Jumping the Queue
I am a Weyward, and wild inside.
2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackle Weyward Cottage, inherited from a great-aunt she barely remembers. With its tumbling ivy and overgrown garden, the cottage is worlds away from the abusive partner who tormented Kate. But she suspects that her great-aunt had a secret. One that lurks in the bones of the cottage, hidden ever since the witch-hunts of the 17th century.
1619: Altha is awaiting trial for the murder of a local farmer who was stampeded to death by his herd. When Altha was a girl, her mother taught her their magic, a kind not rooted in spell casting but in a deep knowledge of the natural world. But unusual women have always been deemed dangerous, and as the evidence of witchcraft is laid out against Altha, she knows it will take all her powers to maintain her freedom.
1942: As World War II rages, Violet is trapped in her family’s grand, crumbling estate. Straitjacketed by societal convention, she longs for the robust education her brother receives––and for her mother, long deceased, who was rumored to have gone mad before her death. The only traces Violet has of her are a locket bearing the initial W and the word weyward scratched into the baseboard of her bedroom.
Weyward was never on my TBR pile. It wasn’t even on my radar. It jumped the queue because it was my book club’s pick for October. I’m so glad it did. The story grabbed me from the first word and didn’t let go until the end. I stayed in bed hours longer than I should have because I couldn’t put this book down.
Not only is it superbly written, it has the multiple timeline structure that I absolutely love. I hung on every word, everything that happened to these three protagonists. It’s hands-down the most enjoyable book I’ve read in a long time, and the perfect book to read at this time of year.
As a bonus, it has a similar theme to my upcoming novella, Witchfire Covenant; namely, a legacy of gifts passed from mother to daughter.
Update
When I wrote about this book in my TBR post back in the summer, I had only just started and was completely hooked.
Unfortunately, it did not live up to its early promise and the story soon lagged. I did read the second book, hoping it would pick up, but it didn’t. By the end, I had to force myself to keep going. Unsurprisingly, I have no plans to finish the series.
I mention it now because I spoke so glowingly of it a couple of months ago and I didn’t want to wake up to a bunch of angry emails from people complaining that my blog post lied about A Court of Thorns and Roses.
That being said, this series is incredibly popular and a lot of people obviously love it. So maybe in this case the problem is me and not the book.
