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Showing posts from May, 2021
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Thank you so much to the author for giving a review copy of this book! A Generation of Poppies by Saga Hillbom is a WWI historical fiction centering around the lives of Rosalie Wilkes and Charles D'Aboville and their experiences in the war effort. I almost described it as a historical romance but opted not to as, while romance is very much a big part of the plot, our two main characters spend large swaths of it on other endeavors alongside their desires for each other. Rosalie, an upper-class young woman from England, lies about her age to join the VADs and is sent to France to take care of injured soldiers. Charles, meanwhile, had no active desire to join the war efforts, and only did to avoid the consequences of refusal. There's a lot of set-up, as there always is in Hillbom's books, showing us the idyllic lives both characters lived before the war. Good friends, ample free time, and delicious food make a harsh contrast to the horrors of war later in the book. It's al
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Heart of the Fae by Emma Hamm is a Beauty and the Beast retelling with heavy, heavy inspiration from old Celtic mythology. Now, I can’t remember exactly how I heard about this book, but it was on my Amazon wishlist for a while and I stumbled across it again. I love books about faeries. I love books about healers. I love fairytale retellings. This is all three, and it is wonderful. The main character, Sorcha, is a midwife who lives in a brothel (side note: this book is sex work positive. How rare is that? Definite plus for me!) Her home, Uí Néill, is being plagued with horrible parasites, and her adoptive father falls prey to them. When begging for help from a mostly-forgotten goddess, Sorcha is sent on a journey that takes her to an island of exiled fae where a banished king, Eamonn, hides in an ancient castle. The writing is wonderful. Hamm is witty, descriptive, and thrilling in her style. Nothing moves too fast or too slow, and we get gorgeous descriptions of the fae lands and the