Rhea has to summon all her wits and resources and work with some new friends to stay one step ahead of the sorcerer’s (unknown, but definitely nefarious) plans for her. He’s a sorcerer, and definitely not the good kind. When she finally gets to Lord Crevan’s home, things are much much worse than she imagined.

She meets a helpful hedgehog along the way, as well as some much creepier things. So Rhea summons up her courage to go meet her betrothed down a creepy path to a mansion that shouldn’t be there. She’s startled and dismayed, and her parents don’t seem too thrilled, but you don’t say no to a lord – especially one who’s a friend of the viscount who owns your mill and could make life very hard for your family if you go against him. She’s 15 years old when her parents tell her out of the blue that the mysterious Lord Crevan wants to marry her. Rhea is the miller’s daughter, thumping the grain chute every once in a while to prevent clumps and chasing gremlins out of the gears. Though Tiffany deals with some pretty dark stuff her own self, Kingfisher really knows how to bring the unsettling imagery and dread.

I couldn’t help but compare Rhea to Tiffany Aching, as she’s a teenage girl dumped into magical mayhem against her will, but this feels a bit darker. I stole this one from her while I was visiting this month before she’s even had a chance to read it! It’s absolutely marvelous. She’s read everything her interlibrary loan can get her, and now she’s ordering them off the internet. Kingfisher, and I introduced my mom, and now she is obsessed.

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