Tuesday, April 24, 2012

The Springsweet by Saundra Mitchell

Title: The Springsweet
Author: Saundra Mitchell
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books
Publication Date: April 17, 2012
Source: Bought
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Summary: Heartbroken over the tragic death of her fiancĂ©, seventeen-year-old Zora Stewart leaves Baltimore for the frontier town of West Glory, Oklahoma, to help her young widowed aunt keep her homestead going. There she discovers that she possesses the astonishing ability to sense water under the parched earth. When her aunt hires her out as a "springsweet” to advise other settlers where to dig their wells, Zora feels the burden of holding the key to something so essential to survival in this unforgiving land. Even more, she finds herself longing for love the way the prairie thirsts for water. Maybe, in the wildness of the territories, Zora can finally move beyond simply surviving and start living.


Review: I loved The Vespertine, the first book in this series. My feelings for The Springsweet were no different. Mitchell successfully incorporates a western setting, beautiful writing and fantastic characters. 


I loved Zora in the previous book so I was so excited that she was getting her own story. Zora definitely has a lot of spunk. Even though she's been hit hard by tragedy she always manages to come out on top. I just loved that aspect of her personality. 

There's not many supporting characters but the ones you got to know well were very special. There's Zora's love interest, Emerson, who I loved from the start and I'm sure everyone else will!

Mitchell captures historical fiction perfectly. It probably has a lot to do with her writing style. There's just something about it that captures the feeling of the wild west. Oh, I loved it!

In terms of plot The Springsweet is another win. It's not necessarily fast-paced but it is intriguing and you just want to spend more time with the characters. There were times when I was a tad bored but there was always something exciting around the bend.

The Springsweet is a great historical fantasy book. The writing is by far the most notable aspect but truthfully everything was fantastic.






Rating: 4.5 stars



3 comments:

Jenny said...

So excited to read this Katie! I adored The Vespertine as well, and Saundra's writing was just so beautiful, I can't wait to get back to it:) I'm also super excited to meet Emerson! Thanks for the review:)

Lisa said...

I agree that Saundra Mitchell does historical fiction really well. I love the mix of paranormal and historical fiction that she intertwines so seamlessly.

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed this book! I can't wait to read it.

Mary @ BookSwarm said...

I really enjoyed the first in this series and can't wait to read this one myself. I do like a good historical with great atmosphere (like Vespertine).

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