When T. Kingfisher writes it, I read it! This is yet another incredible hit. I love how the author creates an atmosphere that enriches the book on multiple levels. Unfamiliar with Grimms' "Goose Girl," I found everything fresh and original in Kingfisher's voice. The story felt like a dark coming-of-age tale, infused with mystery, magic, and murder! While the pacing occasionally seemed uneven, I never mind slowing down in T. Kingfisher's books to savor the story. I also felt the pacing reflected the main character's emotions and the lull in her life before everything intensified and a lot started happening. I felt like a conspirator along with the characters, and always interested in what was going to happen next.

If you enjoy T. Kingfisher's work, this book will be another hit for you!

A wonderful gothic twist on a lesser known fairy tale. This book is apparently a twist on the Grimm's tale The Goose Girl. I am very unfamiliar with that story, and that turned out to be fine. This book did have some pretty great geese, I will say. But mostly, it's about Cordelia, whose mother is a sorceress who can make people obedient. Her main target is Cordelia herself, who she operates like a puppet, and when she's not obedient, controls her life similarly: no friends, no school, no agency. It's a sad life. And then one day, Evangeline decides it's time for her to get married, an event that cannot be done through sorcery (at least, not directly), and so she sets her sights on a slightly dorky older squire, moving herself and Cordelia to his country manor to court him. Enter Hester, who is our other hero. A middle aged spinster with a bad knee, Hester has Evangeline's number from day one. She knows she's bad news, just not how bad news she is (sorcerers of Evangeline's caliber are so rare they're basically considered myth). She wants to save her brother from a bad marriage, herself from living under a tyrant, and Cordelia from a clearly super abusive situation. How would you solve this problem?
Well, Hester solves it with a house party, and that's just the start of the chaos.
One of my favorite pieces of this is how well Kingfisher maintains a fairy tale tone while filling it out into a full novel. The setting is vague, aside from the country manors, the timing is murky, the characters are archetypal, and the plot is very well shaped. Despite making it much more gothic and adding an evil horse, it still feels a lot like a fairy tale. It's also really well written, walking the line between gothic and horrible and lighthearted and charming. The balance is weird but very effective. It's a good book. I'm going to have to read more T. Kingfisher.

Cordelia is expected to be "pleasant and polite and unexceptional." And . . . obedient. Her mother's one goal in life is for her daughter to marry a rich man, and she'll stop at nothing to make that happen. And "nothing" can really be something when you're a sorceress with the ability to control others' actions.

Well, let's face it - since Kingfisher is my favorite author, this pretty much had a five-star rating before it was even in my hot little hands. I just loved everything about it, from the ordinary women battling evil to the vigilante geese. This was fun with a capital F, and a delightful read from beginning to end.

I always have the hardest time trying to review Kingfisher’s books. They’re so good that I tuck right into reading and forget to make notes. This one was an absolute blast. I was horrified at what Cordelia’s mother, Evangeline, put her through.

But I loved watching her blossom as more people took an interest in her. She was raised in such a secluded and controlling environment, where every misstep meant being under absolute control of her mother, that she became an entirely new Cordelia around others.

I would love to come back to this world at some point, though I’m not sure where the author could go from here.

Such an absolute blast from one of my favorite authors.

A decent dark fairytale but not T. Kingfisher's best. The story follows 14 year old Cordelia, who is quite ignorant in the ways of the world, as she is swept along in her mother's schemes to marry a rich man, the Squire, and Hester, the Squire's sister, who suspects that something sinister is afoot.

I really enjoyed the way Cordelia was taken in and adopted by Hester and her friends, especially since Cordelia had grown up quite sheltered and isolated by her mother. Where the story fell a bit flat for me was in Cordelia's relationship to her abusers. It felt very one dimensional. In general it didn't feel like Cordelia had much emotional depth. The writing and the pacing meant we really got to know the characters on a deep, human level but the characterization fell a bit flat for me.

I think the murder mystery and stopping Evangeline made for an interesting story here, but the fairytale aspect worked much better in Kingfisher's other books, such as Thornhedge, which have somewhat less of a human quality to them and I didn't expect them to go quite as deep.

Papa was a rollin' stone........But Momma? She be a Sorceress. Oh, yeah.

