Well I should have known when I snapped up "House of Salt and Sorrows" by Erin A. Craig when I was browsing Barnes and Noble back in May. It literally has a quote from a review by Stephanie Garber "Step inside a fairytale". But no, I was completely oblivious, grabbing the book because 1) the cover 2) I am a huge sucker for a good fairytale retelling. When I was younger my sister was obsessed with Robin McKinley, and therefore introduced me to her. We were in my favorite used bookstore and my sister started searching for her favorite of McKinley's books, a retelling of beauty and the beast, and we actually found a copy, which she then demanded I read...It obviously created a monster haha. Side note if you want to check out McKinley my two highest recommendations are "Rose Daughter" (the one my sister shoved in my face) and "Spindle's End" they are my favorites.
The book begins at the funeral of Eulalie, the 4th oldest daughter in the family. The 4th daughter to have died in recent years. It started with their mother. Who died shortly after the birth of the twelfth daughter six years ago. Then the oldest daughter passed, then the next one, then the one after that. Tradition says the family should be in mourning for a year after each death and with so many deaths they've been in mourning practically since their mother died.
The story follows Annaleigh, the 6th daughter. Who as she's standing there at her sister's funeral has the unshakeable feeling that this death was no accident. Locals say the family is cursed. The first three sister's deaths are explainable. But Eulalie? Her death makes absolutely no sense. Why would she be on the cliffs in the middle of the night?
The story continues as Annaleigh's stepmother announces her pregnancy and demands that the house no longer observe the one year mourning period. Everyone seems happy to be out of black and moving on with their lives, except Annaleigh, she can't shake the feeling that something is wrong. She is determined, not only that there is foul play, but to find out the truth and keep anything from happening to anyone else in their family. Though no one in the family believes her.
I love this book so much! I will be reading it again and again for years to come because it was amazing. I know nothing will ever be like this first read again, because I now know that I was right, I now know exactly what happened, so the mystery is solved for me, it's still a journey I want to take over and over again.
The past few months, reading has been harder for me. I've read less, been less engrossed in the stories and not had a moment where I wanted to throw a tantrum at being interrupted or needing to do something other than read, since I read the Bridgerton books. I could not put this book down. I put it down on Friday to have a sleepover with the munchkin, though I really didn't want to, I wanted to read all night. So I took the opportunity yesterday afternoon to hide away in the bedroom while he and his dad played their video games and not move from my bed until I had finished the book.
If you enjoy fantasy, especially fairytale retellings, but really if you enjoy fantasy at all and/or mystery. I would recommend this one. I would warn that it took me a couple chapters to get into, so maybe give it till chapter three before you DNF if you aren't getting into it. It was a little slow till then, but once I hit that point I was hooked.
I looked into her website (listed below) because I want to read more of her writing. She had another book come out this year apparently. I probably won't get to it till next year, as my current pile of unread books in my house is at about 30 (thanks to my Auntie dropping off several she was done with...no complaints here I am so excited to read every single one of them and tell ya'll about them).
Author Website: http://www.erinacraig.com/
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