“Its a beautiful sort of devastation, a glittering chaos, and it ends as quickly as it began.”

“Grief is like a chronic ache, I think - It’s always there, but sometimes you notice it more and sometimes less, and sometimes its unbearable and sometimes you think it might be gone for good.”

GENRE: Fantasy
RATING: ⭐⭐⭐.75/5
FORMAT: eBook Arc
Would I recommend to others?: Yes, to those who are interested in Eastern European folklore!

Short Review:
This book was a lovely read, in which I rated it is as a 3.75 stars and rounded it up to 4 in here. One of my favourite folklore is Eastern European and this is my first time reading Polish Mythology! This book gave me cozy fantasy vibes with cottagecore adventure (is there such a thing? This book makes it a thing for sure!)

I enjoyed getting to know our main characters: Liska and Leszy. I enjoyed getting to know the background behind their magic, the reason why they are the way they are and how it shaped them. I truly enjoyed the mentions of their past and the way it was added as flashbacks to strengthen our understanding of them as characters. Half the time, I was like “omg why did they become this way?” So I truly enjoyed that part in this book. I also loved the addition of the cute side characters: Spirits, past human souls & mythical characters taking their shapes are humans. The conversation Liska has with them is adorable, cozy and feeds so nicely into the story!

I loved the adventure and character development of Liska, as we get to know her and see how she struggled to fit in and does her best to change herself so that she can be accepted in her village of Stodola:

She will do anything to prove that she is not dangerous, that she belongs, to the village and her people.”

“It’s not a curse, little one.” He kneels in front of her, looking up. “It’s merely a challenge. We are all given burdens in life. God simply gave you a heavier load because he believes you are strong enough to carry it. Your magic is a test, and you must resist at all costs.”

“You are not a monster, Liska Radost. You are sunlight, and you breathe life into everything you touch.”

Additionally, we get to see the effect of the church and pagan beliefs and how they blended together in the Polish village. This is evidential throughout the story. We even get to see memories from when Liska was a child and trying to navigate her magic:

“Children do foolish things until they are old enough to understand they are foolish.”

I think, for me, what lacked in “where the dark stands still” is a little bit of the pace and the fact that majority of the things don’t happen till around 55-60% of the book. I do know this is common with fantasy but it was just a bit too slow for my liking. This was obviously not enough to push me away from the story and keep me from reading it! I did thoroughly enjoy it but it didn’t Wow me.

I would recommend this book to those who enjoy slow paced fantasy books that focus on Polish Mythology and that has a bit of romance and cottagecore-cozy vibes (but filled with action)! The author refers to this as a strange and spooky found family at the House Under the Rowan Tree and I couldn’t agree more. I entirely loved the spooky vibes of the forest, the house & the story in general.

Thank you Netgalley for the eArc in exchange for my honest review.