Extraordinary historical fiction infused with a feminist reclamation of folklore. Can't wait to read when Rose Sutherland writes next!!

First, thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It took a few chapters to really get into this, but once I did I couldn’t put it down. I absolutely adored the beautiful relationship between Muirin and Jean. I also loved the setting and how vividly it was described.

I can’t wait to purchase a copy for my bookshelf. This is definitely a must read.

A Sweet Sting of Salt is the second book in a series of four books that have made my April must-read list. I was initially caught by the cover (isn’t it gorgeous?). But when I read the blurb, I was captivated. I haven’t read many retellings of The Selkie Wife and was curious how this retelling was. Well, I am happy to say that I loved this book.

The main storyline of A Sweet Sting of Salt centers around Jean (a young midwife), Muirin (the mysterious wife of her neighbor), their developing relationship, and the mystery of how Muirin came to be with Tobias (the neighbor). This well-written, gut-wrenching, and engaging storyline kept me glued to the story.

Jean was quickly one of my favorite characters in the book. As a midwife, she assisted women in the town and outlying areas with their pregnancies. But she didn’t have many friends due to her forced outing as a lesbian by her lover/best friend’s mother five years earlier. Her loneliness, discomfort, and sadness was palpable. After helping Muirin give birth and keeping her at her house, I could see Jean getting attached. And the struggle to keep away from Muirin was real, even when Tobias started threatening her on her land. But Jean wouldn’t let Tobias get the best of her and was determined to help Muirin.

Muirin was my other favorite character in the book. Despite her language barrier (she spoke Gaelic), she could communicate enough with Jean to let her know something was wrong at home. She didn’t bother hiding her feelings for Jean (they were apparent from the beginning). She was sweet, sassy, and very protective. Her love for Jean and her baby and her yearning for freedom was also palpable.

I want to mention Tobias since he is a significant character in the book. I had mixed feelings about him. On one hand, I was disgusted by what he did to Muirin and Jean. But on the other hand, I couldn’t help but pity him. His upbringing (which was chaotic and abusive) directly contributed to his capturing Muirin. He had this fantasy of having the perfect family. But the cracks started when Jean visited and spread after Jean’s ex’s mother told Tobias about Jean. The state of his mental health slowly deteriorated after that. His stalking of Jean and killing of her goat, Honey, was a small glimpse into his mind. What broke him was when Jean found Muirin’s pelt, and they left the house (after it caught on fire). I do not doubt in my mind that he would have killed Jean by the pond if Muirin hadn’t done what she did.

The LGBT angle was interesting. I liked seeing Jean, Muirin, and Lauri have so much love and support from their family and friends. Heck, before Jean met Muirin and after her ex left, Lauri’s mother tried to set her up with her Native relatives. It was refreshing.

The fantasy angle is kept in the background until the end of the book (when Muirin gets her pelt back). I liked that Muirin, through her uncle, explained everything. I also loved that Jean wasn’t as freaked out as I thought she would be.

The epilogue of A Sweet Sting of Salt made this book. I liked seeing what everyone was doing five years in the future. It was a HEA that made me smile.

Many thanks to Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Dell, NetGalley, and Rose Sutherland for allowing me to read and review this ARC of a Sweet Sting of Salt. All opinions stated in this review are mine.

A fantastic, emotional sapphic tale based on selkie mythology!

This story is so full of tragedy, heart, and love. A bit of a slower story but not boring by any means.

New. Favorite. Book.

This book was full of a Scottish folktale, a forbidden love, a sweet, sapphic romance, and a beautiful story all flowing into a perfect book.

A Sweet Sting of Salt is a reimagining of the Scottish folktale “the Selkie Wife” and Rose Sutherland does an astounding job in her reimagining of this folktale.

Her words flow beautifully, they have heart, they have feeling, and they have so much love and passion in them.

There were times in this book where I felt I was walking in Jean’s footsteps, living her life, feeling her feelings, her emotions.

My heart broke for both Jean and Muirin — their circumstances and situations were heartbreaking.

I knew within about 20 pages I was going to love this book. And by 50% in, I had preordered the physical copy of this just so I could have it to display on my shelves.

I adore this book, its vibes, its heart, and I so deeply and desperately hope that Rose Sutherland puts out more of her work because I will be first in line to grab it up.

