4/5 Stars

This was my first book by T. Kingfisher, and I can confidently say it won’t be my last! A Sorceress Comes to Call is a dark and compelling fairy tale retelling that blends eerie magic, strong female friendships, and just the right amount of dry humor. Inspired by The Goose Girl, this story follows Cordelia, a young woman trapped under the influence of her sorceress mother, Evangeline, whose magic forces people into obedience. When Evangeline sets her sights on a wealthy squire, Cordelia is swept into a dangerous plot—one that might finally give her a chance at freedom, with the help of the squire’s sharp-witted sister, Hester.

The writing immediately pulled me in with its unsettling atmosphere, and I loved how the horror elements wove seamlessly into the fairy tale setting. Hester was a standout character for me—her practical, no-nonsense personality was a perfect contrast to Cordelia’s quiet strength, and their growing friendship was one of my favorite aspects of the book. While the story delves into heavy themes of control and manipulation, it also offers moments of warmth and resilience, making for an emotionally engaging read.

T. Kingfisher’s take on magic was refreshingly eerie, and I loved how the tension built throughout the book. The mix of dark fairy tale vibes, compelling characters, and a satisfying conclusion left me eager to explore more of the author’s work. If you enjoy gothic fairy tale retellings with strong heroines and a touch of horror, this one is definitely worth picking up!

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The titular sorceress is the world's worst mother to 14yo Cordelia, the sweetest, nicest girl around. Evangeline sets her sights on a wealthy squire and will stop at nothing to win his hand. Cordelia, with the help of the Squire's badass sister, Hester, takes her own. The story is an old one, but Kingfisher gives it a darling treatment, making it a coming of age story, a witchy tale, and the most horrifying horse I've ever read!

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Company for this Advanced Readers Copy of A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher!

5/5 Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC
I'm not a fan of horror fantasy or movies, so I hadn't read any of T. Kingfisher's work until I discovered Nettle and Bone and immediately became hooked on the author's 'inspired by' fantasy stories.
ASCTC is, again, loosely inspired by the Grimm story of the goose girl, but most of the plot points are turned upside down - the faithful horse is not, and the evil servant girl (Cordelia's mother) holds the power from beginning to the very end.
Kingfisher's writing style conveys the tension and menace that Cordelia feels every day, the horror of being physically controlled, and her dawning realization of what her situation really is. Cordelia has to use all she's learned about self-preservation throughout her short life, recruit friends, and develop her own magic in order to save her new family, and herself, from the growing power of her mother.
Even though she sets her retellings in fantasy worlds, they seem very relevant to contemporary examinations of female power and agency. And are damn good stories!
Recommend for fans of contemporary and urban fantasy.
Significant violence and gore.

T. Kingfisher is one of my favorite authors and the fairytales by Brothers Grimm, well this mix up is exactly what I needed. The retelling of The Goose Girl was fantastic. I truly enjoyed the characters and the story we got from them. Looking forward to more like this from this author.

I think maybe I've just been slowly getting into more and more T. Kingfisher books in the last year or so, but this one was delightful. The characters were so distinct and wonderful. Hester may have been my favorite.
Once the stakes were raised, I couldn't stop reading, and I think I may have read the last half in one sitting without setting the book down once.

Usually, I can differentiate my feelings toward a book from those toward an audiobook. This one, I can’t.
Cordelia’s mother, Evangeline, is terrifying. And Cordelia has been abused by her mother all of her life. She knows how to placate her mother by what she should say or should not. The reader does a terrific job portraying this fear and the coldness from Evangeline. Unfortunately, the other POV, Hester, doesn’t have the same feel. Hester is too world-weary to adequately convey the dread that Evenageline can do. I’m unsure if that’s the reader or if I would have felt differently reading the words myself.
I loved all the side characters and was sad when Evangeline killed one of them. I hope for another book about Cordelia’s life free from her mother.

T. Kingfisher never lets me down. I thoroughly enjoy everything she writes!
A Sorceress Comes to Call is creepy. fantastical and dark, while boasting endless humorous wit.
Kingfisher always writes memorable characters, and this was no exception.
While I do think this book could have been a bit shorter, I enjoyed it all the same.
Thank you for the ARC!

