Lovely novella! I'm happy I read this after book 1, because this way I already had a clearer picture of the characters and their personalities in mind. I had the acute sensation of walking past the mouth of a cave, smelling the hot, rotting breath of the monster within. I enjoyed the characters enough - I was SO there for the nerdy protagonist with an interest into geology and gradually herbalism & for the overly-dramatic mean and snarky witch with wild taste in fashion. (Btw this book gets the garments right! Shift under corset and stuff!) But as the ending neared I started to be a bit annoyed with them. As every proper gothic this book is based on Terrible Secret that the protagonist tries to unearth while the witch doesn't want her to know, because she considers herself a monster. With book based on figuring out something there is always the risk of drawing it for too long (or not drawing it out enough), so you end up with a protagonist that seems stupid. I thought it was well done for most part, but in the end when Mina finally figured things out her reaction was kind off of, because... you know, she's smart it shouldn't be this surprising to her. I also wouldn't say that the secret overall was underwhelming, it was pretty good, but I feel like the author could have get more from it. While the truths Mina discovers are terrifying, love, longing and the realisation that “other people can be salvation” leads her to take a courageous path. Suspenseful, atmosphericand romantic, this is an utterly enchanting tale. Using a promo code in conjunction with other free gift promotions, may alter the minimum amount for delivery.

12 Types of Durians and How to Pick the Best One

Please note that the following items are not included & eligible for the discount: Alcohol, cigarettes, POSA cards, game consoles, products costing more than 100,000 yen (excluding tax), and products with price restrictions, etc. We are to host a conference for the Chancellor and his cabinet next month. There is much to prepare and little time. If all goes well, I believe we will be looked upon favourably for the location of the new locomotive line.’ Best Books Set in the 1920s — from Stories That Shimmer with Champagne and Social Change, to Rip-roaring Reads Covering Crime, Colonialism and Beyond.At that, the woman glanced up and I caught a flash of eyes as jet-dark as her hair. ‘Curious. A princess in hiding.’ That loneliness I feared, the meaninglessness, the unwantedness, it had already happened. I could try to fight and hold it away forever, or I could grieve what my life had been, see it for what it was, and stop being controlled by the fear of it.” Doijode, S. D. (2001). Seed storage of horticultural crops (pp 157). Haworth Press: ISBN 1-56022-901-2 Girl meets house. Girl meets witch. And oh, does it ever get deliciously interesting from there! Dunn has created a delicately spun cobweb of a fairytale that slowly unwinds a pattern of secrets, curses, love and betrayal - and finally settles around your heart and leaves you glad to have been captured -- Freya Marske - Sunday Times bestselling author of A Marvellous Light On this day I was pleased to have the old furs, something my mother would have recognised. It made me feel closer to her in some small, meaningless way.

Heir of Bitter Thorn - Goodreads Heir of Bitter Thorn - Goodreads

In his busyness my father had forgotten what else this date meant, and I had not the courage to remind him. Please refer to the fare rules at the time of booking for changes, cancellations and no-show conditions But you are hiding.’ She took a comb and worked it through the knots in one beast’s mane. She moved through the shadows like she was one of them, like smoke.

So I walked, and I walked and walked until my boots were bloody and my face was sunburned, until I became a creature like the foxes and egrets, until I was only motion and pumping heart and nothing human at all. Holding entropy at bay, I heard my father call it once, the constant output of energy to remain in one place. Life was in movement; only dead things were still. I was a dead thing, in my heart. I knew it like a poison I drank each night and purged each morning. I knew that I was isolated, but I didn’t understand my loneliness until I knew what I would give to escape it. What I would be willing to do. I wondered how I could speak so plainly to her. My throat was dry, my stomach hollow, and yet the words left my lips without volition. If you couldn't tell from the blurb I included, provided in the arc I received of the anthology Realms of Fae and Shadow, the story is set in the past - this is not an urban fantasy -, which makes Elora being a swordmaster even cooler!

Bitterthorn: A sapphic Gothic romance inspired by classic

Offer is strictly applicable to flights to and from the following destinations only: Frankfurt, Munich, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Copenhagen, London, Los Angeles, Milan, New York, PAris, Rome, San Francisco, Seattle or Vancouver I loved the relationship between Mina and the Witch, it had such an awkward and tense beginning but slowly blossomed into something so beautiful and tender. Mina, daughter of the duke, is grieving and lonely. She has lost all hope of any future for herself in Blumwald. So when the Witch demands her next companion, Mina offers herself up – though she has no idea what fate awaits her. Stranded with her darkly alluring captor, the mystery of what happened to the previous companions draws Mina into the heart of a terrifying secret that could save her life, or end it. EXTRACTBlumwald is a town overshadowed by an ancient curse: in a sinister castle in the depths of the wild wood lives a monstrous Witch. Once a generation, she comes to claim a companion to return with her - never to be seen again. My stepmother was not a cruel woman, merely a disinterested one. She had three daughters of her own and no desire to take on another. Johanna, the eldest, Else in the middle, and the youngest, Klara, needed education and good matches to be found, and that was a far greater draw on her attention than a grieving girl child confused by monthly courses and a shape-shifting body. This book is a queer, gothic, witchy, and little bit of fairy-tale mixed in. If that doesn't make you interested i honestly don't know what will?? a b " Solanum incanum". Germplasm Resources Information Network. Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture . Retrieved 12 January 2010. I looked at my delicate stitches, the rough texture of the tree bark and the velvety fungi. ‘I like it.’

Bitterthorn by Kat Dunn | The StoryGraph Bitterthorn by Kat Dunn | The StoryGraph

He regarded me softly and that was somehow worse. ‘Mina, you look to me too much. You must think to your own future.’ A spread of menu cards and seating charts covered her desk and I looked to them, feeling as lost as I did at the modiste or with the dancing master. Besides, a Dryad notices her sword and offers Elora her life's dream: an adventure. Rescue a prince from his binding with the Queen by poisoning her. Elora is not trained in espionage, spying, or murder. She is totally out of her depth, but the goal is heroic. While I thought the actual act of poisoning was abrupt and too pat, it worked for a short story as a preview for the main attraction. And I love one-offs. I swapped my elastic-sided Garibaldi boots for a pair of battered Balmorals and was ready to set off, swathed in scarf and hat against the frost.Beauty & The Beast if the beast is a beautiful ‘evil’ witch & Belle was Cinderella (& they’re sapphics !!!!!) There's some magic, but mostly it is physical action that keeps them moving forward, not spells or enchantments or whatever. There's actual fights, everyone, where the female mc is the adventurer, the so to speak knight, and the prince is the one in distress.