An enchanting twist on the tale of The Selkie Wife, this sapphic historical romance weaves myth with culture, yearning with the thrill of suspense, and grabs you for the moment you meet Jean and her first encounter with her neighbor’s wife

I feel like I've been searching for this book for years. I absolutely loved the Gothic and suspenseful vibes mixed with the folktale of The Selike Wife. This was such a great chilly weather read!

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I was somewhat familiar with the selkie wife fairytale, and I think the author has done a wonderful job of reimagining the story, both in general and with the queer characters. Having Muirin be a non-English speaker was a great choice. It created an air of mystery and confusion, especially for Jean, the midwife who became overly involved in the life of Muirin and her husband Tobias after helping Muirin deliver her first child, Kiel/Toby, and realizing that something was off in the marriage. Also, although Jean helped Muirin learn some English, the language gap meant facial expressions and body language were key to communicating. It was also interesting to see how the relationship developed, especially as Jean had already experienced the difficulties that came with being romantically attracted to another woman at a time and in an environment where such relationships were not well tolerated.

This book was so good. I was drawn in from the beginning and the building dread and doom was intense. I was so I to the characters and their stories and backgrounds. I highly recommend this book. Such a great and thrilling book.

First off, this has to be one of the most GORGEOUS book covers I have EVER seen. If I had randomly come across this in the book store I would have bought it just to display in my home library. Just stunning.

Now, onto the book: Ever since reading and falling in love with Julia Armfield's "Our Wives Under The Sea", I have been DESPERATELY seeking another gothic, sapphic book full of slow-creeping horror/dread. THIS BOOK met and EXCEEDED my expectations! THANK YOU!

Like with "Our Wives Under The Sea", while reading this, I imagined the author whipping out some parchment paper and a quill and writing the achingly beautiful and melancholic prose. The writing here is just god-tier. 10/10. No notes.

I had heard of, but didn't know much about the Celtic legend of the Selkie wife before reading this, I love legends/lore so this really hit the spot for me! Add to that setting that was perfect for a book full of gothic romance and mystery. Ahhhhhhh!!!!

I am not exaggerating when I say that I am RUNNING to the book store to buy this when it is available in hard copy. This is tied with "Our Wives Under The Sea" as my favorite book of all time. SO GLAD I READ THIS! I will absolutely recommend this to literally any and everyone just as I have been with "Our Wives Under The Sea." I will never shut up about "A Sweet Sting of Salt" because it's a book everyone needs to read at least once.

I truly cannot believe this was a debut novel. Stunning. Perfection. I need more from Sutherland!!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

This is an absolutely MAGICAL story, that should appeal equally to fans of fables, love stories (it hardly matters that the love story occurs between to females, it is mere coincidence) and anyone who loves daydreams and the magical.

I went in expecting to love this book — based off the blurb, cover, and title — and absolutely did. The setting was so rich and atmospheric and felt both grounded and fantastical. It was one of those reads that once I started I couldn’t put down, and found myself entirely engrossed in the story, characters, and settings.

"A Sweet Sting of Salt" is a reimagining of a folk tale. I personally had never heard the folk tale so I wasn't sure what I was getting into when I started the book. I was off thinking that Muirin was going to be a mermaid. At the beginning I felt that the story line was a bit too slow. But towards the end it was a lot of information and the pace was quicker. It was good story though. I enjoyed it towards the middle and end.
Jean is a midwife in a village. She casts herself as an outsider. One night she hears some screaming and goes to investigate. She finds Muirin in labor and tries to communicate with her. After the baby is born Jean goes to find Muirin's husband. Tobias seems like a protective husband but is there more to it? Things tend to get shaken up when Tobias suspects an affair between Jean and Muirin.

Jean Langille is a young woman living alone in the cottage her father built. She’s the town midwife for a remote coastal village in Nova Scotia in 1832, but she keeps herself apart from village life. She’s been burned by the community, so she holds them at arm’s length, delivering their babies, but returning to her secluded plot of land after.

When Muirin, the mysterious new wife of Jean’s nearest neighbor, Tobias Silber, shows up wailing outside Jean’s door in the middle of the night, in labor, she is ready to help. The baby safely delivered, and Tobias fetched to join his family, Jean fears that something isn’t quite right with the newlyweds. All alone in the snowy wilderness, can Jean get to the bottom of what’s wrong with her new friend before it’s too late?

