The Absinthe Earl (The Faery Rehistory, #1) by Sharon Lynn Fisher – Review

Tags

5 stars, Book Review, fairy, fantasy, historical, Ireland, magic, myth, romance, series, Sharon Lynn Fisher

About The Absinthe Earl by Sharon Lynn Fisher

Miss Ada Quicksilver, a student of London’s Lovelace Academy for Promising Young Women, is spending her holiday in Ireland to pursue her anthropological study of fairies. She visits Dublin’s absinthe bars to investigate a supposed association between the bittersweet spirit and fairy sightings.

One night a handsome Irishman approaches her, introducing himself as Edward Donoghue. Edward takes absinthe to relieve his sleepwalking, and she is eager to hear whether he has experience with fairies. Instead, she discovers that he’s the earl of Meath, and that he will soon visit a mysterious ruin at Newgrange on the orders of his cousin, the beautiful, half-mad Queen Isolde. On learning about Ada’s area of study, he invites her to accompany him.

Ada is torn between a sensible fear of becoming entangled with the clearly troubled gentleman and her compelling desire to ease his suffering. Finally she accepts his invitation, and they arrive in time for the winter solstice. That night, the secret of Edward’s affliction is revealed: he is, in fact, a lord in two worlds and can no longer suppress his shadow self.

Little does either of them realize that their blossoming friendship and slowly kindling passion will lead to discoveries that wrench open a door sealed for centuries, throwing them into a war that will change Ireland forever.

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Review of The Absinthe Earl

Edward’s internal conflict, brought on with bouts of sleeping walking threatens to ravage his life.  Before he understands what it is, he believes he is insane.  Hence the nightly absinthe nightcap to keep the monsters (insanity) away.  But Ada thinks there could be a fairy reason.  Ada’s scholarly interest in fairies has put her firmly in Edward’s path.  Or is there some other reason fate brought them together?

The age-old story of star-crossed lovers through the centuries is not a unique story.  This particular retelling of Irish folklore in the 19th century historical setting is compelling and elegant.

Reading The Absinthe Earl, I was fully immersed in 19th century Ireland due to the sights and culture and language written into the story.  You might think, all authors use language don’t they?  Well there is language and there is Language

Sharon Lynn Fisher’s story, told from the heroine’s point of view, is full of beautiful descriptions and phrases befitting a scholar from the Lovelace Academy for Promising Young Women.  Without overusing 19th century colloquialisms, Ms. Fisher sets the atmosphere.  Absorbed in the story, I rarely resorted to the dictionary on my Kindle, helping me feel like I was back in 1882 Ireland with Ada and Edward.  It is this lush use of Language that is the first recommendation of The Absinthe Earl for me.

There is an abundance of fiction that incorporates the myth of the Irish Tuatha De Danaan, especially the fairy aspect of the myths.  Rehistory, as told in The Absinthe Earl is a refreshing re-telling of the history of the fairy world as it interacts with the human world. This delicate interweaving of Irish history, folklore and fairy stories is the second recommendation of The Absinthe Earl for me.

Whenever I pick up a book from Sharon Lynn Fisher, I expect something unique.  I expect something that will keep me reading into the wee hours of the night.  I am delighted to report that The Absinthe Earl lives up to my expectations.  I am already anticipating the next chapter in Faery Rehistory.

Through Edelweiss, the publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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The Harp of Kings (Warrior Bards, #1) by Juliet Marillier

Tags

5 stars x 2, Book Review, fantasy, favorite, Ireland, Juliet Marillier, magic, Mélanie Delon, music, series

About The Harp of Kings by Juliet Marillier

Eighteen-year-old Liobhan is a powerful singer and an expert whistle player. Her brother has a voice to melt the hardest heart, and a rare talent on the harp. But Liobhan’s burning ambition is to join the elite warrior band on Swan Island. She and her brother train there to compete for places, and find themselves joining a mission while still candidates. Their unusual blend of skills makes them ideal for this particular job, which requires going undercover as traveling minstrels. For Swan Island trains both warriors and spies.

Their mission: to find and retrieve a precious harp, an ancient symbol of kingship, which has gone mysteriously missing. If the instrument is not played at the upcoming coronation, the candidate will not be accepted and the people could revolt. Faced with plotting courtiers and tight-lipped druids, an insightful storyteller, and a boorish Crown Prince, Liobhan soon realizes an Otherworld power may be meddling in the affairs of the kingdom. When ambition clashes with conscience, Liobhan must make a bold decision and is faced with a heartbreaking choice…

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Review of The Harp of Kings

I absolutely loved The Harp of Kings. If you have read any of Juliet Marillier’s books, you know that she is natural storyteller.

Tears are shed and heartstrings are pulled as you read the story told from the alternating veiwpoints of of Liobhan, Brocc and Dau while they take on their first and hopefully not last mission for Swan Island. In each character’s narration, they reveal the hopes and fears that magically transfer from the character to the reader. All three are young, but family and experience have given them wisdom beyond their years.

Although the story takes place in a different part of Erin than Marillier’s Blackthorn and Grim series, the atmosphere is the same. References to people and places of that series will delight fans. A wisewoman, a ruler that needs help, a bit of mysticism and people becoming friends are also familiar themes.

As the book blurb describes, the Crown Prince is a boor. Nobody believes he will make a good ruler, but there is no alternative. And our three heroes are tasked with finding the harp so the coronation can occur. Up until the very end, I was not sure how that part of the story would play out, but I was happy with the rightful ending.

