I requested this ARC because I enjoy mythology retellings, especially when they have a feminist twist. I think this one was beautifully written, but I still have some mixed feelings. If you like Greek/Norse mythology retellings, know that this one felt more in the vein of medieval historical fiction, although there are plenty of other-worldly elements.

It took me a long time to get into the story. I couldn’t keep track of the characters and the writing style, while very poetic and pretty, sometimes made it harder for me to know what was going on in the story. Things got easier to follow in the second half, when I had gotten to know some of the characters, but there were still names introduced late in the game that I just couldn’t keep track of. Ultimately a lot of these characters play a very minor role and it’s just not that important to know who is who.

My favorite part of the story was the magic elements, which they refer to as the “birthright” - the connection with the higher power, the Land. I also loved the message that we all share in the Land and in our ancestry, and that there’s room for different beliefs and practices and ways of life to coexist peacefully in the same realm.

I loved the feminist twist on the story, especially with the Queen being the one to lead the kingdom’s troops, but the romance between Herla and the Queen was just… so much. I am not a fan of romance novels, and I would say the love story here is as prominent as the conflict, which centers around the mythological elements. I would have been happier, and the book would have been shorter, if Herla’s and the Queen’s POVs didn’t spend so much time thinking about each other and more time on the actual plot.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy, in exchange for an honest review.

This book promised adventure, lush worldbuilding, and an epic fantasy and just... fell flat. While the writing style is gorgeous, it is just not engaging enough and is too slow-paced for what the themes and genre are.

DNF 6% in.

This is very much a hopeful temporary DNF. I wanted to love this but I couldn't get into it and could tell I was starting to skim which for me is a sign to stop. I have heard amazing things about Sistersong so I do want to give this a second chance it just isn't a right now book for me but I know some people may love this.

DNF. I’ve gotta be honest, it’s hard for me to figure out how you can take 'woman leader of the Wild Hunt falls for a mortal queen' and turn it into a story that bores me, but here we are, I guess.

The opening – Herla’s origin story, basically, the rundown of how she became leader of the Wild Hunt – was fabulous. Unfortunately, after that we were slammed into the very dull, sexist court intrigue (kinda) of Saxon Britain, and Holland doesn’t write it nearly as beautifully as Griffith in Hild and Merewood. Plus, without having read Griffith’s books, I wouldn’t really have a clue what was going on or much about the time period, because not much is actually explained in Song of the Huntress. It’s a very much ‘swim or drown’ approach to worldbuilding, which I don’t mind in secondary world settings, but for some reason massively frustrate me in historical ones.

It didn’t help that a big chunk of the first part of the book is confusing as hell, honestly – not even the worldbuilding or politics, but the actual story. The king has a vision/visitation from an enemy king, and Things Happen – but it was not at all clear what was happening in what order. At first I thought Holland had messed up and accidentally forgotten to mention that two weeks had passed (one of the enemy king’s comments led me to believe The Thing was happening in two weeks), and it took five or six chapters before I was able to work out that no, this all went down in one night. Which is not inherently a problem; the problem is that that wasn’t clear, and even the fall-out of those events didn’t make it obvious when or how it had all happened. I kept thinking my arc was missing chapters, because no one was explaining how they knew this, or that, or when x or y had been said, or when exactly those orders had been given. AND SO ON. It was confusing as hell and maddening to read.

The rest? Was just dull. Herla and Æthel’s fascination with each other felt unconvincing to me, a little too insta-lust, and I wasn’t expecting Herla to be masquerading as a normal human woman for so long. I wanted much more uncanny and primal magic than we were getting in the first half or so of the book, and I was just bored; it all felt so mundane, with none of the eldritch strangeness and magic I was hoping for. To say nothing of the whole ‘Christianity is once again fucking up and also Wrong about literally everything’. Listen: I’m ex-Catholic and pretty anti-Christianity myself, but this is a theme/plotline I have seen so many times, and I’m sick to death of it. If you can fit a warrior queen into this time period, couldn’t you have a Not Completely Idiotic priest too??? It would be a nice twist!

Although it was interesting to have an asexual king in this kind of setting, I have zero patience for miscommunication plotlines – and Ine’s inability/refusal to just tell Æthel that she’s not the problem, ie the reason they’re not having sex, and his weakness in letting the court blame Æthel for her childlessness, enraged me and made me despise him. The revelation that came about his bloodline just…felt really forced and underwhelming, and left me feeling some kind of uncomfortable and unhappy – I don’t know why, but it felt very wrong that he receive the ancestral magics that rightly belonged to the native Brits, even though he didn’t deliberately steal them or anything.

I had some curiousity about a few of the minor points of the story – like Emrys! – but not nearly enough to keep me reading when all the major stuff was sending me to sleep. I may come back and give it another try later – maybe – but I have zero interest in it right now when more interesting books are calling my name!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book. Unfortunately, I decided not to finish the book.

This is a retelling of Herla and the Wild Hunt. Based on the description, I expected a lush and descriptive, fast-paced fantasy.

