Book Review: The Poet, Nickie Krewson
Fantasy: The Poet, Nickie Krewson
My mother loved romance novels. Far from a guilty pleasure, she reveled in them. She would go to libraries, used bookstores, Goodwill and other thrift stores, anywhere that carried them and exchange a shopping bag full of books she had read for a pile of new-to-her romances. I sometimes teased her about possibly rereading them, about the lurid cover art some of them had, and about the unlikely yet oft repeated plots (at least, that’s what I imagined). I will admit to reading a few of them, but overall, romance is not my thing. (My wife would agree–and she’s the editor for Scintilla.)
So I will admit that it took me awhile to start reading The Poet by Nickie Krewson. A local area author, her first book is a fantasy romance. Fairies and humans and romance, oh my. I picked up the book last year during the Central PA Bookfest, part of the local Arts Festival, and put it on my shelf to get to…eventually. When I saw that Nickie Krewson was going to be coming again to the 2019 Bookfest, duty called and I started reading it.
And kept reading it.
In fact, I could hardly put it down.
I really wish my mother were still alive, because this is a book I would recommend to her wholeheartedly. Krewson sets her book in France, and she paints the French countryside beautifully with her words. Most of the action takes place in a small town in France, and the town and the surrounding countryside feel very real. You can almost see it, the sunsets and the fields and the forests. You can almost smell the cafe and hear the traffic and taste the baguettes.
However, the true beauty of this book is in the people. Her characters are intriguing and far from perfect. Yes, there are fairies and magic and the protagonist writes sonnets, but it is not over the top cheesy. In fact, it is very human and down to earth. One character struggles with addiction. Others struggle with their own internal issues. There are very real friendships, true love between parent and child, between brother and sister, and, yes, romantic love as well, but the romance is only part of the story. The friendship between two of the characters, along with the brother/sister relationship two characters develop, may be more important than the romance.
People who like romance should like this book. Many fantasy readers will also enjoy it. But Krewson’s work deserves more than a niche audience. The characters are compelling, the story keeps moving, and the settings are beautiful. It is worth picking up and starting, and if you are like me, you may find it hard to stop.
Nickie Krewson will be at State College’s 2019 PA Bookfest on Saturday, July 13, 2019. This week we are featuring authors who will be part of the bookfest, part of an annual tradition we started last year celebrating authors who are from our local area.