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The Child of the Erinyes #3.5
The Moon Casts a Spell
Book Four, a novella in The Child of the Erinyes series. Historical fantasy with a love story.
A tale of star-crossed love, of superstition and zealotry, as a goddess brings her ancient triad together again on the windswept isle of Barra, in Scotland's Outer Hebrides.
The Chief of Clan MacNeil is forced to sell his ancestral island to John Gordon of Cluny, a mainlander. No one knows what to expect. Will life get better or worse? Will John Gordon take care of his tenants or evict them, like so many other landowners are doing?
* * * * *
Impetuous, irreverent, derided as Barra's peculiar changeling, Lilith Kelso has little use for anyone but Daniel Carson, the orphan her mother has taken in. Everyone expects them to marry someday.
But then John Gordon buys the island. He sends his steward to collect rents and squeeze out profits for his employer.
The steward doesn't come alone. He brings his son, and nothing will ever be the same.
A tale of star-crossed love, of superstition and zealotry, as a goddess brings her ancient triad together again on the windswept isle of Barra, in Scotland's Outer Hebrides.
The Chief of Clan MacNeil is forced to sell his ancestral island to John Gordon of Cluny, a mainlander. No one knows what to expect. Will life get better or worse? Will John Gordon take care of his tenants or evict them, like so many other landowners are doing?
* * * * *
Impetuous, irreverent, derided as Barra's peculiar changeling, Lilith Kelso has little use for anyone but Daniel Carson, the orphan her mother has taken in. Everyone expects them to marry someday.
But then John Gordon buys the island. He sends his steward to collect rents and squeeze out profits for his employer.
The steward doesn't come alone. He brings his son, and nothing will ever be the same.
187 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 12, 2014
2 people are currently reading
31 people want to read
About the author
Rebecca Lochlann
15 books61 followersThe series is complete! All nine books (and some boxed sets) are published and available, including a box set of the entire series.
The Child of the Erinyes is a nine-book journey (Goodreads calls it 8, but it's actually 9) spanning nearly 4000 years: beginning in the Mediterranean Bronze Age, it follows the lives of a woman and two men as they are reborn seven times through history.
The author envisions her epic story as a new kind of myth, one built upon the foundation of the Greek classics, and continuing through the centuries right up to now and the future.
It has become her life's work to complete the series, though she didn't exactly intend it to be that way when she began.
Lochlann categorizes The Child of the Erinyes series as mythic fantasy, inspired by the myth of Ariadne, Theseus, and the Minotaur.
The Year-god's Daughter, book one of the series, is followed by The Thinara King, which precedes book three, In the Moon of Asterion. The series doesn't end there. Book four, a novella, The Moon Casts a Spell, is next; it introduces book five, The Sixth Labyrinth. Falcon Blue jumps back in time again to the magical Arthurian age. When the Moon Whispers, told in two books, and Swimming in the Rainbow take the reader forward in time to an uneasy dystopian future.
Thank you to everyone who has read my books and left their thoughts. It is much appreciated.
Lochlann believes that certain individuals, either blessed or tortured, voluntarily or involuntarily, are woven by fate (or the Immortals) into the labyrinth of time, and that deities sometimes speak to us through dreams and visions, gently prompting us to tell their lost stories.
Who knows? It could make a difference.
The Child of the Erinyes is a nine-book journey (Goodreads calls it 8, but it's actually 9) spanning nearly 4000 years: beginning in the Mediterranean Bronze Age, it follows the lives of a woman and two men as they are reborn seven times through history.
The author envisions her epic story as a new kind of myth, one built upon the foundation of the Greek classics, and continuing through the centuries right up to now and the future.
It has become her life's work to complete the series, though she didn't exactly intend it to be that way when she began.
Lochlann categorizes The Child of the Erinyes series as mythic fantasy, inspired by the myth of Ariadne, Theseus, and the Minotaur.
The Year-god's Daughter, book one of the series, is followed by The Thinara King, which precedes book three, In the Moon of Asterion. The series doesn't end there. Book four, a novella, The Moon Casts a Spell, is next; it introduces book five, The Sixth Labyrinth. Falcon Blue jumps back in time again to the magical Arthurian age. When the Moon Whispers, told in two books, and Swimming in the Rainbow take the reader forward in time to an uneasy dystopian future.
Thank you to everyone who has read my books and left their thoughts. It is much appreciated.
Lochlann believes that certain individuals, either blessed or tortured, voluntarily or involuntarily, are woven by fate (or the Immortals) into the labyrinth of time, and that deities sometimes speak to us through dreams and visions, gently prompting us to tell their lost stories.
Who knows? It could make a difference.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 16, 2014
Can't wait for the rest of the series!
January 24, 2021
Another page turner from this brilliant series!
This novella continues the stirring adventures of the Goddess Athene’s chosen human instruments, the triad of a woman and two men whose fate it is to be born and reborn to shape the course of history.
Readers of the Bronze Age section of this riveting series will know that these three people, the one time Aridela, Queen of Crete, lovely, brave and loyal, the wicked swaggering Chrysaleon, King of Mycanae, and his bastard brother, the tough but tender Menoetius ,are fated to be reborn, to meet, to sense their old connection and to struggle together, until their conflicts are reconciled.