While other readers may enjoy the story telling, the heavily medieval dialogue and language impacted my enjoyment of the book and I find myself having a hard time picking it up. Perhaps it is just not the right book for me at the moment.

I think that readers who enjoy medieval settings and slow-burn fantasy stories will enjoy this tale and I encourage those readers to check out this book!

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc of Song of the Huntress.

This was my first book by Lucy Holland and I am impressed. While I don't think this story appealed to me all that much, the author's talent was evident. I love retellings but hadn't read much of Celtic mythology. I was excited to learn more about a new area but unfortunately, I didn't fall in love with it. The main flaw for me was the pacing. It took me a while to get through it and I think that may dissuade some readers. There was a rich history and I felt like the author excelled in finding a balance between history and fantasy.

There were also a few characters that I either didn't understand or didn't respect (mainly Ine) and I spent half the book just waiting and begging that he would grow a backbone and then the radical change felt a little unbelievable. Additionally, I'm really not a fan of the miscommunication trope and I felt like the main conflict between Ethelburg and Ine could have been solved by one conversation years and years ago.

On the bright side, I really liked Herla and Ethelburg and I rounded up one extra star for the badass women warriors!!!

Overall, I just found this book to be a little tedious/dull but I would definitely try more by this author. 3 stars.

This was an epic of an adventure taking readers to the days of Britain's legends. The Wild Hunt rides, kings and princes jockey for power, and queens play politics like a chess game. Lucy Holland's writing is fantastic; her world-building is authentic, it is clear that she conducted a great deal of research in order to recreate Saxon Britain as historians have written it. The two primary characters, the proud warrior Herla and fierce Queen Aethelburg are brilliantly presented. They are intelligent, strong, dedicated to their people and their causes. Herla and Aethelburg face both the internal scheming of the human Wessex court and the power of the Lord of the Otherworld. Any fantasy fan, historical fiction reader, readers interested in Iron Age Britain, anyone that likes a good adventure, really, will appreciate this book.

While I appreciate the opportunity to read this, unfortunately this one is a DNF for me. I couldn't get into the story.

This book was pretty good! It was inspired by British mythology and the story of "the Hunt", but with very strong female characters and leads. I will admit I found myself googling a lot of the terms while reading this, which is why I gave it four stars. If you don't have a strong knowledge of British mythology or medieval terms you may struggle. I really loved Athelburg's character and development during this book. I will probably purchase a physical copy of this book for myself, as I received this for free as an ARC from Netgalley.

I really enjoyed the historical pieces of it, this book reminded me of Assassins Creed Valhalla and the show The Last Kingdom which was really amazing to feel transported back into that time frame!! I think this book had good promise starting out and reading the description. There was a lot of information in it that needed more fleshing out, I kept having to reread to figure out what was happening and who was talking. I wasn’t quite sure who the narrator was, what their name was for the longest time and it was hard to read at times with the narration switching from past tense to present. I definitely would like to read a physical copy and have it on my shelf for future reads because the action and lore in it is amazing and craveable!

I'm going to be completely honest and say I DNF'd. The writing was just too slow and I didn't enjoy it. It could very well just be the wrong time in which I'm trying to read it. I will give it an another shot in the future.

I really thoroughly enjoyed this. The world was so well-realized and really compelling--the folkloric aspects were great, the historical aspects meshed really well with the fantastical elements, the effort put into creating and bringing this setting to life was obvious and to great payoff. I also am not usually too into the romance in a story (I don't dislike romance per say, but I tend to go "there's the romance okay" and don't invest too much into it). This story, though, definitely compelled me to actually care about and be invested in the romance between the characters. I thought that the pacing for it was great, it wasn't too instant which is unrealistic and drives me crazy. But it also wasn't tooooo slow so as to be boring. The one tiny drawback in an otherwise amazing reading experience is that I felt the tension between Ine and Athel could have been lessened (or entirely resolved in some areas) if they had just communicated more directly. That trope is not one I like too much, the whole miscommunication or non communication thing, but it was only a slight dent in my reading experience. I really loved this story, and I really enjoyed Lucy Holland's writing style. I can't wait for more from this author!

Is it historical fantasy, historical fiction, historical romantasy, all of the above? Probably all of the above. Set in a very well researched real world setting, with hefty sprinkles of folklore, and a slow burn romance, there is a lot to love here. The action sequences are well written, but it's the quiet character work that wins the day. I will admit that I really needed Aethel and Ine to just have one honest conversation throughout a huge chunk of the book. That would have resolved piles of tension.

This was a really good book and very detailed. I am grateful I had the opportunity to read it.. the retelling of a familiar story made it such an enchanting story to read.

I'm not sure what it was about this but it just didn't click with me. The writing was beautiful and the story itself was intriguing. But it felt really dense and slow-paced and never really seemed to pick up. There was a lot to understand and unpack, especially at the beginning and it left me feeling confused honestly. This was a book I picked up, expecting to devour it in a couple of days, but I sat with it for close to a month and really had to push myself to finish it. I might come back to it in the future, as this might just have been the wrong time for me to read it and I hope I'll enjoy it more.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC

Unfortunately this is going to be a DNF - it's well written and definitely interesting....I think the story just isn't for me. I feel like I need more information about the history and the lore to really appreciate the depth of the story, and the pacing isn't bad it's just a little slow for my personal taste.

