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marci_travels 's review for:
Healer's Blade
by Kyrie Wang
This is a solid addition to the YA canon. The book takes place in the Middle Ages and references real people and events from those tumultuous times in Britian's history. There is also enough alternative history to make it more than just a dry retelling of facts, dates, and dead white guys.
Aliwyn is a reclusive survivor at the Brocklesby Bridge watermill. She was apprenticed to a healer, Miriam, who died a few months earlier, and left behind by the other apprentice, Aelfric who had left to fight in William the Conquerer's war. She really doesn't have any feelings about the war about her - she is more concerned with the Vasfian tribes and her neighbors in the village than the clash between rebels and Normans.
And then the war comes to her doorstep. Within a matter of hours, her mill is the center of a skirmish between Normans, Vasfians, and rebels and everyone seems ready to turn on each other for power or for purse. Aliwyn is bullied and threatened by each side in turn and then finds herself rescued or a hostage (she's never quite sure) by one of the rebel leaders.
Adventures ensue. There are lots of YA tropes - found family, enemies to lovers, he falls first, one horse/one bed. Some of my favorite characters were actually secondary characters such as Zelrin, Kato and Reiya. I found Aliwyn quite unlikeable for the majority of the story as she isn't realistic about her chances of staying alive if she carries out any of her "plans," and suddenly thinks she is such a clever saboteur when she couldn't be bothered to have an opinion about the war just days earlier. Her obtuseness about her circumstances was a little trying. But in true coming of age style - at last she realizes (after she nearly becomes a casualty in the beaching of the boat) that her best chance of survival is for her to put away pointy stabby things, understand her situation, and deal with it.
Best scene in the book: Evelyn and Toby sword fighting. Although they knew each other as children growing up, they now find themselves on opposite sides of the war. How do you fight someone like that?
Publication date is June 30, 2023.
This was an ARC provided by the author. My opinions and this review are my own.
Edit: August 29, 2023. I have since purchased this book for myself and three of my nieces. Although they are too young to post reviews of their own (under 14), I have received a "Best Aunt Ever" T-shirt. The author, Kyrie Wang, can add three more 5 starred reviews and a whole lotta "Squee!"
Aliwyn is a reclusive survivor at the Brocklesby Bridge watermill. She was apprenticed to a healer, Miriam, who died a few months earlier, and left behind by the other apprentice, Aelfric who had left to fight in William the Conquerer's war. She really doesn't have any feelings about the war about her - she is more concerned with the Vasfian tribes and her neighbors in the village than the clash between rebels and Normans.
And then the war comes to her doorstep. Within a matter of hours, her mill is the center of a skirmish between Normans, Vasfians, and rebels and everyone seems ready to turn on each other for power or for purse. Aliwyn is bullied and threatened by each side in turn and then finds herself rescued or a hostage (she's never quite sure) by one of the rebel leaders.
Adventures ensue. There are lots of YA tropes - found family, enemies to lovers, he falls first, one horse/one bed. Some of my favorite characters were actually secondary characters such as Zelrin, Kato and Reiya. I found Aliwyn quite unlikeable for the majority of the story as she isn't realistic about her chances of staying alive if she carries out any of her "plans," and suddenly thinks she is such a clever saboteur when she couldn't be bothered to have an opinion about the war just days earlier. Her obtuseness about her circumstances was a little trying. But in true coming of age style - at last she realizes (after she nearly becomes a casualty in the beaching of the boat) that her best chance of survival is for her to put away pointy stabby things, understand her situation, and deal with it.
Best scene in the book: Evelyn and Toby sword fighting. Although they knew each other as children growing up, they now find themselves on opposite sides of the war. How do you fight someone like that?
Publication date is June 30, 2023.
This was an ARC provided by the author. My opinions and this review are my own.
Edit: August 29, 2023. I have since purchased this book for myself and three of my nieces. Although they are too young to post reviews of their own (under 14), I have received a "Best Aunt Ever" T-shirt. The author, Kyrie Wang, can add three more 5 starred reviews and a whole lotta "Squee!"