The BookBrowse Review

Published February 12, 2025

ISSN: 1930-0018

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Contents

In This Edition of
The BookBrowse Review

Highlighting indicates debut books

Editor's Introduction
Reviews
First Impressions
Latest Author Interviews
Recommended for Book Clubs
Book Discussions
Publishing Soon
Extras
Book Jacket

A Curse for the Homesick
A Novel
by Laura Brooke Robson
18 Feb 2025
352 pages
Publisher: MIRA
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
Critics:

On Stenland, there comes a time known as skeld season: one day, any woman on the island can wake with three black lines on her forehead, the mark of a skeld.

Skeld season comes around without warning, and while each window of time lasts only three months, anyone a skeld turns to stone is very much dead.

That's how Tess's mother killed Soren's parents. Maybe for this reason alone, Tess and Soren should not have fallen in love. Since the time her mother was a skeld, Tess has wanted to leave Stenland, to run from the windswept island, from her family and friends. She is unwilling to bear the responsibility of one day killing anyone, let alone someone she loves. Soren has been determined to stay, to live out his life in the place he knows as home, even if that life could be cut short during the latest skeld season. They cannot see eye to eye—and yet they cannot stay apart. She tries to come back for him. He tries to leave for her. But can your love for one person outweigh everything else combined? And how do you decide how much you're willing to risk, if it might mean destroying someone else in the process?

Laura Robson has crafted a fascinating story about the choices we make, the responsibilities we carry, and the ambiguities of regret.

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