage and fulfill the sacred duty entrusted to her by the goddess: she must get to Philadelphia to marry a man she has never met, her cousin Samuel, due to arrive from Ireland any day. As a fellow Kilbrid, Samuel knows about Selah's gift and is sworn to protect her. But when Selah arrives in Philadelphia, she discovers that Samuel tragically died on the voyage over, and she is now truly alone. But she is unable to reconcile her fate of marrying a fanatical man and hiding her gift until it eventually withers away, so when she stumbles on an indentured servant auction and locks eyes with a handsome man who seems oddly out of place, she crafts a bold and daring plan. She purchases Henry Alan and convinces him to pose as her new husband.

Blog Tour Q&A with Judith Starkston, Author of Hand of Fire

Please join me in welcoming author Judith Starkston to Let Them Read Books! many of you may recognize Judith from her contributions to the Historical Novel Society. Judith is touring the blogosphere with her debut novel from Fireship Press, Hand of Fire, a novel of Briseis and the Trojan War. I recently had the chance to ask Judith a few questions about Briseis and the challenges in writing a book about a woman who may or may not have existed. Read on about her fascinating research and enter to win your own copy of Hand of Fire!



How were you first introduced to Briseis, and what inspired you to write a novel about her?

I first discovered Briseis when I was studying classics in college and read Homer’s Iliad, an epic poem set in the Trojan War. Briseis is the woman who sparks the central conflict of the poem between the two Greek kings Agamemnon and Achilles, but because it’s a male-dominated piece, Briseis gets only the briefest of mentions. Over the years as I taught the Iliad, which was a perennial favorite of my high school students, a question kept bugging me. How could Briseis possibly have loved Achilles—which is what Homer shows. The half-immortal Greek had killed her husband and brothers, destroyed her city and turned her from princess to slave—hardly a heartwarming courtship. In the few words Homer gives to Briseis, the one clear notion expressed is her sorrow at being parted from Achilles, so this seemed very puzzling.

I should say I always liked Achilles, the existential hero who calls the whole war into question—which shows he’s no brainwasher—so the answer wasn’t some ancient version of Stockholm Syndrome. I wrote Hand of Fire to solve this psychological puzzle and figure out who Briseis really was. I needed to get to know the flesh and blood reality behind the mystery. I should add that my readers don’t need to have any familiarity with the Iliad or the history of this period in order to enjoy Hand of Fire. I intentionally wrote it independently of the Iliad, although I stay true to Homer (unlike the Hollywood film Troy, which was entertaining but utterly inaccurate!)

How does Briseis's story reflect on the position of women during the time period?

Homer doesn’t tell us very much about Briseis—only that she was a princess of Lyrnessos, a town allied to Troy, and that Achilles destroyed her city and her life. So to find my Briseis, I turned to the historical record of this faraway place and time, the Late Bronze Age (about 1250 BCE) in what is now Turkey. Thanks to some excellent modern archaeology, we now know a lot about Briseis’s world. I should add that Briseis herself may not ever have existed. She may be legendary, but I set out to create who she would have been in history whether she really lived and breathed or not—she certainly breathes in my book!