Dreamer's Pool

Starred review from September 8, 2014
Marillier (the Sevenwaters Series) opens the Blackthorn & Grim epic fantasy series by sweeping readers into a lavishly detailed world full of enchantments, devotion, heartache, and mystery. Blackthorn, an embittered wise woman, longs for vengeance against the wicked lord responsible for her grievous loss, her imprisonment, and her coming execution. Conmael, a handsome fey nobleman, offers her freedom if she will travel to Dalriada, provide healing help to all who ask, and forsake revenge for seven years. Blackthorn reluctantly accepts, undertaking the journey with her hulking devotee, Grim, who’d shared her captivity. She settles at Winterfalls, home of the humane Prince Oran of Dalriada, and eventually solves a tortuous magical puzzle for him. Marillier’s fascinating narrative, based loosely on Irish myth and centered on women’s empowerment, never slips into sentimentality or untoward sensuality, delivering a tasteful feast for the imagination.

Starred review from October 15, 2014

For reasons of his own, a member of the fae breaks the woman known as Blackthorn out of prison. In return Blackthorn must forbear to take revenge on the chieftain who imprisoned her for seven years and agree to use her healing skills to aid anyone who asks her for help. Accompanied by Grim, the giant of a man who guarded her sanity while in prison, Blackthorn settles in the healer's cottage near the estate of the heir to the throne of Dalriada. But there is something wrong in Prince Oren's household, and Blackthorn and Grim might be the only ones who can help. VERDICT The best thing about this novel (and there are many good components) is that it's the opener for a series featuring the taciturn Blackthorn and mysterious Grim. Typical for Marillier (Daughter of the Forest) is the evocative setting of an ancient Ireland that echoes with fairy tales and just a hint of magic.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2014
Fantasy novels have a spacious bag full of tricks for appealing to a wide variety of readers, and veteran fantasy novelist Marillier ambitiously attempts to pull them all out in her new book. Like most of Marillier's work, this one draws from the deep wells of magical mythology spread throughout the British Isles, and, very much like the Sevenwaters Trilogy that began her career, it's a cocktail of world building, fantastical magic, political intrigue, and romance, all in equal and extensive measures. This mix gets an extra kick from the shared first-person perspective of the book's three main characters: Blackthorn, an embittered and vengeful ex-healer forced back into her profession; Grim, an intimidating but gentle convict with a mysterious past; and Oran, a young prince navigating his family's wishes as they attempt to decide his marital fate for him. Some readers may want to hold back with that extra kick, though. The decision to split the narrative will probably be questioned by at least some, especially when the different perspectives essentially converge and the device seems to bloat the story to its likely unnecessary 448-page total. But the excellent prose and dialogue will keep a wide variety of fantasy readers interested, even when the story focuses on the particular fantasy tropes about which one might not be so excited.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)