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A review by waywardsky
Rainsquall by Penny Moss
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
From page one each word shapes this stormy, windy, cold, LONELY stone cottage in the hills of Wales with one shephard who's losing his flock and two soldiers with dozens of secrets whose sudden intrusive move in make it... somehow much less lonely. It's a descriptive, atmospheric, DELICIOUS story, unique, and rich with everything I want from a book.
Rainsquall is the QUINTESSENCE of readable. To put it into perspective - I've read a lot of good books, and yet in nearly all of those good books, there were only certain sections, certain scenes, where I became fully immersed in the story. The rest of the time, I was just reading. With Rainsquall, it would take a few PARAGRAPHS, and I would be transported. Pages would slip away. My plans to read one chapter would turn into two, three, four. I would pick up the book to read lightly before bed and would stay up an hour consumed with this world and these lush characters - a slow reader with many draws on my time, yet UNWILLING to put this down.
From first chapter, not only was the tale of Rainsquall set on its legs, but I was in the rain with Folke, and I could sense his fear, his desperation, as well as all the memories he held tied to every single thing inside his cottage, and, not even in the mood to read that night, I was suddenly excited to delve deeper and plunge into the next chapter.
With a certain kind of quietude and a roaming of thoughts, soft conversations, and pointed interactions, characters are built, shaped immediately, leaving only room to grow and grow and grow, and they DO, first impressions morphed into a richer, creamy coffee bitter nectar of a character. Each with personality as distinct as his name. Like real people with their own vices, histories, skills, and problems and all INCREDIBLY likable FOR those unique character traits. I wasn't even a quarter of the way into Rainsquall when I realized I could and had been telling the characters apart by the way they spoke. Their name being attached was just bonus confirmation. It's rare I find characters so INTIMATELY REAL, lifelike, relatable - human wants, human decisions dragging them into things that may or may not work out for them. Moss excels beautifully, artfully at crafting characters just as well or, dare I say, even better than its outstanding grasp of language and lyrical, absorbing, all consuming, vivid writing and story building.
Not to even mention the supernatural elements, based on real folklore, hinted at right from the start, teased through the middle, and delivered ubiquitously by the end. I loved these elements and the accuracy of them, and while almost background noise to the story of Folke, they played an important role in not only bringing his soldiers into his life, but added a layer of almost immeasurable danger always hovering in this dreamy, sensual story, and a je ne sais quoi to the mystery as well as the relationships.
The relationships, might I add, which develop so quickly, yet so naturally, never feeling rushed and always carrying a depth of intensity, passion, and MEANING behind every interaction. The spice in this is ON FIRE, desperate with desire to not only touch but to consume. It's rough and NEEDY, always SO needy in the best possible way. Every interaction between Darach, Folke, and Finlay leaving me breathless in some kind of way. I couldn't get enough, and the way THESE CHARACTERS couldn't get enough was everything I wanted out of them and fulfilled me in ways I can't describe.
Moss has this talent for making a romance so much more, leaving so much room for growth and story. Sometimes, when the characters in other romances finally have their moment, I get bored, wondering why there's so much story left. Yet, with Moss's books, there's never a single moment I'm bored, I never want it to end, and I never got tired of seeing the characters give in to their desires, and their need to express themselves with touch and so much kissing.
I'm gushing, but I can't seem to help it. I've never before been quite this SMITTEN with every single work an author has created before. I've been in LOVE with Moss's writing style since I first stepped into Coil of Boughs, and, later, its other works last year, and yet every time I step away and then come back to sink dreamily into these worlds again I find myself staggered that my remembered experience was not only accurate but even better that what I had thought couldn't have possibly been as good as I remembered and, instead, in fact, threatens to be of my favorites of all time.
I can't get enough. Moss is at the top of my very stort insta-buy author list, Rainsquall another masterpiece of excellence in every single way. Even if you don't normally go for MMM, like me, TRY THIS. Even if you don't normally read historical fantasy, TRY THIS. It's impossible not to like, and it will scoop out all your misgivings and fill you with passion instead.
Rainsquall is the QUINTESSENCE of readable. To put it into perspective - I've read a lot of good books, and yet in nearly all of those good books, there were only certain sections, certain scenes, where I became fully immersed in the story. The rest of the time, I was just reading. With Rainsquall, it would take a few PARAGRAPHS, and I would be transported. Pages would slip away. My plans to read one chapter would turn into two, three, four. I would pick up the book to read lightly before bed and would stay up an hour consumed with this world and these lush characters - a slow reader with many draws on my time, yet UNWILLING to put this down.
From first chapter, not only was the tale of Rainsquall set on its legs, but I was in the rain with Folke, and I could sense his fear, his desperation, as well as all the memories he held tied to every single thing inside his cottage, and, not even in the mood to read that night, I was suddenly excited to delve deeper and plunge into the next chapter.
With a certain kind of quietude and a roaming of thoughts, soft conversations, and pointed interactions, characters are built, shaped immediately, leaving only room to grow and grow and grow, and they DO, first impressions morphed into a richer, creamy coffee bitter nectar of a character. Each with personality as distinct as his name. Like real people with their own vices, histories, skills, and problems and all INCREDIBLY likable FOR those unique character traits. I wasn't even a quarter of the way into Rainsquall when I realized I could and had been telling the characters apart by the way they spoke. Their name being attached was just bonus confirmation. It's rare I find characters so INTIMATELY REAL, lifelike, relatable - human wants, human decisions dragging them into things that may or may not work out for them. Moss excels beautifully, artfully at crafting characters just as well or, dare I say, even better than its outstanding grasp of language and lyrical, absorbing, all consuming, vivid writing and story building.
Not to even mention the supernatural elements, based on real folklore, hinted at right from the start, teased through the middle, and delivered ubiquitously by the end. I loved these elements and the accuracy of them, and while almost background noise to the story of Folke, they played an important role in not only bringing his soldiers into his life, but added a layer of almost immeasurable danger always hovering in this dreamy, sensual story, and a je ne sais quoi to the mystery as well as the relationships.
The relationships, might I add, which develop so quickly, yet so naturally, never feeling rushed and always carrying a depth of intensity, passion, and MEANING behind every interaction. The spice in this is ON FIRE, desperate with desire to not only touch but to consume. It's rough and NEEDY, always SO needy in the best possible way. Every interaction between Darach, Folke, and Finlay leaving me breathless in some kind of way. I couldn't get enough, and the way THESE CHARACTERS couldn't get enough was everything I wanted out of them and fulfilled me in ways I can't describe.
Moss has this talent for making a romance so much more, leaving so much room for growth and story. Sometimes, when the characters in other romances finally have their moment, I get bored, wondering why there's so much story left. Yet, with Moss's books, there's never a single moment I'm bored, I never want it to end, and I never got tired of seeing the characters give in to their desires, and their need to express themselves with touch and so much kissing.
I'm gushing, but I can't seem to help it. I've never before been quite this SMITTEN with every single work an author has created before. I've been in LOVE with Moss's writing style since I first stepped into Coil of Boughs, and, later, its other works last year, and yet every time I step away and then come back to sink dreamily into these worlds again I find myself staggered that my remembered experience was not only accurate but even better that what I had thought couldn't have possibly been as good as I remembered and, instead, in fact, threatens to be of my favorites of all time.
I can't get enough. Moss is at the top of my very stort insta-buy author list, Rainsquall another masterpiece of excellence in every single way. Even if you don't normally go for MMM, like me, TRY THIS. Even if you don't normally read historical fantasy, TRY THIS. It's impossible not to like, and it will scoop out all your misgivings and fill you with passion instead.