The Glass Woman audiobook

1686, ICELAND. A time of few choices for a woman. When marriage is not a choice but a means of survival. When you can't marry someone, you have feelings for as he/she might be a social class above or below you. Then, there is the threat of being labeled a witch…. ahh, the good ole days..... "Sometimes I wonder if God hears my grief. Prayers fall like pebbles from my lips, and still the Lord is silent. Even the creator cannot unmake the past." Rosa and her Mother are slowly starving. Without a provider, Rosa has little choice but to marry Jón Eiríksson and move with him to the remote village of Stykkishólmur. The villagers are not very welcoming, and her new husband has many rules such as don't talk to the villagers, do not question him, do as he says, and oh yes, don't ever try to enter the locked loft room. Rosa is lonely and frightened as she hears sounds from above, she becomes anxious and knows that something is amiss. Plus, there are rumors about the death of his first wife and why he buried her at night without informing the villagers.Gossip and rumors are everywhere. Even the women in the village caution Rosa about her husband. But is he really an evil man or just a closed off one? Did he harm his first wife? Was his strange wandering first wife a witch or a troubled woman? Can loneliness drive a person mad? What tricks does our mind play on us when we hear things that go bump in the night?I love books set in harsh bleak cold environments. This book is hauntingly atmospheric, cold and foreboding. The landscape and winter season are just as much a character in this book. Harsh, unforgiving and cold. This book felt Gothic in nature and has been compared to Jane Eyre and Rebecca. There is a dark mystery here as well as tales of longing and love. "Some loves are deep enough to dive into, deep enough for the total submersion of the self.". I read this in one day and found this tale to be both riveting and completely absorbing. I didn't want to put it down. Rosa grows as a character in this book as does the truth and the motivations behind certain characters behavior. This is a beautifully written and gripping tale of superstition, culture, love/forbidden love, culture, and survival.Thank you to HarperCollins Publishers and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Women in Iceland (and everywhere, really) during this time period are expected to marry, and Rosa’s marriage is quickly arranged. She moves with her new husband, Jon, to a remote village, one where they don’t like “outsiders” like Rosa.Rosa discovers her husband has buried his first wife, and she’s suspicious. He won’t speak of her death. The villagers don’t trust Jon either. Rosa senses darkness and worries for her future.The atmosphere is harsh, bleak, and foreboding. The winter is particularly brutal. The Glass House has Gothic elements I enjoyed, and the mystery was full of suspense.Overall, I found The Glass Woman to be a riveting mystery with beautiful writing, a captivating main character, steeped in Icelandic culture, and a satisfying read.I received a complimentary copy from the publisher. All opinions are my own.Many of my reviews can also be found on instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader

17th Century Iceland: Witchcraft is punishable by death. Women are held submissive by virtue of Biblical scriptures. Food is scarce and the ocean is a death trap. The season of winter looms over villages like the shadow of the Engill dauðans. Rosa trades her freedom and future by marrying the well-off bóndi Jon in order to help save her ill mother. After marrying and moving away, she is met with the haunting realization that his croft is filled with secrets and the village brimming with gossip. Her husband is distant, but the noises are near. Is she going mad hearing things?Filled with Icelandic saga references and superstitions, this is a story that I found bewitching. The beginning was a bit difficult for me to adjust to with the use of old language, but I could not stop reading. This novel kept me engaged throughout. I was constantly trying to figure out how did Jon’s first wife die? How did he kill her, or did he have someone else do it? What are the mysterious noises in his croft? Will Rosa be safe, or will she run, or will the marriage grow into love? What about her and Pall? Is Petur to be trusted? I recommend reading on a Kindle in order to translate the Icelandic words and phrases; however, my Kindle was unable to translate some. There was a glossary of Icelandic words in the very back, but I didn't realize that until I had finished reading. Many thanks to HarperCollins, Caroline Lea, and Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. 17th Century Icelandic Tales Witchcraft and Sorcery in Iceland

Oh I DEVOURED this book. Haunting, chilly, beautifully created, 17th Century Iceland comes alive on the page and you feel for  it’s inhabitants who struggle daily to survive..Into this epic landscape comes Rosa, who marries for practical purposes not love and who comes to believe she may be in grave danger from Husband Jon, the death of his first wife being  surrounded by gossip, intrigue and dark mutterings of witchcraft..Caroline Lea paints a deeply sinister picture of  Rosa’s new home and draws you into this relentlessly harsh environment where death is only ever a breath away. Rosa is an amazingly engaging character, fiercely independent internally whilst outwardly projecting obedience, you get totally caught up in her wish to know the secrets hidden from her.The whole thing is entirely gorgeously addictive, I found the growing relationship between Rosa and Jon utterly riveting, with  the community around them and it’s suspicious nature both dividing them and drawing them together.I won’t give too much away but this is both clever and pitched perfectly, even the mundane day to day tasks are vividly drawn, there is not a single dull moment.The Glass Woman is melancholy and heart breaking, a tale to fall into, it is unpredictable and so so good. Loved it.Don’t miss it!Highly Recommended.