I immediately knew I would love this book because Kingfisher is a tried and true author. A Sorceress Comes to Call is a take on the fairytale The Goose Girl. So, If you're a fan of Kingfisher and fairytale retelling, this book is perfect for you. 
14-year-old Corderlia's mother, Evangeline, takes cohesive control to a new level. You see, Evangeline is secretly a sorceress whose "gift", if you could call it that, is to place an "obedience" spell on anyone she chooses. This spell causes a person to do Evangeline's bidding while being conscious that what they are saying and how they are acting is not of their doing…like being a marionette on a string. When Evangeline's "benefactor" cuts off all monetary support, she sets off to town to find a wealthy suitor who will support the life she desires. 
Meanwhile, a woman by the name of Hester wakes up one morning with a sense of dread. She knows some ill fate is about to settle on her house, and sure enough, she is right when "doom" arrives in the form of a beautiful woman bent on seducing Hester's brother Samuel. Even though Hester is focused on figuring out Evangeline's motives, she is empathetic towards Cordelia, and it soon becomes evident that Cordelia is terrified of her mother, fueling Hester's premonition. 
I REALLY enjoyed this book. It's an entertaining fantasy with just the right amount of suspense and violence. I especially liked Hester's character; her practicality, humour, and sense of sarcasm made her my favourite.

Welcome to Climbing Mount TBR where I, your humble Book Kaiju, struggle to climb to the top of my book pile. I’d like to give a shout out to the publisher, Tor Books, who sent an advanced reader copy of this week’s read, A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher, in exchange for an unbiased review. Since I’ve loved everything Kingfisher has written so far (especially her fairy tale retellings) I was ecstatic.

So, what’s it about?

Cordelia has a lot of issues. She’s a fourteen year old girl with no friends, besides a horse. She doesn’t know who her father is. She is forced to be obedient. Her mom is the biggest witch you’ve ever met.

Sorry, I mean, sorcerer.

Yeah, Cordelia’s mom is the titular sorceress and she is a horrible person. That horse that’s Cordelia’s only friend? That’s mommy dearest’s familiar that is spying on her daughter. Her father? Probably dead. And what does it mean to be “obedient?” Well, imagine being turned into a puppet and forced to watch while your overly controlling mother operates your body like a robot. Better hope she remembers you need to use the restroom.

In short? Cordelia’s life sucks.

Then one day her mom announces that they’re moving. Mommy dearest is off to find herself a husband to do some upward social climbing. And a light bit of murder and trauma along the way.

Enter Hester, the elderly sister of the next victim. With nothing but a handful of friends and a flock of geese, Hester must stop a sorcerer from ensnaring her brother in unholy matrimony and, most importantly, save Cordelia from an abusive situation.

Not going to lie, the first few chapters of this novel were a rough read. Cordelia’s mother is a monster and the abuse she puts Cordelia through psychologically and emotionally is not sugar coated. Being made “obedient” is treated as the horrendous violation that it is.

I found this first section so distressing I broke a cardinal rule of book reading: I skipped to the last page. I just had to know that this story was going to have a happy ending. At least that Cordelia would find some form of happiness and safety by the time the story comes to a close.

Thankfully, this is a T. Kingfisher book. She can write dark and horrific stories, but they always end up more sweet than bitter. I won’t spoil it more than that.

What was truly heartwarming about this book were the relationships between Lady Hester, her friends, and Cordelia. So often in books involving abuse of any type, one of the main conflicts is the lack of belief. The people with power to stop the abuse don’t recognize the abuse, don’t believe the victim, or, worst of all, blame the victim. Kingfisher doesn’t play with that terrible trope. As soon as every character meets Cordelia they clock that her mom is an awful person even if they don’t know she has magic.

In fact, that plays an important part of the story. Time and time again Hester admits that getting rid of the sorcerer would be easy, but all the easy solutions don’t help Cordelia and everyone agrees helping Cordelia is paramount. It’s just a really nice moment and brings needed hope to the story.

At its core A Sorceress Comes to Call is about an abused child being saved by adults who actually care. It doesn’t hold its punches and for me it was emotionally exhausting to read. Even though I knew it all ended happily ever after it was a journey to get there.

So, should you read it? That’s going to be some soul searching on your part (I can’t do everything). It’s well written, there’s a beautiful senior romance, and plenty of evil detecting geese, but there’s also a horrible mom, a child puppetted around, and some light murder. I enjoyed it, but I don’t think I’ll be reading it again any time soon.