T. Kingfisher has outdone herself in A Sorceress Comes to Call. Kingfisher has an uncanny talent for creating fairytales for adults. Her genius mind is her magic wand. She crafts characters in a stylish manner that bring shock, the unexpected, and bits of humorous dialogue to her well-planned storylines. And we, most certainly, are hooked from the first pages.

Cordelia is but fourteen years old. She's been pressed tightly by her mother's thumb of obedience. There are no doors on any of the rooms. Evangeline sees to that. Every movement is observed and scrutinized by Evangeline. But Cordelia loves Falada, her beautiful white horse with green eyes. She takes comfort in staying in Falada's stall for hours or riding him around the countryside. He is her only friend.

Evangeline wakes Cordelia in the middle of the night. Something gruesome has occurred and they must leave Little Haw immediately. After a long journey they are taken in by Squire Samuel Chatham. Evangeline has her eyes set on the Squire. His sister, Hester, seems to be onto something in regard to Evangeline. Stay tuned. The flames will rise higher and higher in this one.

A Sorceress Comes to Call is filled with intrigue as well as quirky dialogue with laugh out loud moments. Kingfisher dabs this with traces of Horror and then jabs the storyline with hilarity as well. Kingfisher knows how to entertain her readers. Check this one out if you've not had the pleasure of her novels. Oh, so good. Due to publish. 8/6/24.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Tor Publishing and to the talented T. Kingfisher for the opportunity.

I've heard high praise about T Kingfisher in the genre of dark fantasy so was excited when I could get a copy of an arc, as I've never read anything by her.
A Sorceress Comes to Call is about a Sorceress Evangeline and her daughter Cordelia. Cordelia doesn't know her mother is a sorceress, but is unhappy with how her mother controls her and forces her to be obedient.
When her mother sets her sights on marrying a wealthy older man Cordelia starts to understand what her mother is. Cordelia becomes friends with the older man's sister Hester and together they start to see the truth.

This was described as a retelling of Goose Girl (which I am not familiar with, but do love a good fairytale re-telling).
I really enjoyed this book. The writing was fantastic. The star of the show for me was Hester, but the whole cast of characters was great.
If you like dark fantasy/paranormal I would recommend checking this out. I will definitely be checking out more from this author.
4.5 stars from me!
This titles releases Aug 6!
Thank you to Netgalley and TOR publishing for the advanced reader copy.

"From New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes A Sorceress Comes to Call - a dark reimagining of the Brothers Grimm's "The Goose Girl," rife with secrets, murder, and forbidden magic.

Cordelia knows her mother is...unusual. Their house doesn't have any doors between rooms - there are no secrets in this house - and her mother doesn't allow Cordelia to have a single friend. Unless you count Falada, her mother's beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is on her daily rides with him.

But more than simple eccentricity sets her mother apart. Other mothers don't force their daughters to be silent and motionless for hours, sometimes days, on end. Other mothers aren't evil sorcerers.

When her mother unexpectedly moves them into the manor home of a wealthy older Squire and his kind but keen-eyed sister, Hester, Cordelia knows this welcoming pair are to be her mother's next victims. But Cordelia feels at home for the very first time among these people, and as her mother's plans darken, she must decide how to face the woman who raised her to save the people who have become like family."

It's T. Kingfisher a "The Goose Girl!" That's win win in my book!

This book brings about an old England feel mixed with the realism of magic delivered from sorcerers. They should have been eliminated ages ago, but we soon find out that out FMC’s mother is the worse of them all.
Can she be held back or is she determined to crush everything in her wake? Cordelia tries so hard to keep her mother in check but she simply can’t.
I was entertained by this book during the middle but the beginning and the end was hard to keep interest. It was a good story, but I wish more things tied together.

T. Kingfisher has done it again. A Sorceress Comes to Call was everything I hoped it would be after reading its synopsis! Such an easy 5 out of 5 stars for me. I mean…an insanely unnerving horse that can laugh? Yes, please.

There were two aspects of this story that stood out in my mind that made it such an incredibly good read. Predominantly, my favorite part of A Sorceress Comes to Call was simply the creepy, unsettling gore and gruesomeness that is woven throughout the tale. Ghosts, unnatural, sadistic creatures, horrific deaths…I found myself eagerly reading as quickly as possible to get from one unnerving scene to the next. T. Kingfisher has true skill at making a reader’s skin crawl in the best of ways.

