I adored this book. I confess this is my very first read from T. Kingfisher. It's done great justice to the hype surrounding her work. My only regret is not reading from her sooner!

This story is based on "The Goose-Girl," one of Grimm's fairy tales, but does much to subvert the original story. Cordelia is neither a delicate beauty nor royalty. Rather than being demeaned and abused by a rebellious maidservant (vilifying domestic workers can have its own ick factor), her own mother uses terrible sorcery and narcissistic guile to control her life--sometimes quite literally controlling Cordelia's own body.

I'll warn folks who are sensitive to seeing emotional abuse and narcissistic behaviors on the page that it can be tough at times. But all the other characters Cordelia encounters are so endearing and kind in counterbalance. While the story's stakes are too high for it to count as "cozy" (there are a few deaths and some moments of horror), it still feels cozy spending time with the spinster Hester and her friends. Their kindness and Cordelia's journey to autonomy are very healing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the opportunity to read the e-galley!

I was a bit torn going into this as I am a raving fan of Kingfisher's fantasy work, but a disbeliever in her horror. This, I am delighted to report, is a wonderful bridge between the two.

Kingfisher skillfully weaves in between the deuteragonists' POVs. Her signature utilitarian worldbuilding gives the plot its proper spotlight without the reader flailing about what kind of aesthetic we're working with here. The characters are confidently formed; I can tell who is who just from the way they speak or even the way they enter a room.

This is a wonderful blend of domestic (gory, horrifying) thriller and youthful (painful, nostalgic, wonderful) magic. I am so glad I gave this a chance. 4.75/5

This dark retelling of Grimm’s Goose Girl was interesting and at times humorous, but overall a little slow.

The mother is a straight up terrible villain. It’s easy to hate and fear her. I was grateful when we finally met Hester and Alice, who immediately realized there was something wrong and tried to help Cordelia.

While I loved Hester and Richard’s attachment, and I enjoyed seeing Cordelia learn about the world, make connections with new people, and start to gain agency, by the midpoint I was ready for them to find a way to stop her mother and wrap things up. Despite being interested in the characters, the pace was a little slow for me and I had hoped for a little more magic and mystery and less marriage scheming.

Luckily, the last third had more interesting unfolding action and some humorous moments that engaged me until the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for the ARC.

T. Kingfisher has become a staple of my literary diet! Everything she writes is tinged with humor and usually animals of some sort are involved. A Sorceress Comes to Call is no exception. All the things I love about this author are here.

Young Cordelia has a tough life. Her father is no longer around and her mother, well-her mother is special. If Cordelia misbehaves, she could be made to sit for hours. In the same position. Without doing anything other than breathe. Her mother calls this making her "obedient." But in anyone else's eyes, this is abuse. One night, her mother rides off on the family horse and when she returns, she tells Cordelia they're moving. In a jumble of activity, soon Cordelia finds herself and her mother knocking on the door of a country squire and her life changes forever. Hester, the squire's sister recognizes immediately that something is wrong with Cordelia, and she sees that Cord is absolutely terrified by her mother. She also suspects that her mother, the evil Evangeline, is scheming to make this family her own. Will her awful mother succeed? Will Cordelia ever be able to get out from under her mother's thumb, (or spell?) You'll have to read this to find out!

This is supposed to be a type of retelling of The Goose Girl, a tale collected by the Brothers Grimm. I'll say up front that I haven't read it and am not familiar with it, so I cannot say how close this story is to that one. However, I can say this book was great fun!

I can easily picture all of these characters. I think Kingfisher is amazing at character development. She makes it all look and feel easy, if that makes any sense. She's a natural born storyteller, in my opinion. She doesn't ever labor over long-winded descriptions of her characters-their traits and personalities come through naturally in other ways. In this book, it was Hester and her gaggle of geese that really spoke to me-she was so sweet to Cordelia and it was plain that she not only wanted to protect her brother the squire, but she also wanted to protect Cordelia. It was easy to hate Cordelia's mother, and as the story progresses, the reader cannot help but wish that Evangeline gets what's coming to her.

A Sorceress Comes to Call is just plain FUN. It's an exciting tale and it moves quickly. Every minute I wasn't reading I wanted to be. 336 pages flew by in a matter of only a few days, (though the pace did slow a bit in the middle.) As I sadly finished, I realized I didn't want to say goodbye to these characters. I would love to see more Cordelia and Hester in the future. So if you could get right on that. Ms. Kingfisher, it would be appreciated!

Highly recommended!

