Heart’s Blood
Posted: December 3, 2009 Filed under: .book reviews. Leave a comment
In this recent novel by Juliet Marillier, Caitrin is a young woman determined to escape. When her father dies and abusive relatives take control of her life, Caitrin abandons her home for an uncertain future. Desperate to avoid her relatives’ grasp, she seeks a position as a scribe. The employer, however, is Anluan, a temperamental chieftain of Whistling Tor—a fortress known for its haunting mists and spectral appearances. Tasked with solving a hundred-year-old family curse, Caitrin must learn to trust those who would be friends, and perhaps something more. And maybe, with some guts, a little luck, and some magic, the people of Whistling Tor will be able to make right the wrongs of the past.
If you haven’t yet experienced Juliet Marillier’s writing, you’re truly missing out. She is most known for her first novel, Daughter of the Forest, as part of her Sevenwaters Trilogy. But since then, she has continued to write amazing, historical fantasy based on the folklore and mythology of a number of cultures.
This newest book, Heart’s Blood, lives up to the high standards I have come to expect in her writing style. If I don’t care about the characters in a story, they will fade from my memory and that book will become one among many that I’ve read. With Marillier’s characters, I can’t get rid of them! They follow me everywhere, intruding beyond their own story into mine. I care about them so much that I have never been able to lengthen out a reading of one of Juliet Marillier’s novels. She writes one sitting reads. One sitting of hoping, laughing, possibly some tearing up, with an occasional loud outburst of surprise!
When I see she has a new book to be released, I have to cross that day off of my calendar. Even if I attempt not to, I always gravitate toward the bookstore on that date.
And, her books are far from being cast as sappy romances solely for the female sex. Her plots are complex, mysterious, thrilling, and filled with action as well as romance. Wolfskin, told from the male perspective of a Norse warrior, became my brother’s favorite book after I suggested he read it.
For anyone who enjoys a heart-pounding, character-driven fantasy, Juliet Marillier is a definite yes!
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