Details of various character’s lives, especially Dau, Brocc and the child Aislinn are revealed throughout the book. Surprisingly, Liobhan’s background is the sparsest, even though she is the strongest character. The lovely cover by Mélanie Delon does a nice job of depicting Liobhan.  This lack of detail may be deliberate, but in the meantime, I was drawn to Dau, who’s tragic background had me cheering for him all the way! As an animal lover, he gets extra points too!

After finishing the story, I did a little research and read that the harp is significant in Irish history and mythology. So it is no wonder that it now inspires such a magical story. While the instrument itself may be just a plain harp, the effects of the music that springs are mystical. Take that as you like, but when Brocc plays his plain bard’s harp, listeners can’t help but dance or laugh or weep. Does the Harp of Kings have such magic? The myth surrounding it would have you believe so. And reading the book proves that magic does exist!

I am so in love with this story that I needed more than 5 stars to rate it. Full of dreams, youth, wisdom, and music, The Harp of Kings is heartbreaking, beautiful, hopeful and magical.

Through Netgalley, the publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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The Women’s War by Jenna Glass – Review

Tags

4 stars, Book Review, cliffhanger, fantasy, Jenna Glass, magic, sexual oppression

About The Women’s War by Jenna Glass

In a high fantasy feminist epic, a revolutionary spell gives women the ability to control their own fertility—with consequences that rock their patriarchal society to its core.

When a nobleman’s first duty is to produce a male heir, women are treated like possessions and bargaining chips. But as the aftereffects of a world-altering spell ripple out physically and culturally, women at last have a bargaining chip of their own. And two women in particular find themselves at the crossroads of change.

Alys is the widowed mother of two teenage children, and the disinherited daughter of a king. Her existence has been carefully proscribed, but now she discovers a fierce talent not only for politics but also for magic—once deemed solely the domain of men. Meanwhile, in a neighboring kingdom, young Ellin finds herself unexpectedly on the throne after the sudden death of her grandfather the king and everyone else who stood ahead of her in the line of succession. Conventional wisdom holds that she will marry quickly, then quietly surrender the throne to her new husband…. Only, Ellin has other ideas.

The tensions building in the two kingdoms grow abruptly worse when a caravan of exiled women and their escort of disgraced soldiers stumbles upon a new source of magic in what was once uninhabitable desert. This new and revolutionary magic—which only women can wield—threatens to tear down what is left of the patriarchy. And the men who currently hold power will do anything to fight back.

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Review of The Women’s War

The Women’s War is one hell of a story. Based on a society where women are considered second-class citizens, if they are lucky, this is the story of revolution led by two extraordinary women.

Alysoon Rai-Brynna is a widowed mother of two and daughter of a king. When her father divorced her mother in favor of a more politically advantageous marriage, Alys and her brother were declared illegitimate. And her mother became an Unwanted, sentenced to life at the Abbey.

Princess Ellinsoltah of Rhozinolm will become queen when the two most likely male candidates to the throne would most like cause a war. The plan: after her year of mourning, Ellin will take a husband who will then become king. Or so her council thinks.

These two women will become the pivotal characters who react and overcome so many obstacles thrown at them in the aftermath of the world-altering spell.

The story is complex and so many characters lives are intertwined it is impossible to represent all of that here in a review.  So I will pick and choose a few characters…

Crown Prince Delnamel (half-brother to Alys and Tynthanal) is the villain to boo at every time he turns up. Occasionally, he seems to have a teeny tiny bit of heart, but don’t let that fool you. There is one horrible scene where Delnamel arrests three senior abigails and then allows his men to rape the women of the Abbey. My heart ached at the scene, but it a critical event that changes the raped women in such a way that those men will have cause to regret.

Tynthanal, brother of Alys and lieutenant commander at the Citadel, escorts the women of the Abbey to the wasteland to their new home. It is because of him that the women discover the new Well of magical elements. Thus Women’s Well was founded. Tynthanal is one of the few male feminists in the book.

Semsulin, is the lord chancellor and head of the royal council of Rhozinolm. He is the man who talked Ellin into taking the crown. His motives are not entirely clear, though as the book goes on, he seems to support Ellin more and more. I think he only wants what is best for the kingdom and that is a difficult thing to determine.

In a society where only men are allowed to use magic, it will come as quite a shock when those men learn that women are not only able to use magic in many ways, but they are also quite good at. If they don’t make room for women as equals, they will loose. Take as much of that as you wish as a commentary on any aspect of women’s history in our own world.

The cover by Elizabeth A.D. Eno, is beautiful and inciteful and truly represents the story. Ms. Eno must have read the book before she crafted her cover.

The Women’s War is 560 pages long according to the published page counts. You would think 560 would be enough to tell a story. It isn’t. Be prepared for a huge cliffhanger. The only characters whose stories are resolved are the ones that died. The description on NetGalley gave no indication that this was the first book of a series. The Women’s War gets 4 stars from me, losing one star due to the gigantic cliffhanger. (I may have thrown a fit when I finished the book.  I don’t remember.  It is all kind of fuzzy.) But if I was the type of reader who didn’t mind cliffhangers, I would give it all 5 stars.

Heartbreaking, hopeful, magical and emotional. The Women’s War truly is an amazing story.

Here is a quote from the book. It was said by Alys’s mother, right before the world upended:

Something is going to happen tonight. Something … momentous. Something that will change the world in ways I can’t entirely foresee.

Through Netgalley, the publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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