Intriguing - good setting and writing. I don’t love retellings but I think someone who does will truly enjoy.

A Sweet Sting of Salt is a gorgeous, sapphic reimagining of the legend of the Selkie wife. Rife with atmosphere and thick with longing, I absolutely adored Rose Sutherland debut and can’t wait to read more of their writing.

As a diehard fan of yearning (the angstier the better) I fell head over heels for Muirin and Jean and the tender romance that blossomed amidst trauma. The Nova Scotia setting is rich with Gothic imagery so thick I could feel the cold wind in my hair and taste the salt on my tongue. I love books where the setting is as much a character as the people, which is definitely the case here. Genuinely, I can’t say enough about this book and am astounded that it’s a debut. Historical sapphic stories are such an underrated genre and it’s amazing to see such a strong book come into the space. I’ll early read anything else Sutherland may write!

A Sweet Sting of Salt absolutely took my breath away! I am a sucker for a good retelling and the Selkie myth happens to be one of my favorites. Sutherland absolutely nails her take on the myth -- it's feminist, dark, and gorgeous, and I love her prose so much. In Sutherland's take on the myth, we follow Jean, a midwife who lives alone on her farm. Jean's life is small and insular, ever since her best friend/possibly more than that, Jo, got married and moved away. One night, Jean wakes to a cry from outside -- her neighbor Tobias's wife is giving birth. Muirin doesn't speak much English, but it's clear that she needs to stay with Jean -- though Tobias seems the picture of a doting husband, Jean can sense something below the surface. And besides, how can she let Muirin go, when her cold heart is slowly beginning to crack open for this mysterious stranger?

I love everything about this book, from the slow pace to the gothic sense of dread that infuses every page. Sutherland's eye for characters is simply sublime and I love that, though this is a historical setting, her cast is predominantly queer. The romance between Jean and Muirin is beautifully done, and I cannot recommend this enough!

Many thanks to NetGalley, Random House Publishing - Ballantine, and Rose Sutherland for gifting me this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review! I could've lived inside Jean and Muirin's world for a thousand more pages and never gotten tired -- I cannot wait to see what Sutherland writes next!

🚦holding to posting on social media til the end of the month for more hype for it.
small towns by the sea

⭐ sapphic historical fiction
⭐Selkie mythology
⭐strong females
⭐eerie, haunting
⭐great atmosphere
⭐lgbtq+

🛑disclaimers: toxic marriage relationship, mild abuse, animal death, kidnapping, homophobia

I am sooo happy I had not heard the folklore of selkies because I felt it made the story much more interesting. I am afraid if I had known I may not have enjoyed it as much.
Being part Scot myself and hearing Gaelic when I was younger this brought back some nice memories. I absolutely loved how the author set the environment and atmosphere. I was pulled in right away. The touch of fantasy with the hard hitting historical of a womens life in the 1800's was fantastic. I could feel the tension from the beginning.
I did fall of just a little towards the middle when the slow burn started to bother me. I wanted a little more fantasy at that point or just a little more going on.
However, it did pick back up. I was wondering though why the main character never thinks that the other women could be lying to her. She just believes so strongly that it is wrong. I guess it was women intition but it was kind of scary in that way to me because people decieve others all the time. This defintely what I felt her mentor trying to get at in her warnings.
I also liked the mens story but wanted a little more of it also cause the return at one part of it. yesssssss.
I have to see the babe and the little nose bumps made me smile every time.
I do not like slow burns and at times I wanted a little more so I felt I could not give this book a full 5 star rating. I still VERY much loved this book and thank the author for highlighting something I had never known in my own family history.
I recommend people to at least try it and going in blind is recommended by me.

5 STARS!

Trigger Warning: For Death, Sexuality Aggression, Kidnapping (kinda), Toxic Marriage, Stalking

I adored this book so much when I decided to pick it up and experience the story that Rose Sutherland decided to retell of a classic story. I am happy I opened this book not knowing about the classic folktale or that it was going to necessarily be about since all I read was "Once a young woman uncovers a dark secret about her neighbor and his mysterious new wife, she'll have to fight to keep herself..."
and immediately requested to read it. I know the type of friends and family that I will be able to recommend this book to when they are searching for a sapphic Gothic tale that is a slow burn but page turning story.