Q:But such moments of savage contentment are as fleeting as the reflection of the swelling moon blinking upon the surface of the sea. Only ever minutes old, they dissolve with a passing cloud, or a gust of wind.In every human heart glows a tiny flame of hope that tomorrow will bring a love that might satisfy the smouldering yearning to be known. In some hearts, that fire is greedy and becomes a devouring inferno. It leaves only dead ash and dry dust behind. The wind whirls it into emptiness.But there is such heat while it burns … And the light is infinite. (c)Q:The darkness is smothering, but I can hear the inhalations of the waves and smell the salt. The sea has been present all of my days, like lifeblood. (c)Q:Neither of us will let the other fall. (c)Q:Love opens us, as an earthquake opens the earth.I turn to face the sea and I walk. I am overwhelmed by the sensation of lightness, as if the stones weigh nothing. It is a return to the still waters, after a lifetime of currents and drift.And, beneath the breathing sky, I have never felt more alive. (c)Q:One day she will return. (c)Q:Some stories she will not tell. She will choose, day by day, which truths to reveal. And, gradually, the tales she tells will become truth. In this way, she will live with who she has become. She is a woman capable of violence. She is a woman who did what was necessary. She is a woman who has survived.But the truth isn’t solid, like the earth; she knows that now. The truth is water, or steam; the truth is ice. The same tale might shift and melt and reshape at any time. (c)Q:Thoughts of her husband and all that happened in Stykkishólmur are distant and ice-covered. They belong to another life. For now, this closeness, this comfort, is all that exists. (c)

17th century Iceland is not an easy place to live. Impoverished, Rosa marries to keep her mother alive and in doing so elevates her social standing, leaves the love of her life behind, and enters a world of unceasing work. The death of her husband’s first wife is the cause of gossip and rumor among the villagers and there is something (or someone) in a locked room upstairs that goes bump in the night. This is stark, dark and very satisfying.

What better setting for a winter read than Iceland? The Glass Woman opens with a striking image: a tremor cracks the ice and a body floats to the surface of the sea, arm aloft, 'bone-white fingers waving, as if alive'. It's November 1686 on the western coast of Iceland, and as a group of villagers gathers, a man among them reflects on recent memories. He, we understand, knows the identity of the person under the ice; he put them there.The main story, however, takes place months earlier and centres on a young woman named Rósa. Living in a small, impoverished community, she fears her mother, Sigridúr, will not survive the winter unless she finds a way to pay for extra insulation and food. The solution is marriage to Jón, a wealthy bonði (chieftain of a settlement). Their union ensures Sigridúr's safety and comfort. But it also takes Rósa away from her home (and her first love Páll) to live with Jón in Stykkishólmur. There, she finds the villagers suspicious and fearful, whispering about the death of Jón's first wife Anna and warning Rósa against disobeying him.Rósa finds her new husband (and his right-hand man Pétur) quietly terrifying. Jón expects her to stay in their croft alone, with nothing to do but housework and Bible study. Then there's the loft space he insists on keeping locked, the creaking floorboards Rósa hears at night, the figure standing beside her bed in the dark...The Glass Woman is a retelling of 'Bluebeard': this becomes clearer as the story goes on, though Lea strays from the template in pleasing ways. In terms of more contemporary fiction, it has the intrigue and emotional core of The Miniaturist combined with the setting and atmosphere of Burial Rites. It also reminded me a little of The Silent Companions – both feature a recently married woman travelling to her husband's home, only to find it filled with secrets and things that go bump in the night.If I were to criticise anything, it would be the length. I'm not entirely convinced that the story needs to be 400 pages long; given the limited nature of a) the setting and b) what Rósa can actually do with her time, some scenes begin to feel repetitive.But the payoff is worth it: I was thoroughly captivated throughout and the ending(s) almost made me cry. I loved how The Glass Woman subverted expectations, particularly how it showed the power of gossip and hearsay in establishing 'facts' (and myths, and, in time, fairytales). In the end, practically nobody in the story plays the role they originally appear to be designed for.I received an advance review copy of The Glass Woman from the publisher through NetGalley.TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr

