Mystical Adventure with much Heart!

Skylar finds herself on the wrong side of the border in Alba after following the cries of a magical fox that has been trapped. To get back Skylar joins forces with Calida and her son Florian on an adventure across their dangerous land.

I really enjoyed this! It was a simple adventure but Skylar, Calida, and Florian faced many challenges along the way, from small battles, to emotional and heartfelt struggles. With Skylar’s power, to protect herself she had to be more secretive and hold back some of the things she wished to share about her home, especially Calida captured her heart, and Florian became a friend she didn’t want to lose from her life. I admired her bravery and the risks she took, the same as I did with Calida when she put her fate and Florian’s into Skylar’s hands and trusted that wherever they were going there might be a life there for them. But Calida was also realistic and knew to stay wary, independent, and not get lost in a dream.

The magical fox that Skylar rescued also joined them on the journey and ended up stealing my heart. Animals, especially when you have shown them kindness are fiercely loyal and great companions. I knew no matter what, they would remain at Skylar’s side. The fact they all managed to form not only a travelling party but also a little family.

A great adventure with lots of magic and wonder, and also a real sense of danger and longing for freedom.

This book was fine. However, I feel as though there is a lot of unanswered questions and plot holes. We also never really know the why of anything. Overall, it was ok but it needs more depth.

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

This is a really good book if you're into the Journey trope in your fantasy. We got to explore a different land than our main character, which often reflected some of the worst qualities of our modern society. What I appreciated about this book is that there were many parallels you could draw from this fantasy world into our current socio-political climate concerning gender, sexuality, xenophobia and empty progressive politics (ie claiming progressive space while denying other rights based on identity etc- think pink-washing and anti-immigration laws). If you're looking for a book that really celebrates butch identity in a fantasy setting than I think you will really enjoy hanging out with our MC.

Though this book works to explore gender and sexuality in an expansive way, I found it sometimes paradoxically limiting and essentialist. For instance, our MC is part of the butch army basically where she lives amongst her fellow warriors who are all butches. Cool, love a group of butches. Then there is a similar regimen for faes which are basically trans feminine folks. What really through me off was how the 'faes' were sometimes described as 'feminine males' which just didn't sit right with me. Granted, I'm a cis queer woman so I don't have authority on trans labels obviously, but the reiteration of maleness was jarring. Additionally, all the faes seemed to be embodying femininity in a traditional way. Where are my butch trans women? And if there were such a character, I would imagine they would have to choose between the butch army vs the fae army. What about a gender fluid person? Where would they fit in? At first glance the concept of community based on single identity factors seems like an alright route, but the premise starts to fray when you consider more nuanced realities of queerness, which in my opinion, are far more realistic and reflect my own group of queer and trans loved ones.

That being said, I loved that zir/zem were the default pronouns for folks. Pronoun use throughout the book was actually disrupted cishomonormativity throughout, which I loved. The use of varied pronouns helped me reconcile a bit with my previous discomfort mentioned earlier.

This is a high fantasy novel with a splash of romance. It is closed door. So if you are into queer and gender-fuckery butchness in fantasy that explore a romantic subplot lightly, then this is for you!

EDIT: I do want to edit my review to emphasize that I believe that the language used above in reference to the faes was not a product of outward maliciousness or anti-trans misogyny, but rather just reflects perhaps a translation of outdated terms- particularly perhaps MTF etc. From what I know, the author is a proud butch lesbian who uses neo pronouns, and I would imagine is in no way trying to cause harm through language- in fact, I'm sure zir is trying to do just the opposite of celebrating queer, trans, and gnc identities. I don't want someone reading this review and thinking "wow this book is transphobic, I shouldn't read it". I think this is just a case of outdated language that got translated in a way that was startling for me.

While on one hand, I found the story engaging and intriguing, I also had an issue with pacing and writing style.

Nevertheless, instead of focusing on the negative, I want to talk about what I enjoyed. I liked the way the characters of Skylar and Calida interacted with each other as well as how they treated and accepted Florian, who is growing into the person they feel they are and it doesn't exactly align with the body they were given.

The story is one of finding a place of belonging, found family, and acceptance. It is a common theme in today's society and is a very god read. I think many of the points and thoughts of the characters resonate with readers in some way. However, I did have a bit of an issue with pacing which kept me from feeling immersed in the story as much as I would have enjoyed.

I loved the cover and blurb for this book, but struggled somewhat to get into the beginning of the story. The plot is intriguing and unique, and I think this would be an enjoyable read for people who enjoy historical fantasy.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley.

Great Plot and I enjoyed the story. Howeever, on a personal note i found that I struggled with the authors writing style. I would recommend as this is an enjoyable read.

Thanks to the publisher Bold Strokes Books and NetGalley for this ARC copy.

I have mixed feelings on this book, I really enjoyed the plot however some of the information just felt unnecessary and it bulked out the writing making it hard to follow.

The flow of the book was odd for me personally, I struggled with the writing style some sentences were modern and some very old style so I wasn’t sure when the book was set.

However I did really enjoy the plot, I thought it had a good mix of sadness, desperation, happiness and romance

Overall I did mostly enjoy the book.

This book had a unique and intriguing storyline, with strong butch/femme connotations and a thoughtful use of gender-neutral terms. However, the writing style didn’t always flow smoothly, making it difficult to fully immerse myself in the story. While the concept was compelling, I found it challenging to stay engaged. Its due to that, I'm giving 3 stars.