A RUSH OF WINGS

A young woman must calm the tempest within her to save her cursed family.

Eighteen-year-old Rowenna Winthrop has waited for years to learn craft from her mother, Mairead. But her lack of emotional control gives Mairead pause in teaching Rowenna the ways of the Cailleach—and just when Mairead concedes, she’s taken. Harboring the truth of the evil her mother faced and the untamed craft within her leaves Rowenna unsettled. Her foreboding grows when a fuath impersonating her mother infiltrates the family, rendering Rowenna mute and cursing her brothers to turn into swans. Determined Rowenna must travel the Highlands as she tries to expel this terrible creature. Weymouth’s storytelling is lyrical and immersive: The well-woven lore is set against the coastal, cliffside village of Neadeala and the Scottish wilderness, with shadowy creatures, bloody omens, and other carnage. Cruelty and dark forces come in the form of both the magical and also human tyrant Torr Pendragon. A romance with Gawen MacArthur, a rebel seeking the help of Rowenna’s craft, evolves naturally, and the story’s big heartache comes from family members who meet Rowenna with doubt, disbelief, and blame. In this tale inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Wild Swans,” readers will appreciate in Rowenna a fierceness as she grows into her craft and her determination and sense of self strengthen. Characters read as White.

An intense, darkly atmospheric, and skillful fairy-tale retelling.