Title: Hearth Stories Book Two, Summer Solstice 2024
Authors: Gwendolyn Maia Hicks, River West, Margaret Treanor Frey, Alicia Adams, A. Emery Watkins, Morgan Welch, A. Katherine Black, Nancy J. Hayden, H. A. Titus & Erin Keating
Publisher:Hearth Stories
Publication Date: June 20, 2024
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, LGBTQ+, Historical
Length: about 124 pages
Source: I received a free copy from the publisher.
Rating: 5 Stars
Blurb:
Hearth Stories is a speculative fiction magazine focused on cozy fantasy stories. Each issue features a letter from the editor, author bios and interviews, and wonderful stories focused on family, home life, connection, and the natural world.
This issue features the following stories:
The Heart That Beats Behind the Bones by Gwendolyn Maia Hicks
The Woman with the Bird in Her Skirts by River West
Tome for Tea by Margaret Treanor Frey
You’re Always Welcome Hereby Alicia Adams
Bitter Tea by A. Emery Watkins
Marginalia by Morgan Welch
Outside of Wonderful by A. Katherine
Black Skogul by Nancy J. Hayden
Past Lives and Loaves by H. A. Titus
Green Water, Blue Water by Erin Keating
Content Warning: Brief references to dementia, terminal illness, and death. I will not discuss them in my review.
Review:
The past may be a foreign country in some respects, but that’s not all that it is.
“Bitter Tea” focused on a short conversation about human nature between a frog witch and Pilpa, the local sorcerer. I appreciated the perspectives it shared on what makes someone a good or bad person and how much one should extend themselves to help others who may or may not actually feel gratitude for the assistance. There aren’t always clear cut answers to such questions, but puzzling out various answers to them is a great way to pass the time while drinking a cup of tea. I would have happily read more about these characters!
Figuring how to to recreate a type of bread that nobody had made in generations lead Mara on a short quest in “Past Lives and Loves.” I loved the cozy fantasy elements of this tale, especially since the individual she needed to talk to was part of a species that is not typically treated so warmly in the mainstream fantasy genre. The focus on maintaining longterm friendships was another reason this was so meaningful to me. I’m always on the lookout for more stories that do precisely that, and this was a lovely example of how friendship can enrich a character’s life.
Skogul was a raven attempting to understand human customs in “Black Skogul.” Mingus was the human who had raised Skogul from a chick to a full-fledged adult, but now Mingus was beginning to show signs of mental and physical decline as he aged. It’s difficult to say too much about this story without giving away spoilers, but I loved the way the non-human perspective was written. Skogul described certain scenes quite differently than any human would, so it took a little thought to understand what was happening in them. This was a good thing, though, given who the protagonist was and how important their relationship with Mingus had become to both characters over the years.
I wish I could have talked about all of the stories in this anthology in my review. Every one of them was beautifully written and enriched my imagination.
Hearth Stories Book Two, Summer Solstice 2024 was sweet, gentle, and heartwarming. I can’t recommend it highly enough as Summer Solstice approaches.
The Ooze was a Christian message board created by Spencer Burke that existed about 20 years ago when the Internet was quite different from how it is today. It was a gathering place for all sorts of people who were trying to come up with better ways to live out their faith. I met some incredible people there, including my spouse!
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Linda Fetter was my best teacher. She’s almost certainly retired or maybe not even alive anymore based on her age when I first met her and how many years it has been since I graduated high school, therefore I think it’s okay to mention her by name here. I have never seen anything about her online, so I doubt she’ll ever know about this post even if she is still with us.