“The witch looked surprised to see me, her eyes blinking furiously at me through murky waters. I don’t know why she was so astonished. It was my lake she’d been thrown into; she should have expected I’d come and see if there was anyone worth eating.”

I was not expecting the big reveal at the end of the book, even if I figured it out halfway through. It didn’t lessen my enjoyment, but once I noticed the pieces, it became a little hard to miss. Thankfully Jenny (well, our Jenny; apparently all Jenny Greenteeths are called Jenny Greenteeth and are only differentiated by their geographical location), Temperance, and Brackus (the peddlar that gets dragged along for the adventure) stay likable characters; as the book is about 90% them and only them, it would have gone downhill real fast if they weren’t. Interesting that the antagonist was Germanic; and the tools to drive him off were Irish, Scottish and Welsh respectively; borrowing from real life with the Saxons and the Picts are we? I also appreciate that Jenny is represented as an aro/ace character; it was nice to read a book where at no time did I have to worry about romance clogging up the plot. I will say that if you have read any Seanan McGuire (or know anything about Celtic mythology), a lot of the names, beings, and locales that pop up in this book will be already familiar to you. (Though the Fae in this book lean slightly more towards Holly Black levels of cruelty and boredom with the world at large, except for the rulers’ marriage, which I guess could go under #relationshipgoals?) I will say that the plot suffered slightly (but thankfully only slightly), from “leisurely stroll through the majority of the book only to break into a mad sprint towards the end to wrap up the story”-itis; I could live with it. After all, I did grow up on Harry Potter movies.

Some small questions are raised at the end of the book (so everything returns to normal? how does Temperance explain what happened to her? Does Jenny keep her promise? Will Temperance tell her youngest where her name came from?), but none that detracts from the book overall. It was quite the enjoyable book, and I’d gladly pick up the author’s newest release.