A kind review from a reader and editor....

[alfreda89]

One of sartorias's fans has taken to checking out books that Sherwood has enjoyed. She tried Night Calls and Kindred Rites, and has enjoyed her visit to Allie's world. I am always amused by people who think of the book as Little House on the Prairie with magic. I have to confess--I simply read tons of period books, books about period, and pulled what intrigued me. I was inspired to find out what the women in Manly Wade Wellman's works were thinking about. I also got into Anne of Green Gables as an adult. But other than a few episodes of the TV show, I still haven't gotten around to Little House. I guess I need to read at least the first book.

Over at the blog Dead Houseplants (at a guess, she's much too busy to keep them alive!) the author talks about what she found fun in the first two books. And although I am humbled and sure I am way out of my league with my idol Austen, it's a fun comparison.

"I like frontier America as a fantasy setting: there are so many possibilities to explore. I really enjoyed Patricia C. Wrede's Thirteenth Child series: it's big and adventurous with grand, sparkling magic and fantastic dangerous beasts. Night Calls is the Jane Austen version: it's cozy and quiet with creepy dark demons (okay, pretty sure there were no demons in Jane Austen; ditto werewolves, vampires and witches. But I stand by the comparison.) Kimbriel is all about the characters—great, vivid characters!—and their relationships, about towns and how they function, about families. One of the early dramatic moments is Alfreda's confrontation with the minister about having a service for dead werewolves. It's a credit to Kimbriel's writing that this scene is just as gripping (if a tad less scary) than a later confrontation with a vampire."

I'm glad Kim enjoyed the books, and hope she likes Spiral Path, too. (And the third incarnation of the Night Calls cover.) Also--the Night Calls magic is going to get splashier. I just felt that a child transitioning to adult needed a little time to grow....

Comments

[pameladean]

I just read Night Calls and then plunged headlong intoKindred Rites, and will try to put up brief reviews soon.

I read the Little House books when I was quite young and still reread them once a year or so, albeit with occasional rolled eyes. I don't really think your books are like them at all except in the setting. The resistance of the protagonist to some of the narrower roles and dress for women is, I guess, a theme in both, but really, in that period, and especially on the frontier, that was a thing. Also, those books take place decades later than yours, and that also makes a difference.

I liked the first book of yours very much but am really, really gripped by the second and Allie's experiences in the woods.

P.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

The three books have slightly different flavors...I think I am setting up her plunge into adulthood and the War of 1812, and her needing allies, but my subconscious is mum on this topic. Glad you are enjoying your visit! I suppose that reviewers need something they can hang onto for comparisons, and my books came out long before Pat's, so that's a new reference. (Laura Anne Gilman is doing something that takes place in an alternative Kansas plains west, so there will be three of us out there eventually.)

I'm collecting reviews for the trade paperback, so if you want a review ebook of the third, let me know. :)

(No, I have no clue if this will interest NY in trying again to sell the books. Haven't discussed it recently with them or agent, since NYC was chicken last time approached. Allie tells me there are demons in Manhattan.) But my recent forays into the job market make finding Allie's audience important.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

And what an amazing adult she's becoming. I applaud hinting at a love interest but leaving it where it should be -- in the future.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

And I'm having to fight to keep it slow. I am surrounded by romantics who want to toss them together.

As much as I'd like the sales from Twilight, this is not Twilight. My vampires do not sparkle. ;)

...and thank goodness.

[barb caffrey (from livejournal.com)]

I'm very glad this isn't Twilight, because I couldn't stand it if it were...and as I love these books to distraction, I'd hate to have to give them up. (If that isn't too much of a mixed metaphor. I'm at the very tail-end of my day, so it may well be.)

Lovely review, Kat. Glad to see it.

Re: ...and thank goodness.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Right now I can see a few bumps on the road to romance, because young people don't always know what they want, and their heads can be turned.

But I see Allie giving Shaw a charge at one point, aware that she loves him, so I have faith that things will turn out well in the end.

But then I have had a flash of Allie as a very old woman talking to Shaw's ghost, and him answering.

Her world is a different place!