My first introduction to Reid’s work was A Study in Drowning. Eager to dive more into their work, I went back to their adult fantasy debut, The Wolf and the Woodsman. And I think going in this order really showed me how much Ava has grown as a writer.

The Hungarian and Jewish folklore present in this book was captivating and well done. I wish we could’ve just had a quest book featuring Evike and Gaspar adventuring and stumbling across myths and folktale creatures. This was where I felt the writing was strongest. Once we hit the halfway point and the two are back in the kingdom dealing with court politics the pacing started to really drag. Between this and certain repetitive phrases, my rating reflects how I feel about that. But otherwise this is a strong adult fantasy debut! 

And now that I know where Ava started from, I’m excited to keep exploring her work!