Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik Review!

Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders... but her father isn't a very good one. Free to lend and reluctant to collect, he has loaned out most of his wife's dowry and left the family on the edge of poverty--until Miryem steps in. Hardening her heart against her fellow villagers' pleas, she sets out to collect what is owed--and finds herself more than up to the task. When her grandfather loans her a pouch of silver pennies, she brings it back full of gold.

But having the reputation of being able to change silver to gold can be more trouble than it's worth--especially when her fate becomes tangled with the cold creatures that haunt the wood, and whose king has learned of her reputation and wants to exploit it for reasons Miryem cannot understand.

I fell in love with Naomi Novik’s storytelling when I read Uprooted back in 2015. Subsequently, I spent the next two years hoping that she would gift us with another fairy tale. And now she has. What I adore about Novik’s stories is that they don’t follow the usual pattern of fairy tale’s. They have a lot more depth, are more complex and lack the cliché’s you often find in fairy tales. The characters have hard lives in Spinning Silver and they all must learn to fight for themselves and what they want in their own different ways.

In Spinning Silver there are a few different points of view, some more prominent than others. But each are unique and distinct from each other. I especially liked the way she portrays the character of Stepon. He’s much younger than all the other characters, so his way of thinking and seeing the world is different to the others. You really get a sense of his innocence.

Spinning Silver is very women focused, which I love. Each have their strengths and weaknesses and Novik brilliantly shows that there is no one correct way to be strong or brave or smart. They are all strong, brave and smart, but all in different ways to each other. They aren’t perfect, and they each do things that you might not necessarily agree with, but that makes them so much more realistic. They make hard decisions in order to stay alive in a tough world dominated by men.

The relationships between the all the characters are wonderful to read. There are friendships, family relationships and romantic relationships. Watching them grow over the book leaves you with a warm feeling inside. Novik does slow burn romance extremely well, it is very subtle in Spinning Silver and doesn’t dominate the plot at all.

Novik’s writing is so atmospheric to read.  It’s so descriptive; I always find myself able to picture everything precisely. She managed to transport me to the middle of a snowy wood even as I sat reading in the summer sunshine. Just like Uprooted, Spinning Silver has the same strong eastern-European feel to it.

 I really enjoyed the inclusion of religion in Spinning Silver and that it plays such an important role. Novik explores anti-Semitism in a smart way.

Spinning Silver is one of those books that upon finishing, you find yourself already ready to start again. You just know you’re going to revisit the story time and time again.

Spinning Silver triumphs because it is strong in every way. Brilliant plot, characters, setting and writing make the novel one of the best books of this year.

I sincerely hope Novik continues writing fairy tales forevermore.

5 Stars! 

Thank you to Jamie from Pan Macmillan for sending me a free copy to review! 

The Girl in the Tower Blog Tour

For a young woman in medieval Russia, the choices are stark: marriage or a life in a convent. Vasya
will choose a third way: magic...

The court of the Grand Prince of Moscow is plagued by power struggles and rumours of unrest. Meanwhile bandits roam the countryside, burning the villages and kidnapping its daughters. Setting out to defeat the raiders, the Prince and his trusted companion come across a young man riding a magnificent horse.

Only Sasha, a priest with a warrior's training, recognises this 'boy' as his younger sister, thought to be dead or a witch by her village. But when Vasya proves herself in battle, riding with remarkable skill and inexplicable power, Sasha realises he must keep her secret as she may be the only way to save the city from threats both human and fantastical...(Goodreads)

If you've read (and loved) The Bear and the Nightingale, the first question you probably have about The Girl in the Tower is 'Does it live up to the brilliance of the first book?' 
It does. And more. 

The Girl in the Tower takes place shortly after the first books events. Vasya is now a young woman, still eager to travel and see all she can, but wiser in the ways of the world. So when she is forced to decide whether to marry or go into a convent, she takes her fate into her own hands. Vasya is now one of my favourite characters. Her intelligence and bravery constantly had me cheering her on. She says 'I can' in a world that tells her she can't. 

Arden manages to blend history and fantasy so well. She makes me fully believe that I might've encountered spirits and demons in Russia as well as politics and war. Her writing transports you straight to the harsh lands of Russia. You're right beside Vasya, snow crunching beneath your feet in the stillness of the woods. 

You won'tr regret picking up this instalment, although it might make you desperate for the third book The Winter of the Witch, the upcoming conclusion to the trilogy. 

And now for an exclusive interview with the author herself- Katherine Arden!

· Where did the idea for the Winternight trilogy come from? Was there a moment when you realised you wanted to write this story?

It kind of grew gradually. When I started, all I knew is that I wanted to write a book set in Russia and based on a fairy tale. I got started mostly through boredom, then fell in love with the writing process.

· How has the experience of writing your second book been different to writing the first?

Much more stressful! With your first book, there are no expectations. With the second, you think that you ought to know what you’re doing, and it’s much harder to relax into the process. At least that is how it was for me. Writing the second book was largely a process of learning to accept that as a writer you will not always write well and you must allow your book to grow without burdening it with expectations.

· Your books read like a Russian fairytales, which for someone like me who is very accustomed to western European fairytales is very refreshing. Have you always preferred more eastern European tales?

Not particularly, although I do love Russian fairy tales. I just love stories in general. As a kid I loved Grimm, Perrault, the Thousand and One Nights, Afanasyev, the Just So Stories—really any kind of tale.

· Which spirit from Russian folklore would you most like be real? (Although who’s to say they’re not?)

Sivka-Burka—I want a magic horse

· Finally, what can your readers expect from The Girl in the Tower?

Read the book! It is tighter in pacing and rhythm than The Bear and the Nightingale, since it covers weeks instead of years. It is also a bit darker and more dramatic, and the themes are more mature, since the main character is a young woman instead of a child.

Check out the other stops on The Girl in the Tower's blog tour for more reviews, giveaways and interviews!