It is the early Victorian era on the barren, remote island of Barra in the outer Hebrides off the coast of Scotland, the time of the infamous clearances where rapacious landlords from the mainland forced whole communities from their homes. Lilith, a servant in the household of the steward to the new landlord of Barra, is secretly engaged to Daniel, a strange boy who her parents took in and raised as one of the family, with whom she has always felt an unaccountable tie. Lilith, a fiercely independent minded girl, has always been thought strange by the other islanders herself.
But when Aodhan McKinnon, the selfish and arrogant but mysterious and intriguing son to the steward comes to the island, she is disturbed to feel a similar bond with him, plus an almost irresistible physical attraction which she knows must be apparent not only to him, but to her scheming, unsentimental mother, who is housekeeper to the household.
In this continuation the author’s characters are as lively, as believable, the writing as strong and evocative and the historical research as impressive as ever. There is a stark tragedy to this story, but also, touches of wry humour; the historical period is invoked effortlessly and the whole complex story of the history of the triad is hinted at, but never thrust on the reader’s attention.
As with the others, I was so caught up in the action that I spent time reading this when I should have been getting on with other things. My only complaint is that as it was a novella, it ended too soon!
This novella continues the stirring adventures of the Goddess Athene’s chosen human instruments, the triad of a woman and two men whose fate it is to be born and reborn to shape the course of history.
Readers of the Bronze Age section of this riveting series will know that these three people, the one time Aridela, Queen of Crete, lovely, brave and loyal, the wicked swaggering Chrysaleon, King of Mycanae, and his bastard brother, the tough but tender Menoetius ,are fated to be reborn, to meet, to sense their old connection and to struggle together, until their conflicts are reconciled.
It is the early Victorian era on the barren, remote island of Barra in the outer Hebrides off the coast of Scotland, the time of the infamous clearances where rapacious landlords from the mainland forced whole communities from their homes. Lilith, a servant in the household of the steward to the new landlord of Barra, is secretly engaged to Daniel, a strange boy who her parents took in and raised as one of the family, with whom she has always felt an unaccountable tie. Lilith, a fiercely independent minded girl, has always been thought strange by the other islanders herself.
But when Aodhan McKinnon, the selfish and arrogant but mysterious and intriguing son to the steward comes to the island, she is disturbed to feel a similar bond with him, plus an almost irresistible physical attraction which she knows must be apparent not only to him, but to her scheming, unsentimental mother, who is housekeeper to the household.
In this continuation the author’s characters are as lively, as believable, the writing as strong and evocative and the historical research as impressive as ever. There is a stark tragedy to this story, but also, touches of wry humour; the historical period is invoked effortlessly and the whole complex story of the history of the triad is hinted at, but never thrust on the reader’s attention.
As with the others, I was so caught up in the action that I spent time reading this when I should have been getting on with other things. My only complaint is that as it was a novella, it ended too soon!
July 11, 2018
It's the third time I read this book and it seems that each time I do it I like it more. I'm going to reread part two of this instalment, "The sixth labyrinth", next. I'm sure I'll find even more details within the story.
December 8, 2014
Everybody who read my review on “Child of Erinyes The bronze age Collection” knows just how much I love these characters so I’m not even going there, apart from saying that they continue pretty much alive in “The moon casts a spell”, their capacity to love just as endearing and some of their actions or inactions just as infuriating as ever.
And I keep hoping...oh how I hope...
I find this ability to actually feel strong emotions for these characters such a wonderful thing since it happens rarely when I read new authors.
The only reason why I didn’t give it five stars is because, contrarily to the first three books, I didn’t find it perfect for I could not get how Chrysaleon (Aodhàn) finds Alexiare (Greyson) in this life.
Is it through Alexiare’s aura, like how he finds Aridela (Lilith) and Menoetius (Daniel)? Or is it through some kind of physic manifestation, just as how Harpalycus feels when the triad is alive again?
Chrysaleon does describe a sensation of being hit by lightning when he sees Lilith for the first time, maybe he senses something when he finds Alexiare too although their connection is completely different…
Still I wonder what colour Alexiare’s aura must be...
God, can hardly wait to know what happens next!
I will certainly follow Rebecca Lochlann’s work ‘till the day I lose my ability to read.
And I keep hoping...oh how I hope...
I find this ability to actually feel strong emotions for these characters such a wonderful thing since it happens rarely when I read new authors.
The only reason why I didn’t give it five stars is because, contrarily to the first three books, I didn’t find it perfect for I could not get how Chrysaleon (Aodhàn) finds Alexiare (Greyson) in this life.
Is it through Alexiare’s aura, like how he finds Aridela (Lilith) and Menoetius (Daniel)? Or is it through some kind of physic manifestation, just as how Harpalycus feels when the triad is alive again?
Chrysaleon does describe a sensation of being hit by lightning when he sees Lilith for the first time, maybe he senses something when he finds Alexiare too although their connection is completely different…
Still I wonder what colour Alexiare’s aura must be...
God, can hardly wait to know what happens next!
I will certainly follow Rebecca Lochlann’s work ‘till the day I lose my ability to read.
October 16, 2014
Superbly written with compelling characters, this novella is my favorite, so far, in The Child of Erinyes series. It's a prequel to book four, The Sixth Labyrinth, and if the full-length novel continues in the same vein as this little gem, then I'm all in!
Reviewed from an ARC.
Reviewed from an ARC.
August 27, 2015
Loved it...can't wait for next book!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews