Castle of the Winds

by Christina Baehr

Synopsis:

At Midsummer’s Eve, the Red Dragon will choose his bride.

Following this mysterious invitation, Edith sets off on a quest to the Castle of the Winds to find a lost family of dragon keepers in the mountains of Wild Wales.

But all is not as it seems. Edith must guard her own hidden power, or she might not return to her friends in Ormdale—including the man who has come to love her. Will Edith make an alliance with the legendary Red Dragon of her dreams to safeguard her ancestral charge, or will she lose everything she has tried to protect?

Book 3 of The Secrets of Ormdale is a breathtaking adventure that will take Edith to exhilarating new heights…and deeper into peril than ever before.

Oof, it’s difficult to know what to say about Christina Baehr’s Castle of the Winds. I think in writing it and setting it mostly in Wales, she did do some research into Wales at that period: she seemed to know about things like the Welsh Not and the Treachery of the Blue Books (Brad y Llyfrau Gleision), even if she didn’t directly reference the latter: certainly her characters discuss the situation of the Welsh versus the English in the Victorian period.

But… all that research, and she didn’t really think that maybe this wasn’t a story she should be telling, at least not with an Anglican clergyman’s daughter as the heroine? It risks becoming a bit of a “white saviour” sort of story (granted, of other white people, but nonetheless of people she’s viewing as “primitive”). It’s especially problematic since Nonconformist religion was part of what led the Welsh to be viewed as lesser. It’s all a bit messy and interacts weirdly with the fact that the bad guys have set up a socialist, atheist Welsh commune with faux-medieval trappings.

I was basically uncomfortable with the story from the moment someone was announced as “Arthur, Prince of Gwynedd”, and also “Lord Pendragon”, and I didn’t get any happier about it the further I went along. It tiptoes along the edge of being okay, nominally sympathetic to the ordinary Welsh people caught up in it all, but… I don’t know.

It’s probably also pretty weird that despite her Jewish mother, she’s so very Anglican Christian.

I don’t know if I’ll read more of this series to see how things shake out. I enjoyed it quite a lot prior to this book, because when she’s not being positioned as a saviour to the poor ignorant Welsh, Edith and her relationship with Simon are great fun. She’s a little bit in the mould of Emily Wilde and Isabella Trent, and I enjoy that very much. I guess we’ll see how it sits with me given a little time.

Rating: 1/5 (“didn’t like it”)

Drake Hall

by Christina Baehr

Synopsis:

Edith’s ancient home is full of secrets…and dragons are the least of them.

As the new dragon keeper in the hidden valley of Ormdale, Edith expects her first dragon mating season to involve venomous bites and amorous wyverns. She doesn’t expect to find herself growing closer to an inconveniently appealing suitor next door, or to stumble upon a dragon poacher lurking in the outbuildings, or to uncover a family scandal in the Abbey.

Fortunately, Edith has a mentor to help her sort things out, the spellbinding Helena Drake of Drake Hall. Or does Helena harbour secrets of her own?

For Edith, the dragons were always going to be the easy part.

Christina Baehr’s Drake Hall is the second book of the series, and I think it got off the ground a bit faster than the first book — certainly I didn’t stall partway through reading, and felt pretty impelled through it. I did feel a bit cringy about certain aspects, and I’m not sure what’s going to happen when her cousin finds out what Edith’s been writing exactly (feels like a prime moment for some stupid misunderstanding).

It was definitely interesting to see Edith ending up somewhat in opposition to a particular character; it’s not something I’d been expecting, from the build-up, though we got hints in that direction pretty quickly in this installment.

I’m not quite sold on the potential romance, still, but there does now feel like there’s some space for it to grow, so… we’ll see!

Overall it feels a bit like an episode, or a part of a bigger book, rather than a standalone novel (in some ways, at least) — I’m glad I have the next one to continue onto.

Rating: 3/5