November’s been a month filled with the love and warmth of family, the excitement and joy of traveling, and a few stolen moments of quiet squeezed in between all the comings and goings. Through it all, I’ve had my Kindle tucked into my bag, firing it up during train and car rides, sneaking in a few pages with my morning coffee or before I turned in at night.
Despite all the excitement, I did manage to finish four books this month!
Reading wrap-up for November
This month’s reading took me to magical island of Cadence, walking the halls of the Breccan lairds, into the quiet Wisconsin countryside and to the quaint seaside town of Morranez. Come along with me!
(Click on the book covers to purchase the book on Amazon.)
Elements of Cadence duology by Rebeca Ross
A River Enchanted
Jack Tamerlaine hasn’t set foot on Cadence in 10 long years, content to study music at the mainland university. But when young girls start disappearing from the isle, Jack is summoned home to help find them. Enchantments run deep on Cadence and the capricious spirits that rule the isle by fire, water, earth, and wind find mirth in the lives of the humans who call the land home. Adaira, heiress of the east and Jack’s childhood enemy, knows the spirits only answer to a bard’s music, and she hopes Jack can draw them forth by song, enticing them to return the missing girls. As Jack and Adaira reluctantly work together, it soon becomes apparent the trouble with the spirits is far more sinister than they first expected, and an older, darker secret about Cadence lurks beneath the surface, threatening to undo them all.
A Fire Endless
The Isle of Cadence has always held itself and its residents in a tenuous balance. But now Bane, the spirit of the North Wind, has pushed everyone and everything in his path off-kilter in a bid to claim dominion over all. In the West, Adaira struggles to adjust to the more brutal, bitter ways of life among the Breccans. In the East, Jack is adrift without Adaira until he sings to the ember-weak fire spirits, acquiring a dangerous mission he never expected. Likewise, Torin and Sidra are consumed by a new mystery as sickness spreads amongst the people of the Tamerlaine clan. With the island falling further out of balance, humans and spirits will need to join together to face Bane, and Jack’s gift with the harp will be called upon once more. Yet no one can challenge the North Wind without paying a terrible price, and the sacrifice required this time may be more than Jack, Adaira, Torin, and Sidra can bear to pay.
What an enchanting, engrossing tale Ross has woven! The world building is magical, both literally and figuratively, with the magic and enchantment running deep in the isle of Candence is. The wind carries the gossip across the isle, plaid shawls can be woven to be as strong as armor, and the smallest cut of a knife can instill fathomless fear. The spirits who rule the elements can fold the distance between crofts or play tricks with the hapless islanders and have them wandering the roads with their destination nowhere nearer in sight. Spirit portals open up in grassy meadows and if you’re not careful, you could be spirited away into their world. And yet, there’s nothing twee about this duology. There’s a powerful story with a slow burn romance and character arcs that develop and strengthen over the course of the books. If you enjoy fantasy — and even if it isn’t a genre you read often — you’re sure to love these books. Highly recommended!
The Oceanography of the Moon Glendy Vanderah
After the untimely deaths of her aunt and mother, young Riley Mays moves from Chicago to her cousins’ Wisconsin farm. Here she finds solace in caring for her extraordinary adoptive brother, exploring the surrounding wild nature, and gazing at the mystical moon. But when a stranger enters her family’s remote world, Riley senses something he’s hiding, a desire to escape that she understands well. Suffering from writer’s block, bestselling novelist Vaughn Orr has taken to the country roads when he happens upon the accommodating, if somewhat unusual, Mays family. He’s soon captivated by their eccentricities—and especially by Riley and her quiet tenacity. In her, he recognizes a shared need to keep heartbreaking secrets buried. As the worst moments of their lives threaten to surface, Riley and Vaughn must find the courage to confront them if they’re to have any hope of a happy future. With the help of Riley’s supportive family, a dash of everyday magic, and the healing power of nature, can the pair let go of the troubled pasts they’ve clung to so tightly for so long?
It took me a while to get into this book, but that’s because a part of me was still lingering on this isle of Candence. Once I did get more fully into the novel, though, it was a beautiful read. Both the protagonists are plagued by demons from the past and their own crushing guilt, and both deal with it in different ways. From the beginning, you can sense that there’s more to Vaughn’s appearance at Riley’s family’s farm, but the connection isn’t clear until the latter third or so of the book. Dealing with themes of death, guilt, bullying, and the corrosive nature of long-held secrets, as well as family, acceptance and love, with a dash of natural “magic”, this is an enjoyable read.
The Sea House Louise Douglas
When Elisabeth Quemener dies she leaves a small parcel with the instructions that it must only be opened by Astrid Oake. The trouble is, no one knows who Astrid Oake is. Elisabeth’s family turn to Touissants detective agency for help but, when Mila Shepherd and Carter Jackson try to track Astrid down, their frustration soon mounts. Their only clue is a photo of two young women holding the hands of a tiny child. The women are smiling but Mila is haunted by the sadness in their eyes. Is this Astrid and Elisabeth and if so, who is the child? And why are there signs everywhere in Elisabeth’s home that the old woman was frightened despite her living a quiet life with no known enemies?
This is the third book in the Toussaints Detective Agency series, which I had been waiting for since a few months, given the almost cliffhangeresqe ending of the second book, which I read back in May. Let me back up a bit — the Toussaints Detective Agency takes on cases pertaining to tracking down family members, old friends, genealogy and the like. All of the novels in this series relate to a particular case that the agency is working on. But there is a secondary mystery too — the death of Mila’s step-sister Sophie and her husband Charlie in a boating accident — which is woven through all of the books so far. While you can read these books as stand-alones, you won’t know the full backstory about the secondary mystery or have that deeper connection with the recurring characters, which can only be built up when you read all of the books in order. Anyhoo, let’s talk about the main mystery, that of Astrid Oake, and oh boy, is that dark and twisted and creepy! Douglas builds up the suspense through her atmospheric settings, internal dialogues, and creepy villains. The mystery is unraveled slowly, with tons of twists and turns, some of which you probably won’t see coming. And we get more twists in the secondary mystery too — one that still isn’t solved, so of course, I’m now waiting patiently for the fourth book in this series!
Over to you! What was on your reading list this month?
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What a collection of books! You seem to have a fun reading month. I love fantasy, but I often shy away from the commitment the books require – they often come in a series, right? Since the worldbuilding takes time. That said, they sound like so much fun.
Some of them do, these ones — The Elements of Candence — are a duology, and they are so, so good!