A Sweet Sting of Salt
A young woman uncovers a dark secret about her neighbor and his mysterious new wife. Now she’ll have to fight to keep herself—and the woman she loves—safe.
“A modern sapphic updating of the selkie wife folk tale that’s already scoring with readers”—Parade (A Best Romance and Best LGBTQI+ Book of the Year So Far)
“Lush, atmospheric, and threaded with multiple kinds of magic.”—Paste
AN ELLE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
When a sharp cry wakes Jean in the middle of the night during a terrible tempest, she’s convinced it must have been a dream. But when the cry comes again, Jean ventures outside and is shocked by what she discovers—a young woman in labor, drenched to the bone in the bitter cold and able to speak barely a word of English.
Although Jean is the only midwife for miles around, she’s at a loss for who this woman is or where she’s from; Jean can only assume that she must be the new wife of the neighbor up the road, Tobias. And when Tobias does indeed arrive at her cabin in search of his wife, Muirin, Jean’s questions continue to multiply. Why has he kept his wife’s pregnancy a secret? And why does Muirin’s open demeanor change completely the moment she’s in his presence?
Though Jean learned long ago that she should stay out of other people’s business, her growing concern—and growing feelings—for Muirin mean that she can’t simply set her worries aside. But when the answers she finds are more harrowing than she ever could have imagined, she fears she may have endangered herself, Muirin, and the baby. Will she be able to put things right and save the woman she loves before it’s too late, or will someone have to pay for Jean’s actions with their life?
- Pages
- 342
- First published
- April 9, 2024
- Language
- English
- Edition
- Ebook
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Shelved by 6 Litcadians
Reviews
Finished October 28, 2024
3.5 ⭐️ This was a cute read, I loved Jean and Muirins story and the love they had for each other. I do wish we got more of it. I felt like a lot of the story was Jean waiting for a chance to get to see Muirin and we didn’t get as much time as I could have liked to actually see them together. The ending had me so scared for them I wish we had a longer scene at the end of them finally able to be happy together after all that trauma and pain.
Finished October 27, 2024
3/5⭐ 1/5🌶️ 💖Tropes - Found family - Forbidden love - No third-act breakup 📖 My Thoughts I’m actually really glad I picked up this book as I’ve never read a selkie wife folktale and it was a very heart-warming story that was well written. It dragged quite a bit in the beginning. It felt like we kept going nowhere with the progression of the story for a bit but it did eventually pick up. Once it picked up, I couldn’t put it down! At times I wished there had been more intimate moments shared between the characters to make me really feel the longing. For a while, I didn’t feel the connection to them that I wanted to. Otherwise, it was such an enjoyable read! ⚠️ Triggers Some of the triggers include murder, homophobia, confinement, domestic abuse, and animal death. 🏳️🌈 Representstion Both the main characters were sapphic females and while I love the representation, I wanted more for them! At times, it feels like authors represent sapphic females as meek and non-sexual in their desires. While I completely respect that some females may be, I wanted a bit more passion for these characters. For the time period, it makes sense for them to be a bit more reserved and the circumstances surrounding them. 🌶️ Spice The spice in the book was quite vague. We only get one spicy scene where they are removing clothing and things are getting heated, but again, the wording is vague. I think I’ve said it a couple times already but I WANTED MORE.