I absolutely loved this queer, redemptive take on the Selkie Wife folktale. The world Rose Sutherland has (re)created is captivating and beautiful. The characters were dimensional, inclusive, and (mostly!) endearing. This was the kind of book you want to savor so that you can stay in the world for as long as possible.

I love this book. It's such a touching story and great queer representation <3 I read this book as a cozy historical fantasy and it did not diappoint!

A Sweet Sting of Salt pairs best with a cold coastal town and perhaps a glass of wine. A retelling of the folktale "The Selkie Wife" following Jean and her relationship with Muirin as she teaches her of the world outside of the sheltered world Muirin's husband has provided her, even baring her from English instead teaching her Gaelic. As Jean develops feelings for the strange woman she has come to care for, she is reminded of the rumors that have followed her.
This is a stellar debut and a fantastic atmosphere.

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

A sapphic take on the legend of the Selkie wife. Jean is a midwife in rural Nova Scotia when she stumbles across Muirin who is in labor walking through a storm. From the moment she takes her in, Jean knows there’s something different about Muirin and the two quickly grow close. Muirin’s husband comes looking for her, however, and quickly forbids Jean from having anything to do with his wife. The pull between the two women is strong, though. Will they both escape their unfulfilled lives and start a new one together?

This was quite the book! The historical detail was amazingly accurate with some of the usual liberties writers use at times. All the characters, including the secondary ones, were three dimensional and each had an important part in the story. The ending was a surprise for me. I knew the main characters would end up together, but it was great to see a realistic sapphic “marriage” in a historical setting. There was no angst at the end, just happiness.

Check out TheLesbianLife.com for more sapphic spoiler-free reviews :)

A stunning period debut full of sapphic longing and nerve-wracking mystery. Jean, a young midwife living on the outskirts of 1800’s Nova Scotia is awoken in the middle of the night by cries of pain. She ventures out to discover a young woman in labor who doesn’t speak a word of English. Somehow Jean is able to help her deliver her baby and ascertain her name, Muirin. But her happy and open demeanor changes when her husband and Jean’s neighbor Tobias arrives. Although he agrees to let Muirin stay with Jean for a week to help her adjust to motherhood, his hot and cold behavior brings more questions than it answers.

In an effort to help Muirin Jean secretly begins teaching her English. But the more she learns, the more Jean becomes weary of Tobias’s intentions. And when their feelings grow beyond friendship Jean realizes she has to get Muirin out of there. But the deeper Jean digs, the more danger she finds herself in. Will Jean be able to save Muirin, the baby, and herself before Tobias figures out their plan? And what is the “treasure” Muirin keeps saying Tobias stole from her?

This freaking book oh my god. I knew it was going to be a 5-star read about halfway through and right I was. Definitely a slow burn and the prologue may seem out of place initially if you aren’t familiar with the original folktale. However, I don’t mean those as critiques in any way shape, or form. A Sweet Sting of Salt was completely flawless. Despite its slow pace, I found myself unable to put it down. The tension of Tobias’s increasing threats combined with the breathtaking chemistry between Muirin and Jean left me reeling for more.

Jean is everything I could want in a main character. She is stubborn but not annoyingly so and loyal to a fault for those she loves. Her unwavering determination to help Muirin despite barely knowing her is the stuff of sapphic dreams. And their friends to lovers' romance didn’t feel forced or trauma bondey. I despise tropes that only put people together due to a lack of choices or adrenaline-based relationships that are passion-heavy but will inevitably fizzle out. Which, thank goodness, could not be further from the relationship here.

I went into this book not knowing the original lore of the folktale it’s based on, The Selkie Wife, and I loved it. So don’t feel forced to do a load of research before cracking this open. The mystery is actually more interesting, in my opinion, if you don’t because the folktale does give parts of it away. But if you do already know the story don’t worry, there is still plenty of heart-pounding tension to keep your eyes glued to the page. Also it's so queer for a period piece!! Major bonus points in my book.

