I read this courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher. It’s out now!

This was simultaneously very sweet and very biting.

It’s a delight to read, and it will have you clutching at whatever you’re sitting or lying on whilst doing so.

It’s set kind of-ish in our world and also in Arcadia, which might be Faerie. It’s about sisters and love of all kinds, loyalty and spite, riddles and justice and fidelity and rivers.

The River Liss is a character, and I love them.

The willows are characters, too, in a more understated way. I’m Australian so willows don’t play a huge role in my botanical experience – but I’ve read enough European folklore to understand why they feature here.

This novella is completely captivating, like everything El-Mohtar writes, and I want to gently throw it at everyone so they read it and get to enjoy it with me.