THE WILL AND THE WILDS - Charlie N. Holmberg


Charlie N. Holmberg's The Will and the Wilds is a fantasy that feels deeply rooted in mythology and the tradition of storytelling.

Enna lives with her father at the edge of the wildwood - a border to the land of monsters. She was raised to exercise great caution when dealing with Mystings - a part demon, part fae creature. Enna's grandmother kept a journal of her knowledge and experiences with Mystings, and Enna refers to it often for guidance.

The Mystings have gotten bolder and one tries to kill Enna just outside her home. Ignoring it will only serve to have more encroach on their home, so Enna feels her only option is to call her own Mysting to protect her home. But making a deal with a Mysting is possibly more dangerous than having one try to kill you.

The Mysting Enna calls upon, Maekallus, agrees to help Enna for a very simple payment ... a kiss. But with a Mysting, a kiss has the power to steal one's soul. But for Maekallus, a kiss, given willingly, will break a spell that has bound him to the mortal land. Otherwise he is soon to perish.

Enna agrees but dedicates her time to finding another way for Maekallus to break the spell so that she won't be doomed to hell herself.

Charlie N. Holmberg has been hit-or-miss for me lately.  I think her Paper Magician series was one of the best fantasy series out there and I recommend it often.  But none of the books in the last series (Numina) grabbed my attention at all. With The Will and the Wilds, Holmberg returns to providing a truly engaging fantasy.

What captures our attention, aside from Holmberg's lyrical prose, is the strength of Enna. There is a delicate balance between the innocent, wholesome young girl and the daring, brave youth who calls up her own demon to protect her home. Holmberg straddles that line perfectly. Too far in one direction and Enna becomes too devious and we lose interest in her. Tipping to the other side and she becomes a weak patsy who is lost and we're okay with it.

There aren't a lot of characters here. Enna is our main focus, and while there is a human 'hero' who wans to help Enna (love at first site), our real hero is Maekallus, who wants to eat the soul of the heroine. That's not too typical. Even a character such as Enna's father is really a minor character there to flesh out the world a little bit and make it feel like Enna isn't alone in the world

I looked forward to reading this each day that I sat down with my Kindle. 

Looking for a good book? If you like a fairy-tale style fantasy, you really want to pick up Charlie N. Holmberg's The Will and the Wilds.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars

* * * * * *

The Will and the Wilds

author: Charlie N. Holmberg

publisher: 47North

ISBN: 9781542005005

paperback, 268 pages

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MURDLE VOLUME 1 - G. T. Karber

Image
 I enjoy puzzles of many different varieties. I had not heard of 'Murdle' before this but essentially this is a combination of the game of Clue and a Sherlock Holmes micro story. With suspects, possible murder weapons, potential locations, and/or motives plus some very brief hints, readers are meant to combine the logic of what's know with deductive reasoning to identify the killer (or killers?) in 100 different mystery word puzzles. I will admit right off the bat that I did not do all 100.  I didn't even do half of these, but I did so some random sampling through all the categories (Elementary, Occult Medium, Hard Boiled, and Impossible). I did not get any correct in the Impossible category (of course not ... they were impossible!) and only one correct in the Hard Boiled (of five). The Elementary puzzles were, as expected, pretty easy and the Hard Boiled only a little bit more difficult. Each mini mystery comes with a grid printed in the book to help the reader-detecti
Read more

VINYL RESTING PLACE - Olivia Blacke

Image
 Juni Jessup and her two sister, Tansy and Maggie, have gone into business together in their hometown of Cedar River, Texas, opening a combination record store and coffee shop. Vinyl LPs are making a comeback after all, despite critics thinking the medium was dead.  But speaking of 'dead' ... finding a dead body in the supply closet just as they are looking to have a grand opening is not part of the plan.  Juni's life gets more complicated when their uncle, Calvin, already a suspect in the murder, disappears. And the police officer leading the investigation is Juni's EX-boyfriend (who passive-aggressively keeps putting himself back into her life). Convinced that her uncle would never murder anyone, Juni sets out to prove his innocence - which isn't easy since he's making himself look guilty - because Calvin is family and family is EVERYthing to Juni. As readers of my blog know, I'm not a big fan of most cozy mysteries, but the setting caught my eye and my in
Read more

THE RAVEN THIEF - Gigi Pandian

Image
 With Tempest Raj now a member of the company, Secret Staircase Construction (a company who, as their title suggests, builds mystery-themed, secret rooms inside homes) has finished their first job. Their client now wants to celebrate to kick off her new beginning - new home and new life now that she's divorced from her cheating ex-husband, famous mystery author Corbin Colt. First up, a mock séance to remove any trace of Corbin from the property, led by Tempest's friend, Sanjay.   But during that séance, while all those gathered sat in a dark room holding hands, Corbin's dead body crashes the party, falling across the table in front of everyone. There were eight people in the room, and they were all holding hands, but all the evidence points to one of them being the murderer.  Suspicions point to Ash, Tempest's grandfather, because he was the only one with Corbin's blood on him. Of course, as a doctor, he was also the only one who checked on the body - wherein he acq
Read more