Dreamer’s Pool

Blackthorn is the epitome of a strong, independent woman. Unfortunately, she is being unduly imprisoned under the ruler Mathuin of Laios for a crime she did not commit. After a year of waiting, her hearing is finally set for sunrise the next day and she is one step closer to justice being served to Mathuin–until one of the prison guards lets slip that she will not make it to the next morning. Dejected and defeated, she prepares for the worst.

Suddenly in the middle of the night, Blackthorn has a visitor, a fey name Conmael who is offering her freedom but with conditions: she must travel north to Winterfall and serve the people there as a healer and wise woman (her old profession) and she must accept any plea for help within seven years. Any time she does not, another year will be added to her term and when that time is up, she may seek justice as she pleases. Hesitant to take this offer, she eventually realizes that the matter at hand can only be solved if she lives, and with revenge driving her purpose she decides she can make it. After she escapes the cell in an explosion concocted by the fey, one of her cellmates, Grim, an extremely muscular, capable and caring man, attempts to keep her safe with dog-like devotion– and Blackthorn must agree so as to not add another year to her arrangement. Their travel to Winterfall only beings the tale of these two hermits being cast into society once more. Oran, the Prince of Dalriada, soon to be king, is set to wed his betrothed, Lady Flidais, who is turning out to not be the same woman in the letters they’ve shared in correspondence. With the ceremony in two moon cycles, a good deal of mystery needs to be sorted out.

This novel moves at a quick pace, giving the reader a main plot line mystery involving Prince Oran and his Lady Flidais, but also allows smaller mysteries as well that keep the novel fun and mystical at the same time. Since the chapters are told in varying perspectives by different narrators, readers get the chance to hear a variety of voices led mainly by the refreshingly fierce and dominating aura of Blackthorn that make her chapters zoom by. Being deeply rooted in the fantasy realm, Juliet Marillier does a wonderful job of incorporating descriptive medieval scene elements that transport readers even further from the present world. Her writing has a way of picking to the bone of humanity, goodness, and the frail balancing act we all must deal with after encountering traumatic and life changing events.  Dreamer’s pool is the first in the series of Blackthorn and Grim novels and kicks off the tales with an entertaining warmth, pizazz, magic and myth.