A very imaginative and original book. The plot is different from anything that I have read before. Historical fiction mixed with modern day made this book a really good read. Well worth reading for something different. My only gripe with it is that I would have enjoyed it more if it had been slightly shorter.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Oneworld Publications for allowing me to read this novel by Kate Mayfield in return for my honest review.

This is my first time reading this author and I found it well written and highly enjoyable. As a mix between historical fiction and modern day life it was imaginative and clever. The characters had clarity and radiance and suited the totally original storyline.

Recommended.

An intriguing book with a magical theme, it is very different to anything I have read previously.

A mother must make the ultimate sacrifice for her child to protect him and is forced to rely on her manipulative and greedy sister, Clovis Fowler and her ready made family, to secure his safety. Clovis is a fascinating femme fatale who has only her own best interests at heart. She ruthlessly exploits her husband, her young maid and her servant boy to achieve her own desires, and forms acquaintances only with those people she stands to gain something from. She encourages a friendship with the sisters Constance and Verity because they are rich, and the apothecary Owen Moffatt and his wife.
It is the sisters who are the other main characters in this book, and they are richly drawn, benevolent women, who despite life's hardships unfailing give love and support to all those they meet.

I did find the first few chapters of the book a little hard to follow, as events jumped around quite a lot, but once the story started to unfold and I had familiarised myself with the characters, I found the plot engaging and intriguing. The ending, whilst a little rushed compared to the pacing of the rest of the book, gave a wonderful resolution.

I would very much like to read further books from this author and would like to thank netgalley and the publishers for the arc in return for an honest review.

A curious and strange book which has stayed with me. Drinking from a. certain pool of water engenders an odd chemical and physical change in humans who must drink a new phial each year. There are dangers though and when a woman gives birth her child must be secreted away .. to hide from fierce experiments searching for ways to replicate the liquid. Sisters await a boy .. and their aunt, hated by their mother, holds the child in exchange for money. Clovis is a wicked, manipulative woman but we watch how the strengths of that boy consigned to her care, and the sisters's fidelity wins out. It's engrossing for the relationships and personalities of the characters.. we are only dimly aware of the nature of the potency of this liquid and its strange constraints by sheer force of an unusual personality, Stefan, and by his presence .. that we sense its frightful power. He persuaded a woman to part with her unborn child after all! Pretty extraordinary (if somewhat mannered writing at times, which relaxes as novel goes on ..but certainly adds to supernatural aura the writer seeks to create, after all)