My Five Word TL:DR Review: Lovely writing, good ideas, slow.

My review for the House of Frost and Feathers is very overdue and I do feel terribly guilty.  Things just got away from me and I became all wrapped up on completing my SPFBO books and trying not to fall behind.

Anyway, here we are.  I enjoyed The House of Frost and Feathers, the writing is lovely, I really liked the House which was virtually a character in it’s own right and I liked the characters.  But. This is not a fast read.  It’s not the type of story that you’re simply going to pick up and complete in two sittings and to be totally fair for a while there it felt like very little was going on at all which did lead me to put the book down and sometimes hesitate to pick it back up straight away.  That being said I really enjoyed the writing and will certainly keep my eye on this author to see what she does next.

The main character is called Marisha.  Her parents have fallen victim to the sleeping plague that attacks every ten years.  Marisha has run from home to escape her aunt’s plans to marry her off to a wealthy suitor and with very few alternatives she manages to snag herself a place as an assistant to Baba Zima’s apprentice in a house that moves from place to place upon chicken legs!

Baba Zima is a woman of magic, who travels from place to place assisting people who need her help and still believe in magic.  Her apprentice Olena is trying to find a cure for the plague and her and Marisha, having this desire in common, decide to try and help each other.

So, what worked for me with The House of Frost and Feathers.

The story is based on Slavic folklore and although it seems to be an age where people are not believing in magic quite as much as they did in the past there is still enough people in search of magical aid.  Baba Zima is a wily one, quite powerful and very secretive.  She controls the house – speaking of which, I loved this aspect of the story.  The house itself is a great creation.  It’s a fanciful place, sometimes it has a different layout, sometimes it permits people to pass through certain doorways and other times it doesn’t.

I enjoyed the characters.  There’s very much a found family feel and the book takes it’s time letting the reader discover them.  This does have a ‘slice of life’ feel to the story which definitely affects the pacing.   I actually really enjoyed the earlier chapters.  It has a lovely fairytale feel.

I did have a good time reading The House of Frost and Feathers but I did have some issues.  The slow pacing wasn’t really a problem for me in fact I preferred the earlier chapters to the grand finale when the pacing stepped up.  I wasn’t totally convinced with the direction that things took, the ending felt a little rushed even.

That being said, I did enjoy this and I’m definitely keen to see what the author comes up with next.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 3.5 of 5 stars