“House of Frost and Feathers” follows Marisha who has fallen on hard times. Her two family members have fallen ill to the sleeping plague and have been asleep for up to ten years. Her only brother left home to try and get the family fortune back, but this has left Marisha penniless and needing a job. She’s applied and been told no or laughed out of almost every thing local. She inquired about the Baba Yaga house that had appeared in the neighborhood and had headed there for a job interview which she receives.

She is hired by Baby Zima to be the assistant for Olena, the koldunya that is studying to take over Baba Zima retires. Marisha doesn’t really want this job but it is her only option and Olena doesn’t want her there either. Olena’s project as a koldunya is to find a cure for the sleeping plague. She doesn’t find Marisha very helpful except that she can translate old Slavic which can be helpful to go through old notes and books surrounding the start of the sleeping plague. Marisha attempts to help Olena and tried to bond with her but it seems hopeless to develop a good relationship with Olena. Hopefully collaborating and helping with a sleeping plague cure can improve their relationship and keep her job and her place living in the strange Baba Yaga house that travels from town to town.

This book follows the travels of the Baba Yaga, Baba Zima, her mistress Olena, and the assistant Marisha. It is a rather slow paced fantasy that takes place mostly within the house (the baba Yaga). The story has depth in character development. You get the sense that something is lurking beneath the surface about 30% through the book but you aren’t quite sure what. The beginning is a bit of a slow-burn as you discover all the interrelations between each character and day to day work as a koldunya/assistant. Due to the slow progression of learning the characters relationships and purposes, I did have a bit of a lapse in interest but I have always been interested in the folklore surrounding Baba Yagas.

As the relationship between Marisha and Olena begins to foster, about 60-65% of the way through the story really picks up and becomes quite magical. Once the more magical world opens up, the relationships that the author has formed throughout the slow-burn section of the book start to make sense and make you think. Getting through to this magical part and learning more about the sleeping plague and the potential to rid it made the book a quite interesting journey and the ending was worth the read.

3.75 due to the slow burn. But after reading the end I see why the character development was so important. Always pay attention to details when reading fantasy books. 😊

I LOVE Baba Yaga tales and the slight budding romance we see in this book was awesome! I very much enjoyed the folklore in this book

Very strange. Similar to Spinning Silver with the folk talked. THis is very slow and character driving but not bad. I tend to like a faster pace in my books.

I really liked this book: the characters, the magic, the story. It all was very charming and very intriguing. The protagonist's involvement in everything was held back until later in the book than I would like, but when her destiny and dreams were connected in, it was very satisfying.

Put the chicken house on the cover of a book and I'm there

I love books that read like fairy tales. This is definitely a slower-paced, character driven tale, but the world of Slavic magic is beautifully crafted and I enjoyed every step in the journey. There are two POVs: Marisha, who signs on to be the assistant to Baba Yaga-I-mean-Zima's apprentice, and Olena, the apprentice herself whose goal is to cure the sleeping plague.

The villain was suitably frightening and the climax was exciting. And there's even a cute animal side character! This is a standalone fantasy that has a satisfying conclusion but also leaves the characters open for more adventures. My favorite kind of ending! Not so much because I expect there to be sequels, but because I can imagine more magical mysteries on my own.

For some reason I thought the romance would be between Marisha and Olena. WRONG! No lesbians here. I can't even blame Goodreads for using a misleading LGBT tag this time, just my own queer delusions. I did enjoy their developing friendship and the light romance we did get (Olena with Baba Zima's son, Marisha with gender-flipped Sleeping Beauty). Both romances were very sweet.

The prose definitely felt like the telling of a fairy tale. It took a little getting used to for me but worked well. There were a few comma splices here and there that I noticed more in the second half, but these may be picked up in editing before publication. I can't wait to get my Goldsboro special edition.

this book was good! I liked the way this story flowed, I think it was well written and I did like the characters. This would be a good book for a book club, since people could have differing opinions on this one!

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complimentary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

The world-building was excellent and magical, but the pacing felt off to me - overall enjoyable, however.

The House of Frost and Feathers had me hooked from the beginning. I was immediately intrigued by Marisha and her desire for nothing more than a job. It's a sentiment I can relate very closely to, and I think many other people can too in today's working climate.
Then, the book threw me Olena's point of view and I was even more hooked!
Marisha and Olena are such different characters with very different motivations, which is what made it so interesting to read about them trying to learn to work together. There were times I sided with Marisha, and times I sided with Olena, which only made it so much more fun to read.
The pacing of this book is immaculate. I found it very hard to put down as each chapter added another piece to the puzzle.
Each character was interesting to read about, with various flaws and strengths. The relationships between characters, and the way those relationships developed, were particularly interesting. There's a lovely found-family side to the story.
I highly recommend reading this book during the cold months with many warm cups of tea.
This book was such a joy to read! I can't wait to see what is next from Lauren Wiesebron.

