To be published 21/03/2024…
Herla is cursed. Once she had a cause, but no power; now she has power without a cause. As Lord of the Wild Hunt she is shackled to the bloodlust and to the never-ending passing of time. When her mind finally breaks through the fog, the only thing on it is revenge. Revenge and the face of a Queen that inspires feelings she didn’t even know she could still have.
King Ine rules fairly from the comfort of his halls, writing laws and navigating the politics of court. It is his wife and Queen, Æthel, who rides out to fight the battles of their kingdom. Together they hold all the qualities one could want in a ruler. Unfortunately they have one flaw in their relationship: a lack of physical intimacy which leads the court to blame Æthel for their lack of an heir. And there is one who would use this weakness against them.
All three must join together, with as many allies as they can muster, if they are to face the Otherworldy threat that aims to destroy all of Britain. Enemies must come together and differences must be put aside. And they only have until Samhain until the door to their enemy swings wide open.
With so many characters and conflicts to introduce this book was slow to get started, but once I got my head around who was who it was difficult to put down. Æthel’s complicated love life runs as a thread throughout, binding the emotions of the story to the plot itself. This bought the pages to life with a beating heart without ever distracting from the important events of the book. It also worked well as a way to flawlessly weave two worlds together.
The merging of the natural and supernatural is a time-old tale and one that rarely fails to impress. This book tackles this merging in as many different shapes and forms as possible. It has humans that believe, ones who learn to believe, and ones who utterly refuse. It has humans with magic, including ones who did not expect it. It has humans without magic, yet which face the forces of magic fearlessly. It has characters who used to be human, but are now something more, and ones which have never been human at all. It has an all-seeing-all-knowing figure who appears only when they are most needed and spirits which appear where they are least wanted. It even features a scattering of supernatural animals.
Aside from the magic, what I particularly like about Lucy Holland’s characters is that none of them are infallible. Good and evil alike all have their weaknesses and all make mistakes. The difference between them seems to be that the good characters learn from these mistakes and embrace their weaknesses, whereas the evil characters double down on their decisions even when it is clear they have chosen the wrong path. Yet there are also middling characters, who follow through with their decisions whilst still seeming able to display regret and remorse when things don’t turn out well.
Overall this book spins a haunting tale of love, loss, and determination against all odds.
Escape to the Bookshelf 