3.5 stars

This is a sapphic reimagination of the folktale of the selkie wife, taking place in 1830s Nova Scotia. Jean is a 24-year-old midwife for her small village and a spinster, living alone in an isolated cottage on the coast. She's been dealing with gossip ever since her childhood best friend was rushed into marriage to break up her and Jean's "suspiciously close" relationship, and is determined to keep her head down now. Until she hears a strange sound one night and finds an unfamiliar woman in labor in her yard who speaks no English. Eventually, Jean puts together that this is Muirin, the new and mysterious wife to her distant neighbor, a fisherman, and the two start to form a bond despite the language barrier. Muirin is mysterious and sweet, and at first her husband is happy for her to be making friends in his village. But when the rumors about Jean reach him, he's threatened and puts his foot down, setting an ultimatum to keep the women apart.

The writing in this is atmospheric and pretty, I could picture the setting very clearly, and the wintery vibes would be perfect for a Christmas-time read. I enjoyed the day-to-day historical details and small-town relationships. Anneke and Laurie were especially enjoyable characters. It took me a while to get into this story, though--I felt it started quick and then hit a lull, and while I know the times informed a lot of Jean's choices, she made some decisions that made my eye twitch. Specifically when she was being threatened and in danger and didn't tell anyone or do anything. Ma'am. I didn't feel like I got to know Muirin as well as I'd like to make their connection believable, in part because of their communication issues, but if you enjoy a love-at-first-sight type of story that may not be a gripe you have here. I'd have liked a little more of the magical side of things throughout this story rather than just at the end, but overall it was a well-done take on a classic story I don't see retold often. Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review!

"A Sweet Sting of Salt" by Rose Sutherland is a gorgeous tale of love and women's strength. This book is 'girl power' at its best! Set in the 1800s, the story follows Jean, a talented midwife, and Muirin, who shows up at her home in the middle of the night and during a storm, about to give birth. Jean is a strong and heroic character and a reader can't help but cheer for her. Muirin's character is shrouded in mystery and, if you go into this book blind as I did, the revelation of that mystery will come as a complete shock. I loved the atmosphere created by the author's words; it had a real gothic feel. The story develops slowly, but this just led to the suspense and tension; I couldn't turn the pages fast enough to satisfy my curiosity about what would happen next. The descriptive writing transported me to the windswept Nova Scotian coast and I could smell the salt air and feel the chill breeze on my skin. This is a beautiful book, and a very impressive debut novel. I would love to read more from this author and I hope she continues to write novels that reimagine folk tales. Bonus points for the LBGTQ and native characters who feel authentic. It was a true privilege to read an advanced copy of this book that is sure to become a bestseller. Thank you NetGalley!

thank you for the opportunity to review this book. It's an interesting story and while I didn't get to finish it before it was archived, I know I will return to it because it was very compelling.

When I saw this description on netgalley I immediately requested and added to my TBR. I had been hoping to find a retelling of The Selkie Wife story and this was perfect. Huge thanks to Netgalley and PRH/Dell for the ARC!

Jean is a midwife that lives fairly isolated and near the salt marshes. It is there she finds Muirin in labor. Jean brings her home and after an interaction with Muirin's husband gives Jean a bad feeling, she insists Muirin stays at her home a bit longer.

Jeans slow unraveling of the truth begins. Of course, we know what she is on a direct path toward discovering the whole time and it makes the story all that much more addicting.

This book is beautiful and atmospheric. I couldn't put it down. I ended up staying up all night to finish the story. I loved it!

A Sweet Sting of Salt is a historical fiction novel with a sapphic romance and a supernatural twist.

Jean is a twenty-four-year old midwife for her small village on the coast. Her standing with the locals is a little rocky after she was suspected of having a romance with her female childhood friend Jo. Eventually Jo’s mother became suspicious and quickly married her off and Jean hasn’t seen her since. But Jean’s talent with delivering babies has won over most of the women in town and she lives a quiet life alone on the small piece of land her parents left her. One evening the mysterious new bride of her neighbor arrives in the middle of the night in labor and ready to deliver without her husband. Despite the language barrier Jean is able to help out the new mother (Muirin) and bring her husband (Tobias) to her side. But something about their relationship is off and Jean convinces the couple to let Muirin stay with her a few days to heal after the baby. As Muirin picks up more and more English Jean becomes convinced that something is not right with their marriage and it’s up to her to rescue Muirin and her newborn son. But Tobias will do anything to hold on to his family and he won’t let Jean interfere.

