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A Sorceress Comes to Call

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A Sorceress Comes to Call

By: T. Kingfisher
Narrated by: Zoe Mills
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About this listen

From USA Today bestselling author T. Kingfisher comes A Sorceress Comes to Call—a dark retelling of the Brothers Grimm's Goose Girl, rife with secrets, murder, and forbidden magic.

Cordelia knows her mother is . . . unusual. Their house doesn't have any doors between rooms—there are no secrets in this house—and her mother doesn't allow Cordelia to have a single friend. Unless you count Falada, her mother's beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is on her daily rides with him.

But more than simple eccentricity sets her mother apart. Other mothers don't force their daughters to be silent and motionless for hours, sometimes days, on end. Other mothers aren't sorcerers.

After a suspicious death in their small town, Cordelia's mother insists they leave in the middle of the night, riding away together on Falada's sturdy back, leaving behind all Cordelia has ever known. They arrive at the remote country manor of a wealthy older man, the Squire, and his unwed sister, Hester. Cordelia's mother intends to lure the Squire into marriage, and Cordelia knows this can only be bad news for the bumbling gentleman and his kind, intelligent sister.

And indeed Hester sees the way Cordelia shrinks away from her mother. How the young girl sits eerily still at dinner every night. Hester knows that to save her brother from bewitchment and to rescue the terrified Cordelia, she will have to face down a wicked witch of the worst kind.

©2024 Ursula Vernon (P)2024 W. F. Howes Ltd
Action & Adventure Dark Fantasy Fantasy Magic Magic Users Witchcraft Sorcery
All stars
Most relevant
Like: good voice acting, distinct differences between characters and great story.
Dislike: voice actor too gravelly, can’t pronounce sigil which was off putting in a dramatic sequence

Voice very gravelly!

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Cordelia is terrified of her mother, and soon she is not the only one as Evangeline unleases her wiles on a rich bachelor dragging her daughter to invade his household while she sets about getting his hand in marriage. His sister Hester is not taken in by her charms, but little does she suspect the full powers of her for, and the cruelty she is capable of. A brilliant reworking of a fairy story, which has fantastic imagination and engaging characters.

Spellbound by T Kingfisher

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This was a darker story than I’ve read by T. Kingfisher, but it was nuanced and had interesting things to say. There’s a lot that is horrifying, but Kingfisher has a way of tempering the horror with hope or compassion.

The narrator was less than stellar. She has an odd affectation of gasping softly at the end of sentences when characters speak. Somehow, I managed to ignore it. I have been spoiled by excellent narrators who are able to modify their voices subtly but consistently to make which character is speaking clear. This narrator had sadly only a few voices that she used. All the men and one of the women, sounded very similar and all the other women had a different one.

Amazing story, gaspy narrator

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It was a fun, addictive and suspenseful story. I finished the book before the audiobook, and I found it hard to put it down, but also I didn't want it to end. The characters are great and endearing and super fun, specially Hester. The narrator did a fantastic job, her voice fits perfectly with the dark atmosphere of the story. Highly recommended!

Truly enjoyable!

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Narrated by Zoe Mills.
Cordelia, age 14, is the daughter of Evangeline, a sorceress who can and does make Cordelia obedient by taking over her body. There are no secrets in the house, and Cordelia is not even allowed to close her bedroom door. Understandably, she is petrified of her mother and pours out all her secrets to Fallada, her mother's beautiful white horse - an unwise move, as it turns out. Evangeline sets her cap at a wealthy squire and so, wangling an invitation to stay for herself and Cordelia, she begins a different kind of magic, that of attraction and seduction. But once in the squire's house Cordelia gets a bedroom with a door she can close, a sympathetic lady's maid and, better yet, the ear of Hester, the squire's spinster sister, who though slow-moving with a gammy knee, is intelligent and kind, and has friends she can trust with the job of thwarting Evangeline. But this is more than just stopping a potential courtship when forbidden magic and murder come to the fore. I couldn't put this down - listening until the wee early hours of the morning. The narrator is excellent at getting the voices just right, but a couple of consistently mispronounced words niggle me: reagent* pronounced as regent, and sigil** pronounced siggle, to rhyme with err... niggle. Is this the way these words are pronounced in the Americas? From context I'm pretty sure these are the correct words, though I've only listened and not seen the text.
*Reagent: a substance or compound that can facilitate a (chemical) reaction.
** Sigil: an inscribed or painted symbol considered to have magical power.

Unputdownable

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