My second favorite aspect of this book was simply the average age of the majority of its characters. Sure, the heroine is incredibly young; it suits the story and I loved her character. But everyone else is predominantly over the age of 30, with most of them already having gray hairs, sore joints, and a wealth of lived experience to support their lush and layered character development. To see love and life, fear and aging through the eyes of a “middle aged” individual is wonderfully refreshing after reading so many books based on storylines supported by 18-28 year old characters.

I can’t think of a single thing I didn’t enjoy about this book. It left me on the edge of my seat throughout the entire story and I look forward to re-reading it very soon.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the opportunity to enjoy and review the ARC of this beautiful story. I look forward to getting my hands on a physical copy for my bookshelves.

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher is set to be published on August 6, 2024.

A Sorceress Comes to Call was a spellbinding tale of found family and sinister magic with a regency era flare. Cordelia finds herself in stuck in a unhappy family of three with an evil sorceress mother and her trustly companion Fadala (her horse). Her mom is determined to marry rich and drags her to the home of squire samuel and his sister lady Hester to woo the squire into proposing. Soon Hester realizes the evil they have welcomed into their home and creates a plan to save not only her brother but asl Cordelia. I thoroughly enjoyed the found family aspect of the novel and the young and elderly characters coming together to defeat doom.

T. Kingfisher's ability to jump between genres and write absolute bangers every time is something that needs to be studied. A Sorceress Comes to Call is just another addition to her incredible backlog of books. I have never been disappointed by a book of hers and I can't imagine I ever will be. I absolutely ate this book up. Will be recommending it to everyone.

Do you suppose when T.Kingfisher finishes writing a book they throw their head back and cackle with glee from their cleverness?! If I were them, I would!

This is an entertaining retelling of ‘The Goose Girl’ which sharing the thoughts of young Cordelia and matronly Hester as they navigate the treachery that is Doom, aka Cordelia’s mother. Another Gothic tale that will keep you reading long after your bedtime. It has all the elements that make up good story telling. Characters that you can love and some you hate. An excellent plot and a wonderful way of storytelling that moves you right along the path. Mix in some humor and a possessed horse and it adds up to a favorite read for the year!

Thank you to NetGalley, Tor Publishing and T Kingfisher for the digital copy in exchange for my review.

Summary: Cordelia knows her mother is . . . unusual. Their house doesn’t have any doors between rooms—there are no secrets in this house—and her mother doesn't allow Cordelia to have a single friend. Unless you count Falada, her mother's beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is on her daily rides with him.

But more than simple eccentricity sets her mother apart. Other mothers don’t force their daughters to be silent and motionless for hours, sometimes days, on end. Other mothers aren’t evil sorcerers.

When her mother unexpectedly moves them into the manor home of a wealthy older Squire and his kind but keen-eyed sister, Hester, Cordelia knows this welcoming pair are to be her mother's next victims. But Cordelia feels at home for the very first time among these people, and as her mother's plans darken, she must decide how to face the woman who raised her to save the people who have become like family.

Review: I ADORED this book. I was enthralled the entire time I was reading. The entire time. I loved the story and the magic and the different characters. This would be a perfect, magical October read. Perfection. The audiobook was amazing as well.

A Sorceress Comes to Call 🐴🪿🖤

⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Fantasy/Horror
Author: T. Kingfisher

“Mother could make me obedient. Mother could make me stab you while I was obedient, and afterward everyone would say they didn’t believe it. And there is nothing I could do to stop her.”

Cordelia is living in the home of Hester while her sorceress mother tries to woo Hester’s brother into marriage. Hester becomes suspicious of the mother, Evangeline, and fears for Cordelia’s safety. Both Hester and Cordelia try to find a way to get rid of Evangeline.

🪿I was so excited by the premise of this book, and I had heard so many great things about T. Kingfisher. However, while the book was enjoyable, I did not feel that it lived up to the hype. The pacing was inconsistent. There were portions of the book where I was very intrigued and others where I was bored.
🪿If you want a combination of fantasy and horror, this book is for you. It has the magical elements of a fantasy, but the evil villain and gore of a horror. I loved the regency era setting with a dark twist.
🪿This book is described as a retelling of The Goose Girl. I have never read this fairytale, so I can’t say how closely this novel follows that story. The geese did have a very small part in the plot.
🪿My favorite part of this novel is the characters. Kingfisher did a wonderful job developing each of the house guests, especially Hester and Cordelia.