Jean is a midwife in her small town, who lives alone after the death of her father and her interest in women causing a dislike from the town. One night during a storm, Jean finds a pregnant woman by her house during a storm in the midst of labor pains and unable to speak English. She helps this woman and when her neighbor, Tobias, comes looking for his wife, Muirin, Jean begins to feel unease about the relationship that leads her to believe that there is something wrong. Tobias allows Jean to befriend his wife, and she learns that he is possessive and begins to be jealous over their relationship. When he finds out that Jean is interested in women it makes his life easier to turn against her and threaten her life if she ever comes near "his" wife or child again.

Jean has to figure out if her need to protect Muirian is because she has found herself loving her or if she truly just wants to protect her just to be a good person and protective midwife. This was an enjoyable tale because it touched on finding love in unexpected places as well as working through love and what that actually means in the end of it all. I recommend this book for those who enjoy a sapphic tale, a story that is quick moving, and a retelling of old tales that you may not have heard about before.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the early copy for an honest review!

I enjoyed this queer retelling of the folktale "The Selkie Wife". I liked the main character, Jean, but I really enjoyed the supporting cast of Aneke and her son, Laurie. Aneke, an indigenous midwife, was so accepting of both Jean and her son, and I wanted to know more about her! Laurie and Jean's brother-sister dynamic was really fun to read. Sutherland's writing is captivating and really pulled me in. Her descriptions of the landscape, how to make cheese (!!), and how nature can really guide us were interesting elements of the story. The little red fox was a cute element. I almost thought Jean possessed the power of talking to animals. Or maybe it was her familiar? Overall, a very well done story.

✨small towns by the sea
✨sapphic historical fiction
✨Selkie mythology
✨strong females
✨eerie, haunting

I went into this story completely blind and I’m so glad I did. I couldn’t put this book down and it grabbed me from the beginning. I absolutely loved it.

Sutherland writes so well and descriptively. I felt like I was back in the 1800’s in Nova Scotia. This is based off of the Selkie Wife folklore which I knew nothing about. I’m so glad I didn’t because I feel it added so much more to the story for me.

This novel is beautiful and so wonderfully written. Sutherland tells the story of a young midwife and weaves in folklore and love.

This book just passed all the vibes for me and would be a perfect read during a stormy night. It is eerie, cozy, and full of love.

This book comes out April 9th! Grab a copy if you are interested in this sapphic historical fiction!

I can’t wait to see what Sutherland writes next!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for this arc.

This is a fantastic book to read on a cozy winter weekend in a cabin with a roaring fire going. Such a beautifully written fairy tale. There were a few parts that were a little slow, but it only built up the anticipation for the big conflict and reveal at the end. You don't see too many tales involving Selkies in modern media. And this would be a perfect introduction for someone into the Scottish myth.

This novel is absolutely stunning, both in the sense of beauty and shock. Sutherland weaves the life of a young midwife into that of legends and love, bringing to life the most heart-soaring sapphic love story I have ever read.

At risk of sounding like too much, the vibes on this are just so on point. I'm always in for a selkie tale, and doubly so if it's sapphic. I love Sutherland's decision to have the original Selkie Wife tale form the concept and framing, but to have Jean be outside of it, giving her and Muirin a way to examine the tale as well as give agency back to Muirin much sooner.

As a queer historical fantasy, it's honestly wonderful, walking very well the line of historical homophobia and attitudes and having a plethora of queer characters and people who support and accept them (while also still subtly poking at that the mindset is a white settler attitude). Jean and Muirin's romance is a lot of tense yearning that fits perfectly with the descriptions of the weather and locale, as well as the tension put forth by Tobias as his efforts to keep Muirin under his control.

On that note, the way his part in the story plays out is an interesting way of all the ways a need for control asserts itself in an abusive relationship(and the way that he keeps himself from acknowledging that he's done anything wrong and spirals further and further the more he realizes he's lost control over Muirin) and how many fairy tales and his search for a "fairytale romance" was rooted in a need for control, which is so at odds with the setting of the fishing town and the power of nature and the sea.

I knew I'd love this, but it was nice to have all my expectations met (though some spice wouldn't have gone amiss, what we get fits with the general atmosphere), and I'm so looking forward to more from Sutherland.

