“Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders… but her father isn’t a very good one. Free to lend and reluctant to collect, he has loaned out most of his wife’s dowry and left the family on the edge of poverty–until Miryem steps in. Hardening her heart against her fellow villagers’ pleas, she sets out to collect what is owed–and finds herself more than up to the task. When her grandfather loans her a pouch of silver pennies, she brings it back full of gold.
But having the reputation of being able to change silver to gold can be more trouble than it’s worth–especially when her fate becomes tangled with the cold creatures that haunt the wood, and whose king has learned of her reputation and wants to exploit it for reasons Miryem cannot understand.“ GOODREADS
This is the best book I read in 2018. It’s eerie, fairy-tale like and romantic. Naomi Novik is definitely one of my all-time favorite writers. I love love love her portrayal of girls and women and their relationships with each other. Both her main and supporting characters are fleshed out and equally engaging to read about.
The story revolves around two heroines whose fates intertwine more and more as the plot unfolds. Their male love interests (one is the king of some kind of ice elves, the other the tsar who’s possessed by a fire demon) learn to appreciate and love them for their characters, skills and actions.
Spinning Silver features almost every trope I love:
- heroines who are capable instead of beautiful
- enemies to lovers
- arranged marriage
- villainous crush
Monsters and Villains 