Review: A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid
From the publisher:
Effy Sayre has always believed in fairy tales. Haunted by visions of the Fairy King since childhood, she's had no choice. Her tattered copy of Angharad--Emrys Myrddin's epic about a mortal girl who falls in love with the Fairy King, then destroys him--is the only thing keeping her afloat. So when Myrddin's family announces a contest to redesign the late author's estate, Effy feels certain it's her destiny.
But musty, decrepit Hiraeth Manor is an impossible task, and its residents are far from welcoming. Including Preston Héloury, a stodgy young literature scholar determined to expose Myrddin as a fraud. As the two rivals piece together clues about Myrddin's legacy, dark forces, both mortal and magical, conspire against them--and the truth may bring them both to ruin.
Review:
I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. It has a very love or hate reputation in my various book groups and my only experience with Ava Reid was Thorn & Juniper that had me wondering what the heck I had just read. For me, A Study in Drowning could best be described as Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross meets What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher. From Divine Rivals we had the enemies to lovers relationship, similar time period, war, weird magic and an obsession with the gods. From What Moves the Dead we had a creepy, dilapidated house, mystery, and things not being what they seem.
The story itself is very slow paced but will have you guessing as to what's going on. My main annoyance was that we were told what was going on at the end rather than shown all the clues in order to figure it out for ourselves.
4/5 stars