Thank you to Harper Voyager, Avon, and Netgalley for the ARC.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to be an ARC reader for this book

I was so excited to dig into this as I LOVE baba yagga, so say I am disappointed is an understatement. I have been trying and failing to finish this book for 2 months, I’m finally giving up as it’s just been boring from start to where I stopped at about 30%.

House of Frost and Feathers is the kind of book that seeps into your bones—lush, lyrical, and brimming with an icy sort of magic that lingers long after you turn the final page. If you love folklore-infused fantasy with a dark, wintry edge, you’re going to want to sink into this one immediately.

Marisha is a heroine you can’t help but root for—determined, vulnerable, and full of quiet strength as she navigates the treacherous world of koldunry. Baba Zima is deliciously complex, a mentor who is equal parts brilliant and terrifying.

The magic in this book is gorgeous—both enchanting and unsettling, like stepping into a frostbitten fairy tale where beauty and danger intertwine. The dream sequences are especially mesmerizing, wrapping you in a surreal, eerie atmosphere that feels like a ghost story whispered in candlelight. And the mystery at the heart of it all—the sleeping plague, the masked ball, the monstrous figure lurking at the edges—unfolds in a way that is both breathtaking and chilling.

If you’re a fan of Naomi Novik, Ava Reid, or Katherine Arden, this book will feel like home—a cold, haunted, and utterly magical home that you’ll never want to leave.

Using Slavic folklore rather than European, this book has some great worldbuilding. However, the pace is slow with more focus on characters and conversations and the chicken legged house wandering from town to tow while Baba Zina works her magic. This is all well done, but I never felt any urgency in the story and ended up sleep-reading through parts of it, which meant going back to re-read the pages I’d just passed. I struggled to stay interested in this book and kept putting it down in favor of something else, and when I came back to it I struggled to remember what had happened.

This really became an issue in the final quarter of the book where things start to happen, but I just wasn’t invested in the characters or the plot by that point. I do think the characters arcs are well done, but their personalities, to me, felt just as lethargic as the book. Their voices were all so similar, their ways of talking, and there was never a real sense of them as people separate from the plot.

This is, of course, just my opinion. Other people will have a better time than I did with this book — not to say I had a bad one! Just a sleepier, more drifty one. The writing was good, the world building was nice, but the pace made me want to take a nap. However, I’ll be looking forward to future books from this author because everything else was solid, just … slow.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for giving me an ARC!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc.

3.5 stars

While I ended up enjoying this book, it started out so slow. All the characters are basically only interested in themselves. It’s like no one cares. And I get that the place/situation isn’t meant to be easy, but jeez. It was also slow going because of the vocabulary. There was a lot of folklore and various words that my brain would slow over. Once I got about 70% in, it really started to take off. Some trust was forming, characters were developing, the plot picked up pace, etc. I really enjoyed that bit. It definitely seems like there will be a sequel. It felt like a few things were left unanswered, and I’d like to see what happens with them.

This was a fun story based on Slavic folklore with major Howl’s Moving Castle vibes. Marisha lives in Chernozemyla, a land inflicted with an ancient sleeping plague. Every ten years on the dot people fall asleep. Both of Marisha’s parents are deep sleepers (people who sleep for more than a year) and her brother left her. Marisha escapes an inevitable arranged marriage at the hands of her awful Aunt by becoming an apprentice to an apprentice for a Koldunya. This particular Koldunya, Baba Zima, controls n orange chicken-legged house that travels from city to city. Baba Zima’s apprentice, Olena, is trying to find a cure for the plague. Marisha must overcome her disbelief of magic to help pursue a cure.

This book is very character driven. If someone does not enjoy character driven books, they will not enjoy this book. I’m not a huge fan of character driven stories, but the folklore was so dang good. The plot takes a back seat to the story told through Baba Zima, Marisha, Olena, and eventually Valdim. The pacing is a little skewed. The book starts off very strong, is incredibly slow, and is non-stop through the last 20%. I really enjoyed the last 20% of the book. I wish there would have been more character development between the two couples. I feel like there was a lot of potential between both love interests to further explore those particular characters. I feel that with some consolidation (the book is over 500 pages) this story would be even more enjoyable.

I enjoyed the book and will definitely recommend it as long as the readers are okay with a slow pace and character driven story. 3.75 stars

Thank you SO much to Harper Voyager and NetGalley for the early copy.

Plague strikes the kingdom of Chernozemlya every ten years, leaving thousands of victims to sleep for a year and a day, with an unlucky few deep sleepers never waking again. Marisha’s parents are both deep sleepers, leaving her at the mercy of distant relatives who think her cursed by this misfortune. Fleeing the threat of marriage, Marisha gets herself hired as an assistant to a disabled koldunya, Olena, who lives in a magical house that walks on chicken legs. Together they might finally discover a cure for the plague. But only if they don’t strangle each other first and nothing crawls out of the Otherworld to kill them.

