Every Good Folktale Reveals Both Heroes and Villains - an Editorial Review of "The Fern Flower"

Book Blurb:

Russia 1908-1917

Every good folktale reveals villains and heroes. Mila Belova’s world is overflowing with both.

Born into privilege as the daughter of the Tsar’s favored vodka maker, Mila appears to have everything: wealth, status, and a household devoted to her happiness. But behind the gilded doors of her family estate, she is trapped by the cruelty of a stepmother whose greatest wish is to give birth to her own child.

Each summer on Ivan Kupala Eve, Russia turns its gaze to river bends and forest floors in search of the legendary Fern Flower—a mythical bloom said to grant fortune, power, and the deepest desires of the heart. Only one person had ever found it.

Until Mila.

Years later, in the fading grandeur of Petrograd, Mila and her friends slip into the fabled Stray Dog Café, once the sanctuary of Russia’s most daring artists and dreamers. Inspired by its ghosts, murals, and memories, Mila's group resurrects the work she'd first imagined as a child. The Fern Flower is a breathtaking ballet drawn from folklore, magic, and the secrets of Mila’s past.

But in the fiercely competitive ranks of the Imperial Ballet School, talent is never enough. Though Mila wrote the ballet and her gifted musician friend composed its score, rivals question whether Mila is worthy of claiming the coveted lead role.

As World War I intensifies and revolution ignites, the Russia Mila knows begins to collapse. Family secrets surface, loyalties are tested, and the people she loves begin to disappear. When her parents flee and her young brother’s life hangs in the balance, Mila is faced with an impossible choice: remain with the found family who helped her chase her dreams or risk everything to save the person who needs her most.

With Russian folklore, imperial grandeur, and the fierce beauty of ballet, The Fern Flower is a sweeping tale of ambition, friendship, sacrifice, and the magic that survives even when the world is falling apart.

Book Buy Link: https://geni.us/nEsWrRB

Author Bio:

Bestselling author, Kathleen Shoop, holds a PhD in reading education and has more than 20 years of experience in the classroom. She writes historical fiction, women’s fiction and romance. Shoop’s novels have garnered various awards in the Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY), Eric Hoffer Book Awards, Indie Excellence Awards, Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Readers’ Favorite and the San Francisco Book Festival. Kathleen has been featured in USA Today and the Writer’s Guide to 2013. Her work has appeared in The Tribune-Review, four Chicken Soup for the Soul books and Pittsburgh Parent magazine. Kathleen coordinates Mindful Writing Retreats and is a regular presenter at conferences for writers.

I adore writing historical fiction (The Letter series, After the Fog and Donora Stories that are coming soon!) but am having a blast writing romance like Home Again, Return to Love and Tending Her Heart (Endless Love series). Thank you so much for the time you take to read.

Editorial Review:

Title: The Fern Flower

Author: Kathleen Shoop

Rating: 4.4

A moon narrating a story? Well, that happens in “The Fern Flower” by Kathleen Shoop. Her name is Grusha- the magnificent who sees all things and she has been watching Mila Antonovna Belova, since her birth in Imperial Russia. Grusha has witnessed love, betrayal, as well as the brutal education of a girl who wanted only to dance but somehow found herself turned a legend. The book opens on New Year’s Eve in 1908. Mila who is only eight years old is walking with her father as they make recollections of her mother who recently died. He decides to tell her about his second mother as well as how he won Mila’s mother’s heart during a performance in Moscow. This episode is quickly followed by his surprise announcement that he has someone very special who he wants Mila to meet.

“The woman straightened and clenched her jaw, her gaze shooting around the room… Her approach blocked the sun streaming through the transom, chilling Mila. She’d had the shadow of many a dance teacher fall over her, words of criticism and instruction that sometimes smarted, but never anything like this, a woman who brought the scent of dread like the odor of ballet sweat.”

Here, the reader understands through the small unconscious movements the woman makes that something vital has already happened in Mila’s life, as well as the corruption of something sacred around the household. The reader knows something is coming, and they ache to know whether Mila will shrink or stand. Here, the prose is outstanding in how it foretells disaster in the language of the weather, light and smell, creating a moment that also teaches the reader that going forward, they need pay attention to nonverbal cues.

“Why would you cut your hair?” he whispered.

Mila couldn’t get the words out… “That’s why the hairpiece didn’t match… I never thought… Oh, Mila. Maman did this?” He shook his head as though doing so would make Mila tell him it wasn’t true “…she just wanted today to be perfect, for her to be perfect in front of all our friends.”

This is the aftermath of Mila’s stepmother cutting her hair to hide her own baldness. The act feels like a physical blow to a young woman who has been silenced, and one who might not have the nerve to acknowledge it aloud. The reader waits to see whether her father will act, or whether he will simply downplay the act for the sake of his new wife’s comfort.

“It was near the end of November when commotion from Maman and Papa’s room drew Mila’s attention while she readied to leave for school. Maman was on the floor, her white gown splotched with red, the white tile splattered with pools of the same crimson color. The fear on Lottie’s face shocked Mila as much as the sight of Maman… Could that have been the cause? Was Mila the reason Maman was suffering?”

The reader knows what this situation is about, way before Mila does. Lottie, who has been Mila’s rock, often comforting her, begins to have uncertainties. The reader watches, wondering what hope there is for Mila, and what could happen if Mila learns that even Lottie wondered whether she is cursed. The reader turns the page desperate to know whether this loss deepens the household’s blame, a blame which is the novel’s metaphor for how families fail their most vulnerable members, or those least able to resist it.

This book is outstanding in its decision to tell the story through the eyes of the moon, Grusha, an ancient entity who has seen civilizations rise and fall. Basically, she has seen it all. She has no limitations and does not flinch and in fact, one feels like they are flinching for her as she narrates unblinking. She emerges as the novel’s most unexpected character, and also its most essential, offering not just a unique perspective but a charge and a responsibility as well that does not end with the novel’s final page. The character development of Mila is beautifully rendered, even as she moves from a grieving eight year old to a woman who can make decisions for herself. She is not perfect, never is, and comes out as a character worth emulating, not because she is heroic but because she survives what would destroy many. Through her, the novel argues that art can become a saviour and that the corruption of the innocent can easily occur through the accumulation of daily blame and the act of mature people looking away.

Performing arts enthusiasts will love the ballet scenes and fans of Imperial Russia will find the historical context immersive. Additionally, anyone who had a difficult childhood will recognize themselves in Mila, as well as young readers who may have outgrown the formulaic YAs. “The Fern Flower” is also a read for anyone who has ever been blamed for things they did not do.

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