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A Folkloric Fantasy
by Lauren Wiesebron
A touch of The Bear and the Nightingale, a bit of Juniper & Thorn, and a sense of wonder and adventure makes up this lyrical debut fantasy of a young woman in search of a home, and a home in search of people to make it feel lived in.
Marisha's time is running out. She's already lost her family to the sleeping plague, and she fears she'll be next. Penniless and desperate for protection, Marisha is forced to accept a job as apprentice to the notorious koldunya, the sorceress Baba Zima.
But Baba Zima is renowned for being both clever and cruel. And most difficult of all is her current apprentice, Olena, who wants nothing to do with Marisha. Despite her fears and Olena's cold demeanor, Marisha finds herself drawn into the magical world of koldunry and delves further into Olena's research—a cure for the sleeping plague.
Accompanying Olena on an increasingly dangerous, seemingly impossible search for a cure, she finds hidden connections between the sleeping plague, her own family's history, and her bizarre, recurring dreams: dreams of a masked ball where the deep sleepers are trapped endlessly dancing—and a monstrous beaked man who haunts her every step ...
"Wiesebron weaves together multiple Slavic folk stories to power a plot full of intricate interpersonal drama and fantastically earthy magic, led by a cast of clever, thorny women who never back down. It's an impressive feat." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A sweeping debut that shimmers with romance and folklore. Marisha is a hardy heroine with much heart, and her journey is a lyrically layered fantasy that enchants from the first page." —Elizabeth Lim, New York Times bestselling author of Six Crimson Cranes
"Sweeping and lyrical, rich with folk magic, House of Frost and Feathers is an otherworldly dream of a read." —Jules Arbeaux, author of Lord of the Empty Isles
"A dark enchantment with a beautiful heart. Its narrative spell is rich and poignant and will sweep you away like a chicken-legged house on skis." —M.A. Kuzniar, author of Midnight in Everwood
This information about House of Frost and Feathers was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Lauren Wiesebron is a fantasy author, writing adventures for characters who don't yet know they need them. She grew up in France, developed incurable wanderlust, and became an itinerant academic studying sea creatures. When not writing, you can find her acquiring yarn and naming houseplants. She has also been known to pick up cats even when they don't want to be picked up. House of Frost and Feathers is her first novel.
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