This book lead me down a rabbit hole where I ended up purchasing and reading all of the Witches of Woodville books and even the comic so I think you’ll know how this review will pan out.
It’s December 1940, and Christmas has come to Woodville. Faye Bright is looking forward to a good old knees-up after a year of supernatural mayhem and Luftwaffe air raids, but it seems glad tidings are in short supply.
I’ll need to try and keep this to this book and I now feel immersed in the world of Woodville. I love the characters in the book and the setting and time almost feel like a character in their own right. The take on old legends run through the books and the Holly King answers more questions in the mythology that has built up over the previous books.
Faye is a great character and her relationship with the other witches, her father and Bertie all build up in the books previous, and are added to in this, as well as the almost Dad’s Army vibe of a small village at war including the Home Guard.
I really recommend this, though I’d also recommend starting at the beginning – The Crow Folk. This is very much my kind of thing and it fitted right in, it has the feeling of a cosy crime book but with fantasy, it’s nice, mysterious, gentle but also exciting. It has made a fan of me and I am really looking forward to the next book in the series! In some ways this reminds me a little of Magic Kingdom for Sale/Sold by Terry Brooks, not in subject but it has that great mix of in built backstory, great characterisations and its funny without feeling like an outright comedy fantasy. I love Magic Kingdom so this is high praise!