World-building: House of Frost and Feathers mixes the magic of Russian folklore with the grittier reality of peasant life, akin to Deathless by Catherynne Valente. Rather than going broad, this adventure digs deeper and deeper into the titular chicken-legged house and the relationships of its occupants, past and present.

Characters: I loved Marisha and Olena. These women are stubborn, driven, and angry with the hand dealt to them by society. However, unlike the recent spate of "burn it to the ground" female protagonists in historical fantasy, they're also willing to grow and heal. This leads to the found family dynamic that I adore and sweet low-key romances for both protagonists.

Also...the house is ALIVE! It's not a fleshed-out character, unfortunately, but the Howl's Moving Castle vibes still warmed my heart.

Plot: The mystery of what's causing the sleeping plague was a definite page-turner. And it was expertly entwined with an exploration of generational trauma centered on the figure of Baba Yaga — or rather Baba Zima, her predecessor Baba Serafima, and her apprentice Olena.

Highly recommend! 5 stars!

The House of Frost and Feathers initially caught my eye because I read and thoroughly enjoyed Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott (2022). The House of Frost and Feathers features the same Slavic character, a mobile house with giant chicken legs.

To say the least, I was not disappointed. The storyline exceeded my expectations, and I came to love all of the characters and their dynamics. While this was a highly character-driven story, the plot coming and going, I was completely immersed in the folkloric world that Wiesebron has fabricated so well.

I wish there had been a sort of epilogue at the end that might have gone into Marisha’s journey home and how her relation with her parents was after the plague was abolished.

I also wonder if the author knew the story behind Zima and Baba Yaga, and if that influenced the choice of Baba Zima’s name instead of using Baba Yaga, who is traditionally the owner of the chicken-footed house. I would love to know more about the inspiration for the story and how much the lore used by the author overlaps with traditional story!

Thank you Netgalley, Hodderscape, and the author for a free ARC of this book.

This story was so good - magical, with dark fantasy. Not my typical read but was perfect for cold nights by the fire - I would highly recommend as a winter read.

I enjoyed this! This fantasy takes the scenic route to build a winter-in-an-ancient-forest ambiance with Slavic folklore elements. The emphasis on building the characters made me endeared to the various main characters, but the pacing did slow to a glacial pace at times.

The writing was great, and I could envision the scenes and the fantastical elements easily. I was not familiar with the folk tales referenced, but I was still able to follow the folklore ties the author had. Almost all of the main characters were women, and none were dependent on men to further their stories, which I appreciated. There is more dialogue than I expected given the vibe, but it mostly hit the mark to build the relationships between characters. The recurring arguments sometimes felt repetitive.

You should be in the mood for a slower-paced fantasy focusing on individual characters with very minor romance elements, or you might find this book hard to get into. The book focuses mainly on one location and one set of characters, and you really get to know them as a true standalone novel. I think this is an impressive debut, and I would definitely read more books by this author.

Thank you, Avon and Harper Voyager, for the arc!

I enjoyed this story especially with its root in Slavic folklore.

It's interesting and complex. It did take me a minute to get used to the Slavic influences but I quickly got used to it and enjoyed it.

I think the pacing struggles because this story is really centered around the characters and their development. There is not a ton of action and so there are quite a few lulls in the story. I think the ending is the strongest part because there is a blend of action and development. I felt connected at this point and really enjoyed how the story ended.

I'd like more balance throughout but I love the dark elements and the folklore aspect.

Thanks to netgalley and Avon for the eARC of this book!

I really loved this read, it was fantasy done in a whole new way. I’ve read many Baba Yaga inspired stories, but this was my favorite by far. I really enjoyed how many character arcs we were able to follow, and I felt like I was kept on my toes all the way through in the best kind of way

I was so excited to read this book after seeing it compared to The Bear and the Nightingale, one of my favorite books. While it didn't deliver as much as I'd hoped, it was undeniably beautifully written and an excellent tribute to Russian folklore. The prose was so lyrical and magical.

For me, the pacing was a little slower than I would've liked and it was a bit hard to push through at times, but at other points it was easy to immerse myself in the mysterious and beautiful story. The Sleeping Plague, a sinister illness that sweeps through the population, caught my interest the most, which is what the base storyline revolves around -- our main character Marisha searching for a cure with Olena.

The mysterious house of Baba Zima, which Marisha goes to in search of work in desperation, was both charming and eerie but the quirky and complex characters really held the show together. Though I was often frustrated by their lack of communication which could have solved so many things. On the other hand, the romance plot felt a little random and forced but it was a somewhat minor part of the story. Overall, this was an enjoyable read with breathtaking writing, but the slow pacing made it a bit hard for me. I think many fantasy lovers will still be a fan of this book, especially those who like Naomi Novak, Ava Reid and Katherine Arden.

Thank you so much to Avon & Harper Voyager and NetGalley for this ARC! 📚