A modern retelling of the Selkie Wife (a man steals the skin of a selfie forcing her to become his wife).

Jean has lost her first love and now hides from the prying eyes of the villagers and their judgements.

She is a midwife and hears a scream in the night. After delivering a baby to a strange newcomer who speaks an unusual language, she positions herself so that she can watch over this new mom while trying to unearth the secrets her neighbor is hiding.

This is a sapphic romance set in Nova Scotia in the early 1800’s.

I really like this book. It had all of the elements of a book that I enjoy reading. It was good pacing it had strong, character development, the characters or symbiotic, and they were able to build each other up and provide a lot of tension and emotion in the story. I really enjoyed the main female lead. I thought the author did her justice in the way she of all the character, and told her story. I also just overall enjoyed the whole meaning of the book and the way the lessons and claw in characters and resolution, were all done.

I think I was thrown off by the opening of this book. I will definitely try again soon, as I want to like it so much.

Loved the characters and how the fairy tale was laid out. Would love to see more from this author. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to read this

The creepy cover is what initially intrigued me to request a copy, bc I was immediately immersed in the story once I started reading.

With dark secrets and all the tension, I really enjoyed this!

*many thanks to PRH, Netgalley for the gifted copy for review

ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

I’m a little backlogged with my ARC’s but working diligently to get caught up. I really enjoyed the whole concept of this book! It took me by surprise as I went in completely blind, having no idea what it was about. I love the old English and Scottish fairy tales and this book put a whole different spin on things! It was creative and held my attention throughout, I constantly needed to read more to figure out what was going to happen! I would recommend to anyone who likes old folklore stories and fiction about love!

More of a historical with a bit of a fantasy twist, with a lot of attention to building the character and backstory of protagonist Jean. It did take about halfway through the book for me to get invested in the story as the romance plot with mysterious Muirin takes some stretching of the imagination. There's an instant connection between the two women that is told more than shown. However, the latter half has a better pace and development of secondary characters as it brings into focus Jean's relationship with her neighbors (midwife mentor Anneke and her sailor son). This is also the point at which the book becomes more atmospheric and Gothic, which certainly doesn't hurt. Overall, I did enjoy the character relationships, historical setting, and the intensifying Gothic element.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting retelling and I really enjoyed Jean and her story. I loved how she was such a strong female character who was ok with bucking societal norms and conventions in order to be happy. This was a great story and I enjoyed my reading experience.

NetGalley ARC Educator 550974

How can helping a woman give birth change the trajectory of your life and hers?

This is the story of a midwife named Jean who stumbles across her neighbor giving birth. She feels herself drawn to the mystery wóman and tries to help her, but there is a language barrier and a controlling husband preventing this.

A solid read and retelling of the Selfie wife tale. I wish it was longer and had more background information on Murin.

a sweet sting of salt by rose sutherland follows jean, a midwife. the book starts with her hearing the sharp cry of a woman outside her cabin, and when she goes out, she discovers it's a young woman in labor standing in the dark cold, barely able to speak a word of english. jean rushes to help the woman, aiding her in her birth. later, she discovers the woman, whose name is muirin, is her neighbor tobias's wife. tobias acts weird about the situation, trying to bring muirin home and keep her and the baby from seeing jean. jean spends more time with muirin, caring for her and the baby, teaching her english and learning more about her. her feelings toward muirin keep growing, and it seems like she mirrors them as well. but she doesn't really start to understand the truth about her until the end of the book.
this one was so so good. (the audiobook was also amazing !! i can practically still hear muirin's voice in my head). jean's devotion to muirin, their care for each other, everything was just so beautiful, idk what to say, especially without spoiling the book, but i'd *highly* recommend this to anyone looking for a slightly fantastical sapphic historical fiction about two women willing to do anything for the other. i'm sorry the review is so short but i simply don't know what to say about books i love in general... i cannot wait to see what rose sutherland writes next !!
thank you to the publisher dell and netgalley for a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book was not for me. I had high expectations but I just couldn’t get into it. Unfortunately, the pace was really slow and there was not a lot of action or something else going on. I feel that the intention was there but it just wasn’t delivered. I still finished the book, it’s well written and the descriptions and setting in general are very interesting and graphic but overall something was missing for me. I hope others find the book more engaging because there’s potential

i heard “a sapphic retelling of the selfie wife” and came running.