This is one of those books that if you don’t buy the love story you don’t have much else to hang on to. And I really didn’t get the romance. Between the newborn baby, the marriage, the language barrier and just how little they knew about each other (including Jean’s glaring ignorance of Muirin’s big supernatural secret) I never felt any kind of chemistry or attraction between the two of them. Everything Jean does after Tobias repeatedly threatens her puts not only herself but Muirin and her baby and everything Jean holds dear including her farm and the animals at risk. It becomes really frustrating as a reader to endure. She clearly sees herself as some kind of savior but she has no weapons, self-defense skills and is entirely too naive to take on someone like Tobias. When she’s not scrambling to protect herself, lying to the people that care about her how much danger she’s in she’s mostly staring out the window worrying about Muirin which makes it a very dull and slow read.

I hate giving a debut novel two stars but this book really didn’t work for me. It was a slog to get through and I found the main character foolish and moony over a woman she barely knows.

A beautiful, angsty, sapphic story with selkies? Need I say more? I love folk retellings and not all of them hit right for me, but this one absolutely did! And the fact that it was queer was the icing on the cake. Plus, I almost never see stories with selkies in them which made this book feel even more special.

A perfect read to add to your TBR, especially if you are looking for something with well-developed characters that suck you in and make you feel every emotion they have almost as if it were your own, look no further than Jean and Muirin. Their love story is a slow burn though so buckle in for the long haul. The payoff is so worth it. This was a very well-done character-driven story and I almost didn't want it to end. I would find myself losing track of time as I got lost in the book and the setting. Seriously, the author pulls you in with well-written, whimsical gothic writing that I loved.

I loved everything about this book, and honestly, it didn't feel like a debut novel. I can't wait to make everyone I know read this story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dell for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

I would recommend if you're looking for (SPOILERS)

This was such an atmospheric and queer read in the best way. I was immediately sucked into the world that Rose drew and on the edge of my seat in this story that was so quietly propulsive. How Jean belonged yet also was kept on the outside of society. How she instantly fell for Muirin yet also drawn in by Muirin's mystery. How Rose took a tale I knew and just made her so her own and imagined it from a new angle. This was smart, clever and so well written I cannot wait to pick up whatever Rose writes next.

A Sweet Sting of Salt is a work of queer historical fiction set in coastal Nova Scotia in the 1830’s, and retells the Scottish folktale, “The Selkie Wife,” as well as Selkie folklore more generally. While this does mean that one of the greatest mysteries at the heart of the novel is known to readers familiar with the folklore, it is not known to the protagonist Jean, a midwife, who wakes late in the night to find her neighbor’s new wife, Muirín, distraught and in labor at the edge of the salt marshes on her property.

Sutherland’s writing in A Sweet Sting of Salt is atmospheric and evocative, with a thematic emphasis on longing (from the topics for discussion at the end: longing for the sea, longing for home, longing for family, longing for a place to belong). Though initially slow in pace, there is a foreboding undercurrent to the narrative that helps to keep the novel engaging.

Jean and Muirín are both characterized quite well (as are the secondary and tertiary characters), which makes it easy to empathize with their individual choices, and to yearn for their pairing alongside them. However, Jean’s reaction to the moment of reveal did feel somewhat out-of-character, and at odds with what would be expected for a member of a seemingly superstitious fishing village (particularly given that Jean mentions knowledge of Selkie folklore). Even so, A Sweet Sting of Salt has a cathartic resolution (especially for Muirín) and a very sweet epilogue.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

this was a great debut! a sapphic historical fiction with gothic atmosphere and folklore. i did have a problem with the pacing as the story progressed very slow. this was definitely character driven which is where the book shined. the characters were everything! the development of both muirin and jean as individuals and then together with their relationship was done exceptionally well!

the YEARNING!! wow, talk about slow burn passion and heat. i'm so glad that there was a satisfying HEA because i simply could not handle anything else considering what both of these characters went through. i enjoyed this one!

This retelling of the selkie wife tale builds slowly, but in a lovely way. At times, I found Jess's actions frustrating, but it fit with what we knew about the character (age, isolation).

As much as I liked the way the story unfolded, the ending seemed---fast. I'm curious to know what readers unfamiliar with the selkie wife thought of it.

3.5 rounded up, because the build is really nice.

Thank you, Netgalley and Dell, for the eARC.