All in all, if you make one book purchase in April 2024, let it be this one. Not only will the cover look beautiful on your shelf but the story will have you racing to rate 5 stars on Goodreads faster than Jean can make the dough for her biscuits. Happy reading!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishings Ballantine for sending this eARC for review consideration. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

CW: Abusive relationship, animal death, attempted murder, blood, childbirth, death, kidnapping, homophobia, pregnancy, stalking, and violence.

This book was wonderfully crafted. The representations that were created through the different animals created an even better atmosphere within this. The story plot was fantastic; the way the story was crafted in accordance with the original folktale was wonderfully created. The one thing I would have say on the negative side is the relationship created between Anneke and Jean. Their relationship was diminished when the word “mentor” was used. Their relationship was so much more and there was no need for a boundary to be created between the two of them. The book would have been absolutely five stars if the relationship between these two characters wasn’t diminished. In truth they were mother and daughter and the author diminished that truth within their relationship.

I really, really wanted to adore this book. So many of my friends did. And there was much to love here: A queer (F/F) spin on the story of the Selkie Wife, with some suspense and a great deal of longing. Gorgeous prose. A dramatic setting, without too much of the detail about politics and wars that can often overshadow the plot in novels with an historical setting. Some comic relief (goats!). People being generally kind to each other, except for the people who are ruthlessly unkind.

But I just could NOT get past the MC's cluelessness and willfulness. I don't want to give away the plot, but let's just say that there are endless clues that Jean can't seem to put together. For someone who is such a competent midwife, she seems unable to look past her own feelings and anxieties to take in the whole picture of what's going on. I spent half the book yelling at her (just ask my group chat). It's really a shame, because I love the angle that Sutherland brings to the Selkie Wife tale.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the advance review copy.

Very excited for the F/F, but the pacing was so slow here, it overshadowed everything and made this largely unengaging.

This was new author and I’m so glad I was given the chance to read her debut novel! It was so wonderful! I enjoyed that this story was a classic folktale I’ve never heard of until now! It was done in a different way. I adored the MC’s and their story! Jean and Muirin are so perfect for each other. They were destined for each other from the beginning! Muirin shows up at Jean’s during the night when she goes into labor! Jean helps and realizes that Muirin can’t speak English. Jean ends up wanting to help Muirin in all the ways but her husband is controlling and weird. Jean starts to feel things for Muirin. Muirin tells Jean things about her husband that aren’t good! Jean has a plan to release Muirin. These two have quite the story and all the drama with emotions. They had great chemistry with all the longing! The scenery was so picturesque! Im sure so many are going to love this story!

The Sweet Sting of Salt has cemented my undying love for historical and romantic books between women taking place in the 1800s. There was something so rich and satisfying about the way Rose Sutherland created her world and dropped me right in it.

From the cover to the synopsis, I knew I would love The Sweet Sting of Salt before even committing to reading it in its entirety (and I stood corrected!). This was such a beautiful read, I wanted more and more and more of Jean and Muirin and their day-to-day in this little seaside town and the sea. So much of it reminded me of a more fantastical The World to Come and I cannot get the parallels out of my mind. One of the things I kept hoping for were more emotionally charged and intimate moments between the two protagonists. I ached for more yearning which I don’t feel was quite as strong as I expected it to be.

While there was so much more I wish I could have read about but I think the author kept a good pace in terms of the overall plot. I will say, however, that it lacked a true built-up when it came to the big reveal. From the very beginning the author was hand-feeding me all of the details and I was then waiting on Jean to catch up. I don’t necessarily believe that impacted my general enjoyment of the book, but I was less than thrilled when the reveal occurred and it didn’t add to my feelings about the story or the characters. There were no true surprises and, in my honest opinion, no “a-ha!” moment (including the unravelling of the dynamic between Jean and the Silbers, followed by, again, the big reveal).

Overall this was a lovely read. Although not as emotionally impactful as I hoped, I still thoroughly enjoyed the story itself and the characters! The cover is beautiful and I adored Muirin’s adoration of Jean—all the sweet ways she always looked and interacted with Jean physically.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group, Rose Sutherland, and NetGalley for granting my wish to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The writing style left a lot to be desired to the point that is was hard to finish. The pacing was severely slow and made the story, who's concept was interesting, soooo boring.