Book Review 2023 #2 - Jacey Bedford's Silverwolf
Published by: DAW
Publication Date: January 3rd, 2017
Format: Paperback, 432 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy
Will's ghost has been laid to rest and Ross feels like her life with Corwen is about to begin. And when you entwine your life with another you entwine yourself with their family as Corwen well knows after his escapades with Ross's family. Corwen has been estranged from his family, the Deverells of Denby Hall, Yorkshire, for many years. They couldn't come to grips with the fact that he turns into a wolf. Yet he always made sure they could contact him. And they finally have. Though perhaps a little later than they should have. A lot has changed in six years, his little sister Lily and his twin brother Freddie both turned out to be shapechangers as well, and in December their eldest brother Jonathan died resulting in their father having an apoplexy. Freddie should have stepped into the breach left by Jonathan's death but instead he fled to friends in London and now hasn't been heard from in four months. There's been no one to hold the family estate together and there's trouble at the mill. But first things first, the widow Rossalinde Sumner must be introduced to the family as Corwen's fiance. Which is an oddly joyous greeting and homecoming, with only some minor recriminations. Perhaps Corwen's father regrets how they ended things? With very little ability to communicate their problems might never be resolved, but Corwen can at least show his family that he is up to the task at hand. First there's the mill, which is being unscrupulously run, which Lily takes into hand. Then there's the bigger problem of Freddie... He was trying to reject his true nature, a dangerous undertaking. When they arrive at his lodgings in London they can see something bad has happened. With the rowenkind free and wild magic on the loose Walsingham has risen from the ashes to harness this new threat to his own advantage. Can they save Freddie from Walsingham's clutches? And if they do can they then save him from himself?
When the average reader thinks of Regency England they think of Jane Austen. More well read readers might also throw in Georgette Heyer and Julia Quinn. But these women all wrote about a very specific echelon of society. Everyone is, for the most part, financially secure, or at least has the prospects to be secure. In other words, it doesn't really reflect society as a whole it was a very specific slice of Regency life. It would take authors like Dickens and Gaskell to actually shine a light on the working class and the poor. And yet the Industrial Revolution which is so associated with their works was already underway. Which is why I so love this second volume in Jacey Bedford's Rowankind series, because it doesn't just draw on the drawing room aspect of society that was so often written about. In fact I would more associate this book with Elizabeth Gaskell than with Jane Austen. I couldn't help compare Silverwolf to Mary Barton and North and South. Very favorably I might add. We get to see the plight of the workers, the treatment of the rowankind, and an actual effort made to improve the lives of those who are dependent on the Deverell family. This volume is Downton Abbey meets Elizabeth Gaskell, or, because it's all about family drama in Yorkshire, this is Jacey Bedford doing her Barbara Taylor Bradford Emma Harte saga! I never wanted this book to end. But more importantly I could have just stayed at Denby Hall forever. I do love a big country house and a family business and compassionate people, but so many times they are a pale carbon copy of something truly original. And yes, for as much as I love Downton Abbey, it's just Upstairs, Downstairs in Yorkshire with a nicer house that's actually not in Yorkshire. Downton Abbey literally lifts plot points left and right. This world that Jacey Bedford has created is just so original and new. Old themes seen in a different light. And I just think I talked myself into re-reading this volume again. I seriously loved it so much, plus if someone were to ask what I was reading I could respond "trouble at t'mill" which everyone who's anyone knows that that's the start of Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition Sketch. And if there's one thing I love as much as family sagas, it's Monty Python.
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