I know this book will have a large fan base, and I am excited to read more from this author! Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for the opportunity to read and review this novel.

Rating: Absolutely Loved It, 5 stars

A Sorceress Comes to Call is once again another absolute delight from T Kingfisher! I definitely need to make more of an effort to read through her backlist because I have loved all of her books that I have read.

A Sorceress Comes to Call is a light horror retelling/reimagining of The Goose Girl. Although, I don't know that I would have completely recognized that without Falada. So it's definitely different from any retellings that I have ever read, but in a good way!

In this we follow Cordelia, a young girl whose mother is a sorceress. They leave town to find a rich benefactor after her mother was jilted by her current lover. Cordelia has had a fairly traumatic upbringing complete with child neglect, emotional abuse, and magical abuse. Her mother will make her obedient and will proceed to control every single movement while Cordelia is trapped in her own body. Cordelia just wants to be free of her mother, and I really loved seeing her grow in confidence and come into her own throughout the book.

Our other POV is Hester, the aged spinster sister of the man that Evangeline sets her sights on. Hester is an absolutely delightful old lady with a dry sense of humor that absolutely matches my own.

"I forget that most well-bred ladies have nerves. Hester hasn't any at all, you see."
"None whatsoever," said Hester dryly. "Otherwise people might get on them."

She has a sixth sense and has been extremely independent since escaping her own Doom that she felt in her engagement as a youth. She doesn't like the idea of losing that independence by accepting a marriage proposal. She also feels this impending sense of Doom when Evangeline comes to call. She does have a great deal of sympathy for Doom's young daughter though, and she takes Cordelia under her wing, all while conspiring how to rid their home of Doom while also ridding Cordelia of her.

Hester invites several good friends for a house party, and things progress from there, especially when murder becomes a part of the party. I honestly loved the house guests so much! They all share a similar dry wit to Hester but have different flavors of it. I especially loved how they all sort of took Cordelia in and gave her the love and companionship that her mother denied to her. Cordelia is wracked by anxiety and overthinking, but she is very courageous, and I loved seeing her growth as a character. She also started to develop some sarcasm and witty comebacks more often as the book progressed, especially in her head, and I loved seeing that progression as she grew more and more confident and started to escape from her mother.

I really enjoyed it when it was just sort of a regency fairy tale feel, but once things started to go downhill, I loved it even more. T Kingfisher's fairy tales with a bit of horror sprinkled in work so well for me! I appreciated how everyone responded to the events, and a surprise favorite was Tom Willard, the butler. He was an absolute gem. And Hester's flock of geese were also just the best. T Kingfisher's ability to get me emotionally invested in birds in her different books is unparalleled and honestly rather spooky.

This book made me laugh out loud and also cry (tears of joy and pride and relief, no sad tears here!). I was so invested in the characters and the found family aspect. I especially loved the resolution - it was perfect! Also, if you don't read acknowledgements, you definitely should read these because they were fantastic.

Overall, this was an absolutely fantastic standalone, and T Kingfisher is cemented as a favorite. Highly recommend! A Sorceress Comes to Call releases on August 6, 2024. Thank you to Netgalley and Tor for an eARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own. All quotes are from an ARC copy and will be verified with the finished copy once the book releases.

Kingfisher is a guarantee, and even if my favorite books by her remain the ones set in the world of the White Rat, I had such an amazing time with this new one. I enjoyed it so much! And it is nice to see all the trademarks of this author in there too. We have older ladies with gumption (so much of it!), and sheer pragmaticism around (and I love it so much to see women, younger and older, so pragmatic! It is like a balm for the heart. Also, it usually makes for some funny moment, and I love it all so much!), and peculiar animals around. And her brand of humor that, with me, works wonders. The whole package!

