2016 book 21

Jacey Bedford's Winterwood
There is kind of a lot going on in this book, but it's all my jam, so let me bust into caps for a moment: MAGICAL HISTORICAL STORY ABOUT A WOMAN WHO IS A CROSS-DRESSING PIRATE CAPTAIN AND ALSO A SECRET WITCH! Like whaaaaaaat, that is amaaaaazing. Oh, ALSO, she is being haunted by the ghost of her beloved husband. And then she comes into possession of a magical mysterious box of a macguffin, not to mention a half-brother who's also half rowankind (sort of a magical person-like thing who is sort of enslaved?), and they're being pursued, and there's all sorts of magical stuff going on. Honestly, I liked this a lot, but I've already sort of forgotten half the things that happened b/c it's a bit meandering--like, this could have been a lot tighter and more effective. But there's some fun stuff going on, even if the heroine is a dope a lot of the time. She's still really cool and sympathetic, and the world-building here is really interesting. It looks like this is the start of a series, though this works perfectly well as a stand-alone. I'll definitely be checking out the next one. B+.