Bell Weather by Dennis Mahoney

Bell Weather had, for me, a sort of Firefly/Serenity feel to it, though set in a colonial/revolutionary war type alter-world rather than the future. The land of Floria, with its quirks and foibles of St. Verna's Fire, winterbears, and deadfall, that brutal end of summer, were as much characters of the book as the humans whose stories unfold and intertwine. I truly hope that Bell Weather is a bellwether for more from Dennis Mahoney featuring the world and characters he so skillfully related.

Quick plot summary: Tom Orange pulls a woman from a raging river, thus changing the world as he knows it forever. Molly claims to have lost her memory, but it soon becomes clear that she is hiding much,  and that the as terrors of the world of Floria will come to the village she now resides, truths will have to be untangled. The tale is told in alternating time frames, with the backstory as compelling as the main.

An Advanced reader copy turned up at my door in a brown paper parcel. No clue how it got there, but I'm glad it did. Scheduled for publication in July 2015.

tags: advanced-reader-copy, didn-t-want-to-put-it-down, fantasy, i-liked-it, read, read-in-2015, read-on-recommendation, will-look-for-more-by-this-author