*ARC from publisher.*

A Sorceress Comes To Call
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“Being made obedient felt like being a corpse. My body’s dead and it doesn’t do what I want.”
🧙‍♀️
This book felt a little more like magical realism than fantasy to me and I feel like it’s a good one for people to dip a toe in the fantasy genre. We follow 14 year old Cordelia in this dark retelling of Brother Grimm’s The Goose Girl, but it is by no means a YA book. I love when books have me imaging everything is this gothic, eerie, creepy black and white imagery (you know in the last Harry Potter movie especially when the focus is on the dark magic, I was picturing it like that.). It’s a dual POV story which worked perfectly and for me it really picked up about halfway through. I understood why it moved slightly slow in the beginning, but I still felt like I want just a little more. I wanted it to push the boundaries, especially with this ‘my mom is a dark sorceress and can make me obedient and do whatever she wants’ plot. Overall I had fun with this story, it was kind of giving me this dark bridgerton vibes at moments which I enjoyed. I just wanted the creepy factor turned up a little, but if that’s not your thing then this may be perfect (it would have been a four for me if it got creepier, so don’t let that 3.5 scare you away from reading it)! ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
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Thank you NetGalley, T.Kingfisher, and Tor Books for this e-arc, it comes out August 6th!

I will admit that I have tried to read several of T. Kingfisher’s novels and I DNF’d each one. Imagine my surprise when this book intrigued me from the very beginning and turned out to be one of the best books I have read so far this year! A Sorceress Comes to Call is a retelling of the Goose Girl fairy tale. Sorceress Evangeline uses magic to get what she wants. She often uses it to make her daughter Cordelia “obedient,” by controlling her words and actions like a puppet. Cordelia is under the constant watchful eye of her mother’s familiar, an uncanny white horse named Falada. Her mother plans for fourteen year old Cordelia to marry a wealthy man. In order to do so, Evangeline tries to entrap a kind man called the Squire. What she doesn’t know is that the Squire’s sister, Hester, is suspicious of her from the start. When Hester befriends Cordelia, the two begin to plan how to save the Squire and rid themselves of Evangeline’s evil magic. With the help of Hester’s old love Richard, best friend Imogene and butler Willard, (and a ghost) they figure out how best to save them all from Evangeline. It was wonderfully written and a great retelling.

100% pure magic. A Sorceress Comes to Call enveloped me from the first chapter.

Once I started, I didn’t want to stop (It’s rare that I read only one book and will often switch between titles, but not with this). The slow buildup was masterfully executed and I really wish I could re-read this for the first time again. What a terrific, suspenseful, and enjoyable story 😍 The majority of the characters are richly written and their personalities leap off the pages (with the exception of Evangeline and, to a degree, the Squire).
This was my first book by the author - it absolutely will not be the last (I am currently trying to decide which previous title to start with).

However, please know that it left me with some unanswered questions that I’ve continued to reflect on, hence 4.5 stars, not a full 5.

After reading, I was fortunate enough to receive an early audiobook for this and the dual narration of Eliza Foss and Jennifer Pickens elevated this story even further, capturing the buildup and suspense wonderfully well.

The audiobook further cemented this as a favorite read of 2024, and despite the lingering questions, I give this a wholehearted recommendation.



Thank you to Tor Books; Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the DRC and audiobook

T. Kingfisher is absolutely unbelievable with the books she writes. She never fails at keeping me intrigued and her writing style is spot on with my taste in reading. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read/listen to this arc! 🙏 The audiobook is, without a doubt, the cherry on top that made this whole book such an experience.

This is such a unique book book! It’s a dark retelling of Goose Girl, and it is so good. It’s dark, twisted and a little gruesome at times. But no major TW!

This world is so interesting. There isn’t much (or any) world building, but you still feel like you understand the lore and world. You also don’t need any knowledge of what goose girl is, or anything of that fairytale to read this!

I loved the beginning and the ending (oh the ending!!!) but lost interest in the middle. The ending definitely makes up for it, but it took me way too long to get through the boring bits.

This is why T Kingfisher is one of my favorite authors!

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher is a retelling of The Goose Girl story collected by The Brothers Grimm. Cordelia lives with her mother Evangeline, a sorceress who makes her “obedient” by spelling her and making her do things she does not want to. When Evangeline’s benefactor decides to no longer support her, she must find a new man to ensnare, and so she drags Cordelia off to do so. Evangeline believes she can trap Samuel Chatham, but his sister Hester and Cordelia both try to find a way to stop a sorceress.

I love the way T. Kingfisher writes stories. There is always a layer of magic and mystery to all her stories, and A Sorceress Comes to Call is no exception. The ability to write a true fairytale in the style of Brothers Grimm is hard to do, but I feel this story pulled it off brilliantly. I liked the premise, characters, and the dark, high stakes atmosphere. I did feel that there was some unnecessary plot points towards the end that detracted from the overall story, but this did not prevent my enjoyment of the book as a whole!

I definitely recommend this book. Pub date is August 6th, 2024!