This was not for me at all. At 60% I wasn’t invested at all in the plot. By 80% I felt like what had transpired wasn’t enough to make me want to spend any more time finishing the novel. The book has many strong reviews, but not from me. The setting was atmospheric and dark but that’s about all it had going for it. Admittedly, I’m not familiar with the original story. However, I expected to still be pulled into the mystery of the plot without the knowledge of the original. I would not recommend this book.

I received an advance review copy for free from the publisher via Netgalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

T. Kingfisher will forever be one of my favorite authors of all time. The way she crafts stories is always so beautiful and smooth. She is a master of magic building and sucking you into a story. I love her prose especially. This story is not different. I will read anything she writes always.

I really enjoy Kingfisher, and it was a fun read based in fairytales. I didn't love this specific book, but I absolutely see the appeal, and I think the book will hit the mark for others.

this book is if nettle & bone + the hollow places had a baby with the mom from Tangled. I loved that T. Kingfisher maintains her streak of having an animal companion with Falada the horse. I just always lean towards her horror books more than her fantasy, but overall it was a fun time.

Kingfisher doesn't miss! I loved the way this felt like a classic fairytale. Kingfisher does a wonderful job of including characters from a wide range of ages which I always appreciate.

Inspired by the Brothers Grimm's Goose Girl and written within Victorian society - Cordelia is a young girl in the clutches of a controlling mother who also happens to be a sorceress. Evangaline, and her horse familiar Falada, are busy conspiring on how to land rich husbands for herself and her daughter.

The Squire, who Evangaline has set her eyes on, lives in a manor with his unwed sister Hester who can see plainly the machinations that have been put into motion. Hester, with the help of her friends Richard and Penelope, take Cordelia under their care and come up with a plan of their own to rid her of her mother and save the Squire from evil enchantment.

Not having read the Goose Girl by the Brother's Grimm I would have to surmise how well this story follows - it is dark in times but does seem to have a HEA which doesn't fit with a Grimm story at all.

I didn't really get into the first part of the story but I did enjoy Hester and Penelope's characters.

This was my first T. Kingfisher book, and it won’t be my last! I really enjoyed this one. I loved the witchy element, with almost a fairytale feeling to it. It had more YA vibes than adult, but that might have been because the FMC Cordelia was so young.

I think any time I read about an abused character, the mother in me automatically emerges, and I just want to protect and comfort said character. So of course I felt that way with Cordelia. The way Cordelia was so naive about the outside world she had mostly been cut off from was so sweet, too.

I mainly listened to this one, and it kept my rapt attention, which was surprising to me as most of the time fantasy books can be hard for me to listen to. (I have ADHD and it’s easy to zone out listening to it if there’s not a lot going on with the plot.) The ending was a little lacking for me- I won’t say why as to not include spoilers, but overall a really great book!

4.5/5 rounded up

An utterly fantastic book by Kingfisher that, regrettably, wasn't for me. For anyone with a deep enough mother wound, this one might sting too much to persevere. But Kingfisher's plotting and prose are perfect, as always.

Cordelia's mother has always been talented at alienating her daughter. see she's secretly a skilled sorceress, and she maintains her power and reputation via carefully manipulating and then eventually murdering rich men. while normally this would probably be a fine lifestyle choice (eat the rich and all lol), Cordelia's mom can't leave well enough alone and she's immensely jealous. it's one thing to take advantage of someone dumb and fleece them of their money; it's another entirely to literally control their bodies and force them to kill their families and become serial killers. Cordelia gets it, believe me; her mom has been controlling her for as long as she can remember, whenever Cordelia gets too uppity or says anything even vaguely in the vein of a complaint.

this teetering way of life has reached a breaking point, upon the introduction of the Squire (yes capitalized) and his younger sister Hester. Hester recognizes immediately that there's something wrong with Cordelia's mom, apart from her trying to seduce the Squire and take all of his money. the mystery thickens rapidly: Cordelia's mom has a strange white horse who watches everyone just a little too intensely, Hester throws a days-long party to have an excuse to have her friends on hand, the Squire trips and falls on a mysterious crush and fights to keep his head.

this book was a lot of fun. if you're familiar with T. Kingfisher and her typical style, you'll like this book as well. you do not need any prior knowledge of the Goose Girl story to read this book (I've had a couple people ask me this lol). overall a quick and easy recommendation sure to please most readers, and has a nice feel-good ending. no queer rep.

While I really tried, I just didn’t find myself engaged in this story. I think it just wasn’t for me, but I think many will enjoy.