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! 📚

i love slavic folklore fantasy. i find it to be so fascinating— as someone from a caribbean island, reading about these dark, frosty worlds feels almost ethereal. the house of frost and feathers follows in this tradition for me, though this one stuns with its prose. this one’s great for those readers who prefer grounded fantasy rather than a full on epic tale— slavic fantasy in general is quite good for that, and like others it would sit in shelves with, it feels like you’re reading a modern dark fairytale.

This is a slow burn tale with a sinister edge perfect for winter. We follow Marisha, in a third POV running from an unwanted marriage and finding herself in an unbelievable house. They go on a journey to find a cure for a sleeping plague, and along the way we experience a bit of mystery, found friendship, self-discovery, and a pinch of romance.

This one definitely has the vibes and whimsical nature of Howl's Moving Castle along with Russian folklore. Even though it was a bit slower paced than I would normally like, I quite enjoyed it. I really loved the Ghibli Studios vibe of the house and some of its inhabitants.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the eARC copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the arc! Holy shit, I found this boring and tedious to get through. It genuinely numbed my mind to the point of not being able to think much else besides the word “drag.” I’ll have to remove a star for as many brain cells as I lost while reading this. I would’ve preferred reading Men’s health

This was a strong lyrical fantasy novel, it had that element that I was hoping for and was engaged with what was happening. The characters were everything that I wanted and enjoyed the fantasy element that I wanted. Lauren Wiesebron has a strong writing style and enjoyed the overall feel of this book.

What a fantastic read this book was! As a long-time lover of Slavic folklore, I've always been frustrated by its under-representation in modern fantasy. Thankfully, this book came along and fulfilled all my desires for a fantasy novel of this kind! Complex worldbuilding meets engaging and compelling characters, all tied up in a fascinating narrative about the mysterious Sleeping Plague! Highly recommended to any lovers of fantasy and folklore! Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyage for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The magical elements were very interesting and the story is well done. I appreciated the magic and world building and the folklore vibes.

Marisha is alone and looking for a place in the world that she feels she belongs. After her parents both fall prey to the sleeping plague she is left to live with her aunt who is trying to marry her off. She is looking for work and ends up finding employment in a traveling witch’s house Baba Zima. Once there she begins working with Olena to discover a cure to the plague.

This was very similar in premise to Howls moving castle, I found it slow but generally I enjoyed it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the eARC of House of Frost and Feathers. The description of this book caught my attention right from the start, along with the beautiful cover art. Admittedly, the story was a bit slow in places for me, but the world created, and the magic described, was very well-done.

Marisha is a complex character, as are many of the remaining cast of characters. Each are driven by different (not always immediately clear) motivations. As the book progresses and the crux of the conflict is reached, the motivations of many characters are revealed in a fantastical other-world situation. Not everything wraps up nicely, which works well in this setting.

The house itself is a main focal point and a very intricate character itself. I enjoyed that it was a unique persona itself.

Overall this is a good read for fans of Russian folklore, magical worlds, and nuanced characters.

This reminded me a lot of Foul Days and a little of the Winternight trilogy. I loved the walking house, the mystery of the sleeping plague, and the various other magical elements. I also very much enjoyed the two main POVs. I will say that the one romance (?) plotline felt very shoehorned in and I would have preferred the story without it completely, but at least it was fairly minor. Overall an interesting and fun read.

In this folklore fantasy Marisha becomes an assistant to a koldunya who lives in a magical house. From there she meets many interesting characters, has adventures and learns a whole lot about herself.

I enjoyed the characters of this story very much. They were charming and witty. I especially loved the relationship that grew between marisha and olena. I especially loved the animal companion. I mean who doesn’t love an animal companion? Where this book fell short for me was the pacing. While I was loving many of the interactions the characters had with each other I found the overall plot dragged. Many times I was choosing to read something else rather than pick this back up. In the end it has a lot of potential and I think some readers will really have a win on their hands with this one.

Thank you to net galley and the publisher for a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The cover art of this book that displays a reproduction of the infamous story of Baba Yaga’s house with chicken feet, is what led me to give this fantastical tale a chance. A house with chicken legs for feet, how must that even work? What are the mechanics of it? Such are the thoughts of Marisha, a young woman that routinely applies herself to a more scientific, logical way of thinking (what they call “reasonable philosophy”) versus being taken in by the works of koldunry (which are basically witches, soothsayers, workers of magic, etc). However, after her latest job prospect has gone terribly astray and to avoid going back to her aunt’s to be married off, she turns towards the last place she ever wanted to be, Baba Zima’s house of koldunry. Although the matron of the house is hesitant to bring Marisha into her home and her practices, she hires her to be the assistant to her apprentice, Olena. Marisha is to assist in Olena in any way possible to find the cure for the sleeping plague which has haunted their lands for centuries, reoccurring every decade to claim more souls. Will Marisha’s thinking on how the world works change? Will magic grip her mind and heart, taking her on a fantastical journey? You’ll have to read it to see!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this arc in exchange for a free and honest review.

Before I begin - is there going to be a sequel??? Because I can't wait to read it!!

This book was a delight for someone who is a fan of the Baba Yaga folk story (me). The writing was paced beautifully, the character POVs added much needed context, and the romance aspects were interesting yet subtle and not overly done, nor where they the main focus of the story.

