The third book in this series was recommended to me by Amazon (thank you God of algorithms) and when I clicked on the author’s name to find the first book I noticed that I had read another one of her titles-The Green Monster – years ago before I knew what lesfic was. I had befriended an older woman on the internet who was a huge fan of novels featuring lesbians. We ended up bonding over this, although my exposure to those sort of books was dramatically limited, which resulted in her sending me PDFs via e-mail (I recognize that piracy is illegal, but rule bending can result in such positive life-changing experiences). When I noticed Gill McKnight was the author of the Garoul series and one of my first lesfic reads, I jumped at reading (and actually buying) Goldenseal. As previously mentioned, this is the first book in a five-part series (the fifth being a prequal). I haven’t read the others yet, but I intend to!
Here’s the premise-
Amy returns to Little Dip Valley after a six year hiatus spent traveling Europe to study art and commission high end gigs. She is called back by Marie, her aunt Connie’s, partner, to finish the illustrations her aunt started for the Garoul family almanac, which the family press publishes. I love it when authors delve into the tedious aspects of a craft or job that I know nothing about. Illustrating nature sounds so complicated and interesting- I enjoyed reading about it. Amy’s teenage flame, and Marie’s daughter, Leone, is the new editor for the press and is supposed to be Amy’s chaperone for her trips into the woods, but past emotions and resentments impede this plan. It’s clear from the beginning that Leone still has strong feelings toward Amy and I thought this relationship developed well in the background of the growing mystery Amy is trying to uncover; although it felt sort of unfinished at the end, I can write that off to it being part of a series. I don’t want to give too much away but I thought the book had a captivating plot that kept me engaged the entire time. I’d categorize this as a soft fantasy- a lesbian Twilight if you will, but much better, and kill off the Cullen family. There’s definitely enough action in here to keep you entertained, and, personally, I read this book as quickly as I could because it was so enjoyable and enticing.
One thing that did feel a little out of place to me was how quickly Amy forgave Leone and fell back with her. Magic love potions and wolf-mate connection aside, I think there needed to be a little more effort put in from Leone, besides her domineering sexual desire, to show Amy that she still cared for her. It worked out nicely in the end and all was explained, but their first lay did feel a bit unnatural, especially considering how adamant Amy was about keeping Leone at bay because of her hurt feelings. I definitely see how Amy was charmed by Leone casting love spells but I didn’t buy it as being enough to melt away enough of Amy’s hardened heart for them to sleep together. I know the full explanation came at the end, but I think she needed a more meaningful conversation about the past before they slept together and pretty much fell back into a relationship. Although, the sex was hot, and I totally ship this couple.
I loved McKnight’s imagery in describing Little Dip Valley. In fact, the imagery of everything in this book was pretty captivating. I particularly liked how I could imagine the different smells, though, unfortunately, not all of them were very pleasant, but I enjoyed how vivid they were. I think that it’s especially hard to describe wooded areas in fiction because to an outsider, all woods can look the same- trees, rocks, leaves- but by the time I was finished reading this book, to quote Amy, I felt like I knew Little Dip like the back of my hand.
If you are into fantastical stories equipped with unraveling mysteries, background info on botanical illustrating, and plenty of the tall dark and handsome then you might enjoy Goldenseal. https://www.amazon.com/Goldenseal-Garoul-Book-Gill-McKnight
Follow Gill McKnight at @gill_mcknight