Early Review – Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher (5/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 256 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: April 26, 2022
ASIN: B08QGL9BZD
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley from NetGalley to Review
Rating: 5/5 stars
“Marra never wanted to be a hero.
As the shy, convent-raised, third-born daughter, she escaped the traditional fate of princesses, to be married away for the sake of an uncaring throne. But her sister wasn’t so fortunate—and after years of silence, Marra is done watching her suffer at the hands of a powerful and abusive prince.
Seeking help for her rescue mission, Marra is offered the tools she needs, but only if she can complete three seemingly impossible tasks:
—build a dog of bones
—sew a cloak of nettles
—capture moonlight in a jarBut, as is the way in tales of princes and witches, doing the impossible is only the beginning.
Hero or not—now joined by a disgraced ex-knight, a reluctant fairy godmother, an enigmatic gravewitch and her fowl familiar—Marra might finally have the courage to save her sister, and topple a throne.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got a copy of this book through NetGalley to review.
Thoughts: This was an incredibly entertaining read and I am officially a huge fan of Kingfisher at this point! Previous to reading this I had read Kingfisher’s “Clocktar War” series (loved it), and “The Raven and the Reindeer” (adored it). This book is just as wonderful as those. It has a wonderful dark fairy tale feel to it with a lot of humor (despite the somewhat serious subject matter).
The story follows Marra. We first get to see Marra as she tries to perform some impossible tasks and then we quickly go back in time to learn about Marra and her family. Her sisters have been married off to an abusive prince and Marra desperately wants to stop the prince from killing yet another sister. So she seeks a powerful gravewitch for help…and the gravewitch gives her three impossible tasks.
The second part of the story follows Marra and a completely entertaining cast of characters on a quest to break a curse, defeat a prince, and save her remaining sister! On this quest she is joined by the grumpy gravewitch, a disgraced knight, a reluctant godmother, a chicken possessed by a demon, and the bone dog she created.
The whole story was beautifully crafted, incredibly creative, and absolutely engrossing. I love how much humor is woven in here and how Marra makes such an unlikely hero. The romance that develops between Marra and the knight is sweet and heartwarming. The cast of characters is delightful and the book is impossible to put down. I loved every second of it.
My Summary (5/5): Overall this was another amazing adventure fantasy by Kingfisher with heavy dark fairy tale tones to it. It is filled with fun characters, light humor, a determined and unlikely heroine, and just a load of fun! Kingfisher is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors and I plan on gobbling up all her novels as soon as I can! I was lucky enough to get “What Moves the Dead” for review and will be reading that in the next month or so and I am soooo excited. I would definitely recommend this book if you enjoy fairy tale retellings, adventure fantasy, or just a good fantasy read in general!