Thank you NetGalley and Tor Books for the advanced readers copy in exchange for my review

Fairytale retellings are common. What Kingfisher accomplishes with a fairytale retelling framework is anything but common! Another dark and fascinating retelling interspersed with the author's humor and wit. Overall an excellent read, and an author I'll recommend again and again!

4.5 stars. This was so much fun! Weird to say that for a horror retelling of a Brothers Grimm fairytale, but T. Kingfisher’s humor is always a joy, and the characters are excellent here. Hester wakes up one morning, feeling doom, and the doom arrives in the form of a sorceress trying to con her brother into marriage. What does she do? She calls the squad over for a Regency era house party to try and thwart the sorceress! The sorceress’s daughter (the other POV main character) decides to help out, so her mother stops being awful and killing people. This took some turns I wasn’t expecting, so it kept me entertained. Disclaimer that I’ve never read the source material (though I did Wikipedia it before starting this book!)

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!

I had a chance to also listen to the audio book and the narration was great. I don't think that it necessarily added anything to the stoy but I can always appreciate a crisp and clear narration.

As per usual, I love anything Kingfisher. I love the way the author takes fairytale stories and turns them into dark, disturbing tales. Though I do prefer her more dark originals.

This one was so fun and you could really feel the FMC's anguish as we find out about her mother and familiar. I loved all the twists and turns. The characters were great in getting to know them all and how they worked together throughout the story.

I loved seeing Cordelia grow into herself and find the confidence in herself and the people around her.

I will forever chase any new Kingfisher I can get my hands on.

THE GOOSE GIRL has a special place in my heart as a horse girl who loves stories about disguised princesses, so I had high hopes for this retelling. It was a looser interpretation than I had anticipated, but it didn't make me enjoy it less! Arch villain aside, the main and supporting characters were dynamic, charming, and perfectly imperfect with all of their believable idiosyncrasies. There was such a feeling of love and compassion infused throughout the book, as well as deeply emotional scenes that left one begging for the character to make "the right choice," to ease our suffering. Most characters were given satisfying character arcs, and the ones that didn't arguably didn't deserve it. Cordelia and Hester made for a engaging pair of deuteragonists- I'm so happy a woman in her 50s was given a strong voice, incredible personality, and a love story for the ages.

Cordelia’s mother is not like other mothers. Other mothers don’t force their children into obedience quite like this. Other mothers don’t allow their children to gave zero friends and no closed doors. Although Cordelia has become used to the eccentricities of her mother, she is not prepared for what will happen when her mother races home and insists they leave their small town to pursue another “benefactor.”

This retelling of Goose Girl was wonderful. The perfect amount of dark storytelling to compare to the Grimm Brothers version. Although I did love Cordelia, all of the side characters were my favorite. I aspire to be as comfortable with myself at the age of fifty-one as Hester. I would definitely recommend this to friends!

Every T. Kingfisher book is a delight to read and A Sorceress Comes to Call is no exception. For anyone who enjoys fairytale style stories with a moderate amount of spookiness, this is a perfect recommendation, and while it is not technically in a particular time period, historical drama fans will love it, too. The story sets a perfect scene with an empathetic main character, detestable villain, and plenty of adventure along the way.

A Sorceress Comes to Call follows the story of Cordelia, a young girl growing up with an extremely controlling mother. Actually, controlling would be a severe understatement. There are no closed doors allowed in Cordelia's home, and her mother frequently makes her "obedient" to control her every move. Cordelia is mostly sheltered from the outside world and knows nothing but her restricted life. Soon, Cordelia becomes embroiled in her mother's schemes to find and marry a rich man and gains a taste of freedom.

This was a charming, dark fairytale. There were several points in the plot that I didn't see coming and that kept me glued to the page. Cordelia was an interesting character, as were the supporting characters. I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who loves T. Kingfisher's other works or for lovers of a good fairytale.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Publishing for an eARC of this title in exchange for my honest review.

This book took me completely by surprise! I've never read a T. Kingfisher full novel before (only a novella that I didn't really love, but I also don't like novellas much), but I requested in knowing how many good things I've heard about her work before. And this book was AWESOME!

Right from the get go, it really pulled me in. We immediately see poor Cordelia being made obedient by her mother in church, and know just how terrifying it is to not be in control of any part of your body except for your eyes. Kingfisher does a great job of introducing every character and giving them a personality so that you're scared that they might get hurt or killed off, and it really makes it a much more thrilling book!

There's a bit of adventure, some magic, good friendships and relationships, humor, all tied together with the stress of "will Cordelia and friends be able to kill her mother or not?"

I don't want to say too much more so I just advise you pick this one up (whether it be written or audio) and just enjoy the ride!

I spent a day off reading this and laying in the sunshine and I couldn't have made a better choice. T. Kingfisher is an automatic read for me, no matter what she writes. I didn't have a lot of familiarity with the tale this was inspired by, but the story and themes resonated with me. I can't wait to recommend this to my book club.