And I could just leave things there: it is good, it has all the things people around the world love about her books, it is funny and sweet and so real, go and read it!
But I’ll try and tell you something more. First thing first, it is way darker than what I was expecting. And mind me, I am not complaining. This book is good, and I don’t think I have complaints about it. But it is quite dark. And it is not only for the story. It is a retelling of a Grimm’s Fairytale, and I think that the retelling is well done because it keeps not only the story but the atmosphere too. Hence, the dark parts. But that’s not all. The book starts with a scene that could have been perfect in one of her horror books, too, because we meet Cordelia for the first time, while her mother is making her obedient.
And it is terrible. And what is worst (or better, it’s complicated, because we are not talking about something nice or pleasant, we are talking about something awful, but the author does her work magistrally) is that we get in Cordelia a detailed and precise description of a person victim of abuse. It is chilling. So maybe pay attention to this, because it could be a strong trigger for some.
But I just want to remark that the author did an amazing job with her characterization of Cordelia. And mind me, a victim is not all of what Cordelia is. She is not a bidimensional character at all, she is so vivid, so alive, and real. And she is way more than what we first saw. I really enjoyed her, and I felt so much for her.

Cordelia is well worth meeting, but my favorite character is Hester. She is an old spinster who lives with her brother, the man who becomes the new victim of Cordelia’s mother. (And she is a scary person!!). Hester is so vivid, so full of life, and she is the kind of heroine I came to expect from this author. When we first met her my reaction was “Ahah! Here she is!”. And I loved her to pieces. She feels so real, and so alive!
I love that we get to see older women, and I love to see that they all have insecurity and flaws but are still amazing people. And what’s more, is that Kingfisher’s books are full of bad people, that’s true (Evangeline here is a good example) but they are also full of good people who try their best to do the right thing.
Because even if Cordelia, Hester, and Evangeline are at the center of the stage, we have a lot of other characters around them… and you need to meet the Butler! Trust me on that!
And okay, to be honest, they all are worth meeting. Richard, Cordelia’s maid, Hester’s friends, they are all amazing characters with some unique traits that will make you fall in love with them all. (And maybe they would also scare you a bit, but in the best possible way!). (And truth be told, I may want to be like Lady Strauss when I grow old!).

I think you got that for me, the best part of the book was all the amazing characters we meet in here, and the humor, which is just so on point for me. Also, we have some amazing geese in here, and a magical horse. I could not ask for more!!

Thank you to @netgalley and Tor Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m not entirely sure why I picked this book up, as Kingfisher’s books in the past for me have been solidly 3 stars. I love the idea of the twisted horror gothic version of fairy tales so I gravitate to the summaries of these books. And I’m pleased to say that this time it worked out because this one was an absolute delight. I’m not sure if it’s because Kingfisher went so far away from the original “source material” of the story of the Goose Girl that I wasn’t even bothering to look for similar plot elements, or if it was because the world was toned down just a touch so the outrageousness of it didn’t distract me. This one was dark and gross and interesting and I enjoyed every minute of it. I can’t give it a five as there were rules of magic that didn’t really stay stable the entire book, one of my personal pet peeves, but it wasn’t so egregious that it took me out of the world.

Book Review: A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher

A Sorceress Comes to Call is a dark retelling of the Brothers Grimm's Goose Girl, filled with secrets, murder, and forbidden magic. The story follows Cordelia, a young girl who lives in a strange house and under the strict control of her unusual mother. When her mother decides it's time to find Cordelia a husband, they move into the home of a wealthy older man, the Squire, and his kind, intelligent sister, Hester. Cordelia quickly realizes her mother intends to bewitch the Squire into marriage, leaving Hester to face the challenge of saving her brother and helping Cordelia escape a grim fate.

I found this book incredibly engaging. The familiar fairy tale setup felt cozy, but the dark twist added a layer of tension that kept me hooked. T. Kingfisher skillfully blended classic elements with fresh, darker tones, making the story both nostalgic and thrilling. The characters were well-developed, and the plot moved at a satisfying pace.

While the book didn't quite reach five-star territory for me, as it lacked just a bit of depth that would make it truly unforgettable, I still appreciated the craftsmanship. It's a well-told tale that balances comfort and suspense, perfect for those who enjoy dark fairy tales.

Amazing mix of romance, horror and fantasy. This was my first T Kingfisher book (I know, I know..) and am SO excited to devour the rest of her work. Could not put it down!