Sorry for the long silence—I have been reading steadily, albeit slowly, but haven’t been able to sit up at the computer to post due to an illness that put me in hospital for five days and has taken a couple more weeks to resolve. I’m well on the way to mending now, but am still needing to spend a lot of the day with my feet up and my head down.

Right after I read the Heller book, I picked up a fantasy from Kindle Unlimited by an author called T. Kingfisher. I’d never heard of this author, but the premise for the book sounded intriguing and I was in the mood for (free) fantasy, so I decided to give her a try. I am a little wary of books that pop up for free, because that can mean that they didn’t sell well for various reasons, and someone is trying an alternate promotion opportunity, so they may not be good. But this time I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I’m not going to go into a lot of detail here, because A. I don’t have the energy for a lengthy review, and B. these books are best experienced for yourself with little to no preview. But I am now a confirmed fan.

The first book I picked up was called Nettle and Bone, and it opened on such a grisly scene that I almost put it down. I’m so happy I didn’t, because it rapidly resolved into a wonderful story about a third sister (in the classic fairy tale tradition of three siblings—but they’re usually men) who becomes a reluctant heroine once she realizes what’s at stake in the marriages of her two older sisters to an abusive prince in a neighboring more powerful kingdom threatening their own. It’s populated by fairy godmothers, former knights (this one rescued by the heroine, Marra), and demon-possessed chickens, and it’s magical.

As publishers and authors so cleverly do with Kindle marketing, the first chapter of another of Kingfisher’s books was included after this book ended, and completely sucked me in. That one was A Sorceress Comes to Call and it was, if anything, better than the first. After that, I was hooked, and have now read Minor Mage, A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, Hemlock & Silver, and The Seventh Bride, which I just finished this morning. I found them all delightful, intriguing, and filled with unexpected twists; her characters are truly individual, her writing is engaging, and she has a wonderful tongue-in-cheek sense of humor.

Some of the books are loosely—and I can’t emphasize that word enough—based on original fairy tales, but the directions in which she takes them are truly unique. Several of the books could as easily be considered for young adults, since their protagonists are in the 15-18 age range, but in no way would I characterize these as specifically YA Lit; they are merely terrific fantasies whose main characters are youthful.

I’m not going to go into more detail about the individual books here; but if you like fantasy with a fresh, slightly humorous voice but with serious issues as their subjects, I encourage you to explore the worlds of T. Kingfisher! (which is the pen name of Ursula Vernon, who also writes both children’s books and comics).