I think there are a lot of people that will really, really love this book - it's just not for me.

This book is a reimagining of British history and the legend of the Wild Hunt, where a threat from the Otherworld causes strife in the Saxon kingdom of Wessex. I absolutely loved the three main characters—Æthelburg the warrior queen, Ine the King of Wessex, and Herla the huntress. The relationships between them grew on me throughout the book, and by the end my heart was aching.

I did struggle with the writing. A lot of the time it felt really dense and sort of muddled, and I sometimes couldn’t tell who was talking. But once I got used to the style, it started to flow better. It did take a lot of time to get through, though. The style is very lyrical and I think the tone is meant to feel ancient. I’m so glad I kept at it—the ending was very satisfying and it pulled on the old heartstrings. I LOVE the sapphic and ace representation!! How often do you get that in super-old historical fantasy?? I absolutely love Ine and his quiet strength, and the discussions of his asexuality (especially with his sister!). I kind of got annoyed at him and Æthel for their miscommunications but in the end I totally understand Ine’s fear.

Even though it took me a long time to read and I had some struggles, I did ultimately enjoy the experience and the vibes. This book is full of such ethereal beauty and raw emotion.

“Song of the Huntress,” by Lucy Holland

Herla is trying to save her land in Britain from the Romans in 60AD which led her to make a deal with the king of the Otherworld. While making the deal in the Otherworld she didn’t know that the years in her world were flying by and by the time she made it back her home was already long invaded and lost. Wielding the cursed blade Herla becomes Lord of the Hunt and rides to steal souls until she meets Queen Æthelburg of Wessex.

This book was really not for me. I ended up not really liking the characters at all. The biggest problem for me was the lore of the Wild Hunt in the book, it is my favorite lore, but I didn’t like the way Lucy Holland wrote it. 2 out of 5 stars.

Thank you for the ARC, Netgalley.

Song of the Huntress has gorgeous writing and incredible characters, but didn't quite land for me entirely.

The book has a multi-POV format, and I thoroughly enjoyed every perspective. Queen Æthelburg was so fun to read at all times and her complex feelings about her role and her desires were well developed. Herla was my least enjoyed perspective but still rocked - her past and present day romance was written beautifully. My favourite POV by far was King Ine. This is the only representation I feel it's appropriate for me to comment on, and I absolutely adored it.

While the characters and the writing were amazing, I felt as though there were some pacing issues with the story. I fell off the book hard around the 50% point and I struggled to get back into it - the characters I adored were the reason I finished it. I can't comment on the fidelity of the folklore, but I do feel as though it's a subject that's not super common so I enjoyed that.

Overall I'm rating this book 3 stars, which is "liked it" on the Goodreads scale. I would recommend this book to people interested in the folklore, but I am otherwise not entirely sure who the target audience is

Every now and then, I catch wind of a book that seems tailor-made to suit my interests. I have a degree in medieval history, with a focus on Medieval Britain; I’m always searching for books with diverse representation, particularly in historical fiction; I’ll never stop singing the praises of Sistersong. I wanted to love this book. I should’ve loved this book!

I… did not love this book.

It’s not that there isn’t a lot to love here. I’ve seen criticisms of Lucy Holland’s writing style, with some going so far as to call it ‘purple-prose’, but I disagree. The prose is gorgeous and lush, with sentences so achingly beautiful they almost felt like poetry. The world of 8th century Britain is lovingly and thoughtfully created by a master crafts-person who clearly feels passionately about the material. As I turned the pages, the world of immortal huntresses and low magic felt so vivid to me that I could almost smell the salted meat cooking on the fire.

No, the writing and worldbuilding were excellent, as I’d come to expect from reading and loving Holland’s prior work. The problem, to me, lay in the characters. I’ll admit, writing women in historical fiction is a tough line to walk: too feisty, and your audience is unable to suspend their disbelief; too submissive, and your audience finds them “unrelatable.” Perhaps I’m being too harsh, here, but given the dynamic, flawed, characters of Sistersong, I was startled by how difficult it was for me to connect with the characters of Song of the Huntress. In particular, I found it incredibly difficult to connect with Æthelburg, Queen of Wessex. In contrast to Riva in Sistersong, I found Æthelburg’s struggles for power, self-acceptance, and love tended to veer uncomfortably into “strong women” cliches — which is a shame, given her unique status as one of the few warrior queens of early Britain. The dynamics between our trio of protagonists - Herla, Æthelburg, and Ine - were nothing special compared to the rich tapestry woven in Sistersong. 

Yet again, I find myself unfavorably comparing Song of the Huntress to Holland’s predecessor. Perhaps that’s why I’m being so harsh: I expected so much (unfairly? Maybe) and I feel let down. In the immortal words of The Report of the Week: “my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.” 

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to re-read Sistersong.

(Review is scheduled for March 8; link will go live then)