Book Reviewed by Stacey on www.whisperingstories.comAugust 1686, Iceland. Rósa, the daughter of the late Bishop of Skalholt is living with her mother Sigridur in a little hut. They once lead a comfortable life, now after the death of her father, Rósa and her mother are struggling.A new wealthy man, Jón Eiríksson, arrives in town, they say his wife has only been dead for a few months and that he is there to not only deal with some work but to find himself a local girl to marry too.With Rósa’s mum being very poorly and the family now having next to no money, when Jón takes a fancy to Rósa at first she rebukes his charm but the sicker her mother becomes the more she realises it is the only way that she can help her, so Rósa agrees to marry Jón and move to live with her new husband in a remote village called Stykkishólmur. In exchange, he will help her mother and the villagers to live a more comfortable life.Moving to a new place with only her new husband who she barely knows and Petur who works for her husband, Róse becomes increasingly unhappy and isolated. There are plenty of rumours surrounding the death of Jón’s first wife and with a locked attic room in her house that Jón forbids her to enter, Rósa becomes concerned that something is amiss and that maybe the rumours are true.Weird noise keeps Rósa awake at night and she is convinced that there are dark spirits at play in the settlement. With an unsupportive husband who is very commanding and the feeling of dread hanging over her, could Rósa’s life be in danger?, and can she solve the mystery of what happened to Jón’s first wife, the wife he refuses to talk about?The first thing you will notice when you begin reading this book is how atmospheric it is. I haven’t read many books set in Iceland, but this historical book set in the country where darkness fills the time more than the daylight is exceptionally surreal. The coldness that the characters have to deal with is felt through the pages and at times it made me shiver. This shows how realistic the book felt at times.The book is set in an era where people believed in ghosts, spirits, witches, legends, etc and had their own way of dealing with them from chants, potions, and even runes to ward off the bad spirits and keep people safe.Both Rósa and Jón were fascinating characters to get involved with and it was a joy and a privilege to watch their development, especially Rosa’s, as this was a woman living in 1686 who was educated, wise beyond her years and knew what she wanted in life. As the book progressed so did their characters and I loved watching them evolve. The book is quite slow in pace, however, the story was so absorbing that the slowness wasn’t an issue.It took me about a week to read the book as I needed to concentrate on the plot to fully devour it. It is captivating and has a real Gothic, mystical feel to it. It was nice to read a book that really lived up to its title too.

“Overhead the ravens wheel and shriek, always searching for the dead.”In the prologue we are transported to 1686 Iceland. As the ice shifts and cracks the sea releases a trapped body. This sets the tone for the story of how each character is trapped. They are trapped, in part, by the time they live in. A time that punishes by death those who practice the old beliefs, demands a female always remain obedient and frequently forbids the expression of love. When one is forced to hide one’s true feelings it follows that secrecy and fear take hold. Left alone in her croft Elsa becomes fearful. She experiences strange sounds from above and feels something moving past her in the dark cold nights. Her thoughts begin to torment her. She wonders if she might die from loneliness. The source of her fear is invisible so she searches her memory for answers. Does she hold an experience from her past that is capable of creating this much fear? Without any real experience to rely on her mind moves to superstitions. She tells herself she must be imagining things. If only she weren’t so alone and afraid to ask questions. Yet through her torment and the web of secrecy and lies around her one always discerns love peeking out from the center. Each character loves someone and with this love comes desperation. They love someone so much they will do anything to protect them. Somber, mystical and suspenseful The Glass Woman is above all else a story of love.

The Glass Woman is a deceptively bleak tale set in the vast icy expanse of seventeenth-century Iceland, and what I enjoyed the most was how very dark it was; the atmosphere was ominous, to say the least, and completely oppressive. The beautiful, brutal setting added to the atmospherics wonderfully a

I had so many different feelings and views as i get deeper into the story. Each new page or chapter turns over something new and unexpected that it is impossible not to enjoy. The writting style is easy and enjoyable. It is packed with information and twists. I cryed at the end. I loved this book and the characters. It leaves you with so much to think about with each individual and their own part in the story. Nothing till the book is finished is what it may seem