Wow, what a breathtaking debut novel! Jean, a midwife in a coastal town, forms an unlikely yet profound bond with Muirin, a Gaelic-speaking woman whose husband forbids her from learning English. As Jean navigates her growing affection for Muirin amidst societal judgments and her husband's increasing hostility, the story unfolds with atmospheric beauty and emotional depth.

Sutherland's writing is nothing short of mesmerizing, capturing the essence of the late 1800s setting and the complexities of human connection with grace. I devoured this book in one sitting, utterly captivated by the characters and their journey. It's hard to believe this is a debut; it's simply perfect.

I highly recommend this novel to anyone who appreciates a moving, beautifully crafted story. Sutherland is a talent to watch, and I eagerly anticipate her future works. Five stars without hesitation!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this slow burn romance! Selkies have always captured my imagination, and this book does a lovely job of adding to the folklore. The mood of this book is rich and complex, and it would be a great book to curl up with warm tea on a winter’s day. I appreciated the sapphic representation.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an arc of this novel.

[THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS]

Sapphic authors can't write "normal" romance novels. Their characters can't just like each other and kiss and say "I love you." It's always stuff like "If I was a lonely midwife who lived at the edge of a seaside village in the mid-1800s and I found you in labor in the middle of a storm in the marsh behind my house I would take you inside and help you deliver your baby even if you didn't speak my language and I would protect you and your baby if it was born looking markedly unhuman, and if your husband was abusive and creepy and weird I would help you escape, and if after all of that I found out you were a selkie I would give you back the sealskin your husband once stole from you so that you could return to your family and be free, and if you wanted me I would wait for you to return every time you went away to sea while caring for your son as if he were my own." And honestly, that's a 10/10 from me. Straight authors, take notes!

A Sweet Sting of Salt almost broke my 'going in blind' M.O. The cover made me think sensual and dark but this is not the dark romance I envisioned. Wonderfully pleasantly surprised in the end! 

This beautifully rendered novel is a reimagining of the classic, The Selkie Wife. With a twist of sapphic romance and touches of historical moments like the burning of the Young Teazer schooner in 1813, I fell in love with this light historical fiction.

Jean is the midwife of her small town. When Jean stops the neighbor's wife from running to the ocean in the midst of contractions, she's thrust into a story only darker fairy tales are made of. I loved the mix of history and magical realism. The realistic aspects of a husband's seclusion of his wife, squashing her ability to ask for help by not teaching her the local language and wanting the fairy tale marriage to the point of destruction brought out my quiet female rage. 

The audiobook is read by Aven Shore. The cadence of the character voices and the atmospheric narration of the scenes made this a wonderful audiobook to listen too.

I adored the romance and liked how there was a mix of queer and sapphic elements. The way these elements were handled during that period was well dome and realistic. Overall an engrossing and captivating read that's I'd recommend to my historical fairy tale lovers!

A Sweet Sting of Salt is a reimagining of the folktale of “The Selkie Wife”. In it we follow Jean, the village midwife in small village by the sea where everyone knows each other and superstitions are built into the fabric of their lives. On night during a storm she encounters a mysterious woman in labor who does not speak the local language. It turns out she’s the new wife of a fisherman who has been keeping to themselves lately and has been the topic of gossip and speculation among the people of the village. But questions start to add up about her husbands strange behavior and how Muirin behaves in his presence and the answers are not reassuring. Jean soon realizes her involvement and trying to help Muirin has put them all in danger.

Look, we’ve all read the folktale of “The Selkie Wife” and thought to ourselves how messed up it is that we are supposed to feel sorry for the fisherman. This story addresses and confronts the horror of the situation of a woman being kidnapped by a so called “nice guy” and at the same time weaves a beautiful story of mystery, romance, and suspense. I loved everything about this novel. The setting and period of time it takes place in and atmosphere of local legends and superstitions in a seaside town really sets the mood. Jean and Muirin are both so lovely and strong, and the supporting characters like Jean’s mentor Anneke and childhood friend Lauren, and even the irascible Kicker are a delight. The tension we feel as things come together and we fear for our protagonists really ups the stakes as well. The writing is quite beautiful and atmospheric, with an air of mystery. This is a really beautiful debut novel.

Would definitely recommend for people who are looking for cottage core by the seaside aesthetic, slow burn romance, and who are into folklore in a historical setting.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.