August was another good reading month with several historical fiction/fantasy reads I thoroughly enjoyed.

Lady Tremaine: This is a retelling of Cinderella from the stepmother’s point of view. I really enjoyed the thoughtful, realistic portrayal of a woman forced to make choices for her herself, her daughters and her stepdaughter. The author broke apart the “evil stepmother” caricature and gave us a living, breathing person with flaws but by no means stereotypically Disney villain. Trigger warnings so check those out if you decide to read this. It’s not a fluffy version.

Five Broken Blades: A fast-paced found family heist book. Similar to Six of Crows (although I enjoyed Crows better). There were a couple of spots in this book where it felt like part of the story was missing? Or had been so heavily edited, I had to go back and re-read several pages to try to determine if I had skipped over something or not. The author drew on some Korean folk tales and myths although only loosely based the plot (which feels very contemporary) on those. My favorite character was the assassin and I’d have read more about her!

Rain: Four Walks in English Weather: This short little book is a collection of essays the author wrote about living in the UK where rain is an integral part of life there. She explores the countryside, discusses changes in the natural world/natural history of 4 different landscapes and includes some personal musings about how rain has affected her life and that of the history of the UK. These are essays to slow down and savor – just like a lovely hot cup of tea on a cold rainy day.

The Four Winds: Set the in Depression/Dust Bowl years in the panhandle of Texas and eventually California, this historical fiction traces the story of a family broken apart by the Dust Bowl conditions and forced to find their way to what they hope is a grand new life in California. Hannah ties in a LOT of American history in this one along with her usual strong female character development. The Nightingale is an all-time favorite of mine. This was a good read but not quite as good for me. There’s a lot of very depressing stuff that happens to the main character and her kids (no pun intended – it WAS the Depression after all!).

The Unicorn Hunters: I enjoyed this one but honestly was kind of confused about what type of book it wanted to be. I thought at first it was firmly historical fiction about Anne of Brittany, but then there were magical elements tossed in (like an actual unicorn). It was a quirky kind of book and I didn’t know much, if anything, about Anne – and now I want to know more – but I think I would have liked this one better if it had leaned more one way or the other. The mix of the different styles was hard for me to follow and figure out what was real and what wasn’t sometimes.

A Sorceress Comes to Call: I’m working through T. Kingfisher’s extensive back catalog and while this isn’t one of the author’s older books, it’s been on my TBR for about a year. A thoroughly enjoyable read with witty dry humor, fun characters, and in this case, a sentient white horse, so how could I not have loved it? So glad I’m taking the time to read more of this author this year!