Vibes: sapphic fairy tales, selkies, feminine rage, small magical towns by the sea

Heat Index: 2/10

As the village midwife, practical and prickly Jean lives a lonely existence--until the night she finds a young woman by the sea, hours from giving birth. Her name is Muirin, and after Jean helps her deliver a son, their connection seems natural. Less natural? Muirin's relationship with her odd, domineering husband. As Jean becomes convinced that Muirin is in danger, she hatches a plan to help her escape--not realizing that there is much more to her new love's presence than a bad marriage.

I love selkies--always have. They're very much a part of my childhood, which is why it's so frustrating to see them, very frequently, done wrong... And it's such a relief to see them done right. This is a lyrical fantasy romance rooted in history (think a nineteenth century fishing village) and folklore. It's queer--and not just in the sense that it's about two women falling in love--and longing is braided into the narrative.

Along with a heavy dose of rage against men who would trap and control women. Which. Is something I think a lot of us can relate to.

This is the kind of story that sucks you in, to the point that you can feel the sea salt, the stolen kisses and unraveling secrets. It's simple, but lovely--and I'd like to see more of its type.

Quick Takes:

--There's something delightfully whimsical and angsty all at once to Muirin and Jean's romance. Like, the framing is obviously angsty. They meet when Jean delivers Muirin's baby, so it's clear from the jump that Muirin is married to a man she doesn't want to be with. The novel doesn't shy away from subjects like domestic violence (though you see very little of it on the page), marital rape (though it's only alluded to), and homophobia.

Yet for all that, this isn't a story about suffering. It's ultimately a story about love--not just Muirin and Jean's though that's a gorgeous, sweet romance that feels like it's as much solace for Jean as it is for Muirin. it's also about the love between Jean and her found family, like the midwife who mentored her, and her friend who happens to be a gay fisherman. (The queer found family vibes are stroooong in this one.) It's also a story about reclaiming agency and throwing off oppression, and that is so deeply, deeply satisfying. "Satisfying" is literally how I would describe this narrative. Towards the end, I was just nodding along like "YES".

--Going back to the romance aspect... Yes, there's caretaking, there's solace found, there's catharsis. But there's also a lot of playfulness to it. Muirin is super flirty and openly interested in Jean. While Jean is understandably hesitant to engage at first, Muirin is just inherently endearing. You definitely get a bit of grumpy/sunshine here. Jean is never grumpy towards Muirin, but she's so guarded and frosty towards the world in general (with good reason) and Muirin is just so bright and charismatic and desperate to connect with her on every level.

And there is such a deep... womanliness to this romance. Like, this is obviously a book about two women falling in love. But it goes into the societal roles of women in this book's world. The midwife, the wife, the initial meet cute being a labor scene. There's a very real depiction of the kind of husband who is inherently afraid of his wife just like--making friends with another woman. Because even if Jean and Muirin weren't falling in love, Jean would represent an alternate life, options and a path beyond him.

--Another aspect I found immensely compelling was the midwifery of it all. You don't ever get the sense that there's anything twee about birth, but it's also not a ridiculously melodramatic horror show. It's a fact of life, and Jean's good at her job, and she treats it like a job. She cares, but she's also as practical as ever. Her practicality--and the way it melts away as she falls in love with Muirin, and really as soon as she becomes emotionally invested in her--is so endearing.

--Obviously, a baby is born almost immediately in this novel. Sutherland keeps the baby in it enough for him to be cute, but not so much that he takes away from the story. He adds to the stakes--he is not the only part of the stakes. What is happening to Muirin isn't just important because she has a baby. The baby is just another person impacted by what is happening to her.

--The selkie lore is great. One scene in particular towards the end had me clutching my face. it was just so beautifully done. Apparently, this all kicked off with an ancient Tumblr post I'm pretty sure I saw back in the day? Huh! Who knew? Yet another thing Tumblr has contributed to society. I do kind of wish that the lore side of the story had unfurled a little faster, but I get why it played out the way it did.

The Sex:

There is sex; it is entirely closed door. I could've done with some stuff on the page (always) but I didn't feel robbed.

