Books by Mathilda Zeller

The Bee King by Mathilda Zeller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Bee King is a young adult story with elements of horror, so would perhaps suit mature teens and above.

Alice lives on an island where poverty and crop failures often lead islanders to sell their daughters. Alice will do anything to protect her sister and cousin; she works hard and defends them from her abusive, drunken father.

One day the mysterious, fabled Bee Men arrive in the town, offering families much needed money in return for sending their daughters to a special ball where one will be chosen as the new wife of the Bee King, and Alice does all she can to protect her sister and cousin.

With many analogies to bees and their life-cycle, this is an enchanting tale. It’s a little gruesome in places and does touch on sensitive subject matters which some readers may find difficult to read about. There are whiffs of fairy tales and fables woven in to the narrative with a sprinkle of magic and revenge. If you like bees and a touch of horror, then this is worth a read.

View all my reviews on Goodreads

Orange rose book description — Book description

When the crops fail, the monsters come.

When the monsters come, they buy the daughters.

Alice would do anything to keep her sister and cousin out of the hands of the monsters. She would even accept a marriage proposal from the Bee King, the mysterious honey magnate allegedly driving the prosperity of the empire.

But when she arrives at the Apiary, the secluded estate of her betrothed, nothing is as it seems. The empire’s wealthy and famous are converging upon the estate and she soon learns that the Bee King is not marrying her for love or lust, but third reason–a dark, strange, and deadly reason.

AmazonUK | AmazonUS

The Revenge of Bridget Cleary by Mathilda Zeller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Revenge of Bridget Cleary is a supernatural historical tale.

Are you a witch? Are you a fairy? Are you the daughter of Bridget Cleary?

Brigid has been accused by the Queen Of The Fairies of being an accessory to her mother’s murder. She has until midsummer’s eve to fill a chest with gold and a chest with blood to appease the queen. Brigid is working on the chest of gold, putting her job as a scullery maid in a large house to good use. But the chest of blood is harder to fill.

With a ghost talking in her head and her fairy powers mistakenly shared with a mortal, Brigid hops from one potential disaster to another in this fun and magical story. I liked this galloping adventure with its fairy lore and Irish charm, and can quite happily recommend it.

View all my reviews on Goodreads

Exiled for a murder her father committed, Brigid Cleary has until midsummer to gather what she needs for readmission to her home in the fairy mound: a chest of stolen gold and a chest full of her father’s blood. With nothing but her own wits and an ability to be mostly unseen, she takes a position as a scullery maid in a country manor house, where stealing gold is easy as dusting the candlesticks.

When discovery of her thieving becomes likely, she scarpers, embarking on a madcap season in London. With midsummer fast approaching, Brigid must recoup her stolen gold in any way she can, even if it means modeling for a lecherous pre Raphaelite artist, posing as a young debutante to spy on other debutantes, and forming a clandestine Pugilism Club for Young Ladies.

With gold filling her pockets and her father newly released from prison, the path back to the fairies should be clear. Or would be, were it not for her growing feelings for Edmund, the gentle young lord who hired her to spy on his sister; her burgeoning sense of loyalty and friendship to Adelaide, the sister upon whom she was meant to spy; and the unsettling question of whether she should–or even could–bloodily avenge her mother’s death.

Inspired by the actual 1895 murder of Bridget Cleary by her husband Michael, the struggle for Irish Home Rule, and events surrounding the late pre Raphaelite artistic movement, The Revenge of Bridget Cleary has been heralded by author Joanna Ruth Meyer as “equal parts haunting, compelling, and throughtful.”

AmazonUK | AmazonUS