A Sweet Sting of Salt is the selkie folktale reimagined as a historical sapphic romance. Jean is a midwife in a small town, an important role but she still feels like an outsider. One night during a storm she sees a pregnant woman in labour outside of her house and rushes to deliver the baby. She doesn’t know the woman, Muirin, who doesn’t speak English and appears to have not had any prenatal care. She later learns that Muirin is the mysterious new wife of her distant neighbour. Although mother and baby seem healthy Jean can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong. As she and Muirin grow closer, Jean puts everything on the line to help protect her. The author did a great job setting the scene with strong costal small town vibes and superstitious townspeople. There is an unsettling atmosphere throughout the entire book and it was oddly suspenseful for something I thought of as a historical romance. The main characters are well developed and you really get a sense of who they are, but a lot of the townspeople mentioned seemed to blur together. A character would be mentioned with some background to only say one line, so sometimes it was hard to keep track. However, I really liked the relationship between Jean and Muirin, it was a great slow burn with so much yearning. My heart was racing during the climax, the middle portion of the book was a lot of buildup but I sped through it. Even though the actual sequence of events was a little predictable, the setup and the descriptions of what was happening still made it a memorable experience. I really enjoyed all the superstitions that were mentioned, I find it really interesting to see what different people believe in but the main piece of folklore that the story is centred on isn’t mentioned until the end. It wasn’t a dealbreaker for me but just seemed a little weird. I think if you like a slow burn historical romance, with just a drop of fantasy this would be the book for you. It reminded me of another book I enjoyed called The Lighthouse Witches, which has a similar eerie costal vibe.

Thanks to NetGalley, Rose Sutherland and Penguin Random House Canada for this e-ARC