At last, those crying out for a lesbian selkie story have found their hero. Read on any day, but especially a day when it's storming outside, or you're close to the sea, or both. Keep your eye out for mysterious seals who may or may not be beautiful women in disguise.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dell for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A lovely re-telling of the Selkie Wife. Jean wakes in the dead of night during a storm to screams outside her door. A woman in labor, soaked through and barely speaking English has found Jean, the only midwife for miles, Jean believes her to be the wife of the new neighbor, Tobias. Tobias does show up at Jean's cabin to search for his wife, Muirin, who clams up in his presence. Why would he keep her pregnancy a secret? Jean tries to stay out of their business but her growing concern, and feelings, for Muirin prevent her from setting her worries aside. But when the answers she finds are more harrowing than she ever could have imagined, she fears she may have endangered herself, Muirin, and the baby.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Dell for this e-arc.*

A Sweet Sting of Salt completely absorbed me and has possibly become a new favorite. Beautiful and descriptive, Sutherland's writing painted a clear picture in my mind and I loved reading the details of day to day life in 1830's Nova Scotia. Having grown up on folk lore and fairy tales, I found it immensely satisfying to read such a heartfelt queer retelling of the Selkie Wife. Jean and Muirin's connection was both heartwarming and heart wrenching, as they navigate the increasingly difficult presence of Tobias and the mysteries surrounding his marriage to Muirin. This story checked off so many boxes for me; a slow burn with a vibrant cast of characters, queer representation, and plenty of attention to detail.

Struggled to read this. Not my cup of tea. It didn’t hook me at the beginning so I could never really get into the story.

Sweet Sting of Salt is a sometimes eerie, often bittersweet, retelling of The Selkie Wife, with a strong heroine and enough yearning to fill a ghost ship. Always believable thanks to an excellent sense of place and time, the characters never act out of character, even when presented with the unimaginable. Haunting in the best sense.
Thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy!

I have mixed feelings on this book. While I enjoyed the overarching theme and the ending for the time, I also just couldn’t get into the story itself. It’s one of those times where I finish a book and while I didn’t enjoy the read itself, I could appreciate the story after the fact. If that makes any sense.

I really enjoyed this debut based on The Selkie Tale myth, but I'm especially glad that I didn't know much about that when I first started reading. The plot develops slowly and carefully, with a major focus on Jean and how her past experiences shaped her, which I thought was beautifully written. It is not often that you get tales that feature a happily ever after involving lesbian women in historical times and this was lovingly crafted with care shown to the central relationship. The character shift for the central antagonist did feel a little abrupt, but I appreciated the nuanced take of Muirin's experiences.

ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What I liked best about this novel is that even though it takes place in the 19th century and things aren't easy, it still made me giggle a few times. This is surprising because this is by no means a comedic level. I rushed through parts to see what would happen. I also reveled in the descriptions of being a midwife and living on the coast of Nova Scotia. On top of all of this, there is also intrigue, murder, and romance. Such an enjoyable novel! TRIGGER WARNING: Animal death
#NetGalley

I was incredibly excited to see a book about selkies, especially when I found out that it was a sapphic tale! Unfortunately, the book did drag on a bit too much for my liking, especially in the beginning, with Jean seeming to doubt herself and Muirin's situation almost too much for my taste. It admittedly was a bit hard for me to get through at first. That being said, I'm glad I stuck around, because the two main characters are incredibly sweet to one another. It was a joy to watch them grow closer and to cheer them on as they overcame their obstacles. That's where I think Rose Sutherland's strength lies: her unforgettable characters. And once the story really started to kick off about halfway through, it was hard to put down!

Overall, a delightful read, if not a bit slow at times, that is well worth picking up if anything about the summary interests you. If this is what the author can do with a debut, I can't wait to see what else she comes up with!

A Sweet Sting of Salt is a sapphic romantasy loosely based on The Selkie Wife folktale. While it isn’t a strict retelling, it embodies the themes and essence of the original story.

I was previously familiar with the tale of The Selkie Wife but this book can be read on its own without prior background knowledge. The author’s beautiful prose draws in readers from the beginning and continues to pluck at emotions until the very end. The story does have a bit of a slow build up but it's well worth the angst. I have never read such palpable longing in a historical novel before (which is saying a lot because no one loves slow burn like a historical romance).

This is author Rose Sutherland’s debut novel and I hope to read more of her work in the future.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Random House Publishing - Ballantine (Dell) and Netgalley!