beautiful literary fairytale...incredibly lyrical prose...a joy to read. Arden opens her imagination wide and succeeds in transporting the reader to an evocative world...with a heroine it's impossible not to love...

[A]n enchanting wintertime read... fierce and otherworldly[.]

Wonderfully inventive

Arden’s debut novel has the cadence of a beautiful fairy tale but is darker and more lyrical. The novel is deceptively simple, but its characters and plot are sophisticated and complex. Arden explores what happens when fear and ignorance whip people into a furore, and how society can be persuaded to act against its own interests so easily. It’s a rather apt tale for our times.

An extraordinary retelling of a very old tale. A Russian setting adds a unfamiliar spice to the story of a young woman who does not rebel against the limits of her role in her culture so much as transcend them. A wonderfully layered novel of family roles and the harsh wonders of deep winter magic.

A beautiful deep-winter story, full of magic and monsters and the sharp edges of growing up.

Haunting and lyrical, The Bear and the Nightingale tugs at the heart and quickens the pulse. I can’t wait for her next book.

A thrilling tale...perfect...

A beautiful snowy Russian fable set at the border between myth and reality; a cast of demons, priests and royalty centre around a girl fighting to find her own path. Magical, thrilling and entrancing.

...so detailed and vivid you can practically feel the chill numbing your fingers. Beautifully written and richly textured, it’s a beguiling read.

Arden’s debut is an earthy, beautifully written love letter to Russian folklore, with an irresistible heroine ... [an] exciting fairy tale that will enchant readers from the first page

Enthralling and enchanting – I literally couldn’t put it down. A wondrous book!

The Bear and the Nightingale is a marvelous trip into an ancient Russia where magic is a part of everyday life

beautifully wrought fairytale for adults...

Fairy tale lovers, if you’re going to read one fantasy book this winter, let this be it.... beautiful debut

An enchanting yet haunting Russian fairytale which inspires courage in a time of darkness

Katherine Arden's Winternight Trilogy isn't just good - it's hug-to-your-chest, straight-to-the-favourites-shelf, reread-immediately good, and each book just gets better

A historical fantasy perfect for those who love ancient stories and tradition

A modern gothic thriller that draws on the author's own Highland childhood

With Pine, (Toon) … has passed the debut hurdle in striking style.

A haunting and heartbreakingly bewitching tale … Packed with folklore, magic and an eerie sense of foreboding every time you turn the page, Pine will captivate readers from the very first page

A gothic stirring of folklore and legend

Eerie and spell-binding

From the first page PINE casts a sense of slowly-rising unease that is completely compelling. It's both eerie and thrilling at once, and had me under its spell until the end

An atmospheric tale of memory and loss

Eerie and dark, you'll be mesmerised by this dramatic tale with its tightly-woven plot

If there's any doubt that the Gothic thriller is enjoying a boom, Francine Toon's debut should settle the matter. PINE, a moving study of memory and loss, is both spooky and tender; drenched in a sense of place and yet eerily timeless

Combines the Gothic sensibilities of Shirley Jackson with the psychologically astute suspense of Gillian Flynn ... will leave you gripped and transfixed

Francine Toon's touching account of a flawed, yet tender, father-daughter relationship in PINE is all the more compelling against the starkly beautiful backdrop of the Scottish highlands

A beautifully crafted gothic tale of isolation and not belonging. Thoroughly gripping and stunningly atmospheric

An atmospheric tale of memory and loss, movingly told through a child's eyes

Many of the themes familiar from Austen’s novels are deftly revisited by Hornby, and the letters that are reimagined are pitch-perfect, with deeply touching confidences shared in family correspondences. You can tell this book by its cover – it’s quite lovely.

Beautiful novel[…] light hearted historical fiction which resembles Austen’s novels, a really lovely read very suitable for incoming spring’

Gill Hornby unfolds it all in her imagination.

Hornby combines a moving portrait of sisterly devotion with a comic depiction of the provincial life so brilliantly evoked in Austen's own novels

[A]t the heart of it all there's a romantic twist..."Hornby is at her best describing the complex bonds between the excellent women of her story. She describes the horrors, but also the pleasures of spinsterhood"