This book is so adorable! The weird little girl who still lives inside my head delighted in following Millie Fleur's adventures in gardening the cutesThis book is so adorable! The weird little girl who still lives inside my head delighted in following Millie Fleur's adventures in gardening the cutest creepy plants! I think I am living proof that this book will delight people of any age if they are fans of the Addams family, but it is sure to make little girls and boys giggle and hopefully, interested in gardening... lethal or non-lethal plants...
Stay weird, kids: you will find your tribe eventually!...more
Obviously, I couldn’t go on vacation without throwing at least one book by T. Kingfisher on my vacation read pile, and since I am a completist at hearObviously, I couldn’t go on vacation without throwing at least one book by T. Kingfisher on my vacation read pile, and since I am a completist at heart, the first one I thought of was the last book from the White Rat universe I still hadn’t gotten around to, “Swordheart”. I had avoided that one because the summary seemed to indicate it leaned further into the romance aspect than the other books she wrote which are set in this universe, but hey, I was going to be chilling by the lake with a glass of wine, a little romantic crap won’t hurt.
Well, first off, the summary mislead me: this is as much a romance as any of the “Saints of Steel” books, so yeah, it’s a central element, but the setting and the characters are so strong an interesting that the romance never feels silly or forced or unrealistic.
Halla was widowed young and has been taking care of her ailing uncle (by marriage) for years, and when he dies, he leaves his estate to her instead of leaving it to his other relatives, who are not too happy about that. They lock Halla up and plan to force her to marry her late husband’s brother in order to keep the house and the money in the family. Finding no solution to this situation, she takes a old sword her late uncle had hung on a wall of her bedroom, with the intention to kill herself, but when she pulls the blade out, a man appears out of thin air. Apparently, the sword was enchanted with a guardian, and the act of wielding the sword means Halla is now the person he must serve and protect…
Halla can certainly be annoying and comes across as dim-witted, but she’s a lot smarter than she lets on, and for very good reason. Kingfisher is very insightful, and I love the way she managed to write about the way women have to develop weird coping mechanisms in order to not be killed and/or rapped – even in a fantasy universe as cozy as hers. Her dynamic with Sarkis, who has the mercenary with a heart of gold thing down to an art, is hilarious and eventually really tender. I know it’s fluffy as fuck, but I did enjoy how they are bette working together than apart because their strengths compliment each other and all that pap.
I was also quite happy to see Brindle the gnole again, and glad he had an ox to take care of (that gnole loves his ox), and Zale is a perfect example of why I love the Temple of the White Rat so much: help people and get things done should be the motto of any religious institution worth it’s salt.
This is a Kingfisher book, so it’s funny and inventive, her characters are awkward and realistic, her world-building is a great riff on the usual fantasy tropes, managing to be both familiar are alien at the same time – and like her other “White Rat” books, reading it felt like drinking a lovely mug of hot chocolate with plenty of marshmallows. Also, I want to go live there: there are jerks, but it seems like a generally great place to live.
Don’t skip this one if you love this woman’s work: it deserves a space on your cozy but smart fantasy shelf!...more
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