- Wilkie Collins and/or Charles Dickens - murder and intrigue - masquerades - family secrets - large character cast - low-key romance - clean fiIf you like:
- Wilkie Collins and/or Charles Dickens - murder and intrigue - masquerades - family secrets - large character cast - low-key romance - clean fiction (smut free) - found family vibes - Victorian society
This may just be your next favorite read! The Ward has been in my head for probably ten years now, perhaps longer depending on where you begin tracing its conception, and I am thrilled to finally release it to the general reasing public. It’s been a real passion project, and while I know it won’t necessarily be for everyone, I hope those who do pick it up find a special love for it.
I did not know what to expect going into The Girl from Shadow Springs. It made its way onto my shelf because my local library sTo Whom It May Concern—
I did not know what to expect going into The Girl from Shadow Springs. It made its way onto my shelf because my local library simply never got it in and I decided to take a gamble because it was cheap on Thriftbooks and I’d heard no one talking about it (which is generally a good sign, in my book). First two pages in, I had a bad feeling about it, because the author insisted on writing it in an obnoxious “trapper accent.” That, I decided, could very easily break this whole book.
Marjorie Harlow and her sister Brenna live in a rundown town called Shadow Springs: a pathetic excuse of a settlement in a frozen Arctic-like tundra called the Flats, where daily life is a struggle and death one wrong step away. With their parents dead, life is pretty solitary for Jorie and Bren. But then one night, a dangerous man - a Rover - turns up looking for something that he’s convinced Jorie recovered from the body of a stranger found dead on the Flats earlier. And when Jorie doesn’t answer satisfactorily, the Rover takes Brenna and tells Jorie to get him what he wants - or else.
With far more questions than answers, Jorie is forced to team up with Cody Colburn - whose uncle was searching for a legendary lost city - to recover Brenna before it’s too late. But Jorie has stumbled into something much bigger, and much more ancient, than she could have ever anticipated.
There’s really only one thing for me to say about this book: despite the annoying trapper accent, this book is highly underrated - and happily, I was mostly able to look past the trapper accent. This is part survivalist fantasy adventure, and part archeological mystery adventure, and it is a brilliant combination. There is a very strong thread of suspense running throughout, keeping the reader flipping pages, and it follows a very quintessential “mysterious map leading to lost city of legend and treasure” narrative that was totally unexpected and absolutely wonderful. On top of that, there’s a nice blend of Arctic survival conditions - which shockingly does not grow tedious because of the mystery-suspense atmosphere - and a touch of dark folklore-come-true.
Added to this was the fact that Jorie and Cody are both really easy characters to like. As much as I disliked the trapper accent narrative voice - and truly, I really disliked it - in a bizarre way, it kind of also saved Jorie as a character. She’s a blunt girl, doesn’t come across as the friendliest because of it, and has little to no patience for Cody, who knows zero about surviving the Flats. But the accent shaped Jorie’s edges to where she really did not come across as a man-hating, girl-power, “you’re so incompetent and I’m not because I’m a woman and can do anything” brat, but really was just blunt and lived a life that left no room for nonsense. Cody’s inexperience could very easily get in the way of recovering Brenna - the only thing Jorie’s cares about - and it could also cost them their lives. Jorie is more competent than Cody because Jorie has lived in the Flats all her life.
However, Cody is neither bumbling nor useless, and Jorie fully admits she was wrong when he proves that he has skills - skills that save their lives more than once. And Cody has an open, curious, and fairly easy-going personality that bounces off Jorie’s edges in a complimentary fashion. The two don’t spend all their time bickering because Cody simply does not rise to Jorie’s retorts. And the romance between them - which is an obvious direction the moment they meet - was shockingly low-key, almost slow-burn, and so sweet. I had it for sure pegged as an instant fall, but it’s not and I loved every little bit of it.
All in all, I was left pleasantly surprised by this book, my only real complaint being that blasted trapper accent. There were a few story points that I felt weren’t fully explained - like Jorie’s mother and Jorie’s struggle with letting people get close to her, and Jorie’s scar (which I might have missed) - but overall the conclusion was mostly satisfactory, the things left slightly unresolved explainable by conjecture. Winter was a perfect month in which to read this, and for all of the animal lovers out there, I can promise that no dogs are killed.
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