I enjoyed reading about koldunry and all the various aspects of it. I wish there could have been a bit more mention of the other world, but I was still satisfied with what I read. Our main character, Marisha, is a sensible lassie, who is continuously proven wrong about the world of the kolduns and everything which she thought was true. Olena was a very well-described character, and Baba Zima added some much needed confusion with a dash of villainry.

All in all, I enjoyed this book and will definitely be looking out for more publications by this author!

Unfortunately this one was not for me. I found the pacing to be a bit too slow, and I think some of the folklore elements went over my head. I just couldn’t connect to the characters and the story. I do feel there were some cool magic elements, and this could really be a hit for someone else.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Avon and Harper Voyager for the ARC of House of Frost and Feathers by Lauren Wiesebron.

For readers who enjoy Naomi Novik, Katherine Arden, or Genoveva Dimova, House of Frost and Feathers is a positive new addition to the Slavic folklore fantasy genre.

This story is told from dual POVs - Marisha, a 21 year old woman approaching destitution after her brother lost her family's fortune and both her parents succumbed to the sleeping plague that affects their homeland every ten years, and Olena, apprentice to the powerful Baba Zima who is working to find a cure for the sleeping sickness to prove her abilities. The young women are thrust together by Baba Zima, who is frustrated at Olena's unwillingness to take on a needed assistant, even if Marisha doubts the actual powers of the koldunya.

From here the story is both heavily character driven, and drawn out over about four months. I am taking off one star from the novel because there are 512 pages in this book, but the action is only in small bursts around 40-50% and 80-100%. The inbetween parts do stretch, and I think aspects of the novel could be cut to tighten the overall storyline or to spread the action out over a larger majority of the novel. It's not that it's boring, it just feels unnecessary, especially when the mystery of the plague and the nightmares are so fascinating.

I think I was also a bit frustrated with how character driven the plot became, because it seemed that if the characters only spoke to each other that the story would have preceeded at a faster pace. That being said, I understand why they did not, even when it seemed silly, because all the people in the house are fairly damaged and communication is not their strong suit. We do see marvelous growth from each of them from beginning to end, but it can be frustrating when you know they're creating their own danger tenfold because of their pride. Thinking on this more critically, it may just be that Wiesebron has done her job well in this regard, because you want the characters to be better.

For anyone looking for an edge of romance to this novel, it is generally not present here. The story is left open for further adventures, which I would really enjoy reading, especially if that as why there was so much worldbuilding/slower pacing in this novel. Were there to be a sequel, there may be more of a romantic element than this novel contains.

Overall I really enjoyed House of Frost and Feathers. I think it is a strong debut, and Wiesebron has brought a lot of new folklore elements to a sparse genre that continues to captivate so many readers.

This book has been compared to Bear and the Nightingale as well as Juniper and Thorn. I have read both and honestly don’t really see any similarities. The book does contain Russian folklore but I wouldn’t say that makes it comparable to the Bear and the Nightingale. There were some aspects of this book I enjoyed. I liked the quirky house and Guinea-pig fowl. But nothing hooked me into the story. It was very slow. I never got attached to any of the characters. I was really hoping to like this, but it didn’t work for me. The story is very character driven, which I’m usually a fan of but this is an exception. Much of the content felt very “slice of life” with descriptions of mundane tasks and chores. This definitely could’ve been cut down a bit. I just wanted more from it. I kept waiting for something to hook me and it never did.

4 stars
I loved this. The synopsis did not really give much. This book was just a pleasure all the way around. So easy to get lost in for a day.

Eastern European atmosphere and folklore influences permeate this tale of witches and witch-apprentices. The story starts with several seemingly separate threads of a sleeping sickness, rivalries among witches, magical artifacts, and a traveling house on chicken feet. Each of these thread and the central characters in the story are slowly, but meticulously, fleshed out and suddenly connections become clearer. Then, somewhere near the last third of this book, it goes from a cozy tale to an action-filled story where threads meet, and the setup pays off. This is all wrapped up in well-written prose, with rich character development, and an absorbing setting. The story comes to an ending, though I believe there is room left to revisit this world for another tale. I enjoyed this cozy read and hope to see more from this author in the future.
I received access to this eARC thru NetGalley (for which I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher, Harper Voyager) for an honest review. The opinion expressed here is my own.

This is such a strange story, but I really enjoyed it in the end. I think the blurb doesn’t do a good job laying out what to expect here either.

This is a slow-paced, character driven fantasy story. The bulk of it is spent in the house, with Marisha learning to become an apprentice, and Olena searching for a cure for the sleeping plague. There’s a lot of day-to-day life in the chicken leg house as they work and travel to different towns. We get a hint of something mysterious around the 30% mark, but we really don’t pick it back up until around 65% in.

Olena and Marisha both have a lot to learn about each other and working together. Baba Zina fosters an atmosphere of secrets and competition. There are a lot of layers and secrets and intricate connections that are revealed by the end. The character development is well done and I appreciate the growth we see.

The last 20% has a lot of action and magic and emotional impact. I think a lot of people will enjoy the ending. There’s a bit of an open end to allow for possible more adventures in the future, but this also works really well as a standalone.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the preview. All opinions are my own

This was a really cool read! Loved feeling like I was there with the characters. The story is well written and progresses very well.