jean is something of an outcast in her small nova scotian town, the subject of the kind of rumors that could be damning in the early nineteenth century—and yet she is necessary to her community as a skilled midwife. her isolated existence outside of town is interrupted one night by the arrival of her neighbor’s mysterious wife, already in labor. muirin’s baby arrives safely, but jean is left with even more questions about muirin and her son.

a sweet sting of salt is a haunting tale that balances eerie folklore with the mundane yet terrifying reality of domestic abuse. there’s a sense of creeping horror as the dynamic between muirin’s husband and jean deteriorates and his possessive behavior escalates. while i think the story suffers from some repetition, pacing issues, and occasional heavy-handedness (and a MC who does some dumb shit), it’s a lovely debut and i particularly loved the epilogue.

more sapphic mermaids and selkies and sirens and kelpies, please <3

3.5 stars


Such a charming debut!!! This book is definitely different than what I typically read (much slower-paced), but I had such a lovely time reading it. While there isn't tons of action or plotting, the way the relationships build and play out, as well as the evident love the author has for seaside Nova Scotia, all made me blow through this book over the course of 3 days. While I could tell this was a debut (I wish there had been a bit more development of the romance), I still had a great time -- something to celebrate even more because I'm recovering from a reading slump.

Definitely recommend, and I can't wait to see what the author writes in the future!

the perfect mix of folklore, romantasy, and yearning in a gothic, immersive, coastal setting. the perfect autumn/winter read for when it's tipping it down outside

Ballantine eARC
I tried this book multiple times and kept slowly coming back to it, and I'm glad I did. I do not know the original tale, however, this story was engrossing, haunting, and captivating. Jean was such a head strong woman, and I loved seeing this story from her POV. Since I didn't know the original, I was just as surprised as everyone else as the story slowly unfolded. I wanted to fight alongside Jean for Muirin - even though I wasn't quite sure what she was needing. The setting was its owned character and the atmosphere was perfectly crafted for this story. I highly enjoyed this and will look forward to what this author does next.

I realized while reading this that I've not read about selkies outside of folklore, nor had I ever read a sapphic selkie tale. I loved A Sweet Sting of Salt. The yearning and the slow burn was perfect, and the prose was absolutely gorgeous. Highly recommend to anyone looking for a divine queer folktale to enjoy.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.65 stars

I really enjoyed this book. The ship was cute and the storyline was good. I was so scared he was gonna kill the fox. I loved the way this was written and it’s exactly my type of book. I’d never really heard much of The Selkie Wife, but I can imagine this is a great spin on it. I don’t even know what else to say other than I loved it shdbbdbs I highly recommend this to anyone wanting to read a sapphic story about a midwife and a mysterious girl who barely speaks English and appears in the middle of the night in labor. It’s worth it. Do it.

Content Warnings: Depictions of Child Birth; Spousal Abuse; Stalking; Animal Cruelty; Rape (Off screen); Postpartum Depression (Off screen); Suicide (Off screen)

For the sex averse, there is one fade-to-black sex scene that is decently telegraphed.

Sutherland's novel is highly character driven, with our third person perspective character being Jean, a midwife. I love Jean. She is smart, resourceful, independent, but also sensitive and having her decisions and reactions colored due to her life circumstances of losing her mother to postpartum depression, being ostracized for being a lesbian, and losing her best friend/first love, who moved away after being married. The other two primary characters, Muirin and Tobias, are likewise well-fleshed out and have established pasts that affect how they act throughout the book. All characters make decisions and mistakes that feel natural based on what we know of them, even if we don't find out the true reasoning until later in the book.

I admit that I am a soft touch for a folk tale/fairy tale/mythological retelling in general, but I also think this book is excellent on its own merit. Framing "The Selkie Wife" in such a way to emphasis that it is, at its core, an abusive relationship, produces an engaging, taut plot. As a reader, I wanted Muirin to escape; I understood Jean's desperation to save her, not only because of the growing romantic feelings she felt but also just as one woman to another. I was continuously invested from the beginning to the end of the book.

That this is Sutherland's first book is a shock to me; it's that good. I would eagerly read her work again based on this offering, and I highly recommend it.

This book was okay. Nothing great but also nothing terrible. The characters were the main selling point of this story, there was a diverse cast with LGBTQ representation. The plot was enjoyable but I didn't get the sense of urgency that I think the author was trying to get. The relationships between the characters were complex and well written but the story felt sluggish.

This was a beautiful story of freedom and love. It was heart breaking and emotional and I could not put it down. The characters were fabulous and I can not believe that this was a debut.