She’s the One Who Won’t Behave – 4 Star Book Review

Gypsum, the sixth of seven sisters, has always been a rebel.

Welcome to one of the July 25th stops on the blog tour for She’s the One Who Won’t Behave by S. R. Cronin with Goddess Fish Promotions. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for spotlights, more reviews, and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post.

Please note that this post contains affiliate links, which means there is no additional cost to you if you shop using my links, but I will earn a small percentage in commission. A program-specific disclaimer is at the bottom of this post.

I’ve been reviewing at featuring this series since the beginning!

• Book 1: She’s the One Who Thinks Too Much – 4 Star Review
• Book 2: She’s the One Who Cares Too Much – 4 Star Review
• Book 3: She’s the One Who Gets in Fights – 5 Star Review, Excerpt Tour
• Book 4: She’s the One Who Doesn’t Say Much – 5 Star Review, Excerpt Tour
• Book 5: She’s the One Who Can’t Keep Quiet – 5 Star Review, Excerpt Tour
• Book 6: She’s the One Who Won’t Behave – Cover Reveal

About the Book

She’s the One Who Won’t Behave
The War Stories of the Seven Troublesome Sisters Book Six
by Sherrie R. Cronin

Published 8 July 2022
Cinnabar Press

Genre: Historical Fantasy
Page Count: 289
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!

Gypsum, the sixth of seven sisters, has always been a rebel. Yet no one thought she would go so far as to join the reczavy, a group living in tents on the edge of the desert and known for their sexual promiscuity and playful ways.

But as the date of the Mongols’ return draws near, Ilarians of all types must work together if they are to have any hope of surviving. And the reczavy, for all of their odd ways, do have plenty of tricks up their sleeves. Well, up their sleeves whenever they are bothering to wear clothes, that is.

Gypsum is touched when her oldest sister Ryalgar comes to call, and brings an olive branch with her. Ryalgar recognizes that the reczavy have as much to lose as anyone, and as much to contribute. Will Gypsum accept a key role in the plan to stop the invasion? Of course she will.

Unfortunately, her playmates don’t all feel the same sense of urgency. Many would rather simply enjoy the time they have left. A few claim to be allergic to long term planning. And some are too busy with their own poorly-timed plans to overthrow the government Ilari already has.

Good thing needlepoint is the one traditional skill at which Gypsum has always excelled. She will need to thread a fine needle in order to coax this recalcitrant group into becoming life-saving warriors of a very different kind.

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Excerpt

I walked back to the room I shared and gathered up thread and supplies to occupy me all day. Then I walked until I found a sunny spot to sit.

Sewing had always calmed me. I did most of the mending for my family or had when I’d lived at home. It was the one activity that earned me any respect. What a shame this talent wasn’t considered worthy of advanced study, like art or music or teaching.

Now I did needlepoint for fun, and crocheted sometimes too, although others usually found my results too disorderly. Tatting was my favorite. The beautiful bits of knotted lace grew in whatever wild patterns suited my mood, and they always came out beautiful to anyone’s eye.

Today I took threads in shades of green. Green like the Velka, whom many referred to as green witches because of their talents with plants. We didn’t talk about them much at my house, of course, although I got the vague impression that my mother’s unexplained dislike of them had something to do with me. Maybe I’d work up the nerve to ask her about it. Someday.

I sat cross-legged on the ground in my day dress, cursing the confinement of my clothes. I’d have been far more comfortable in my night shift or even just wearing my breast band and the short breeches I put on under my skirts. I thought of how soothing the sun would feel on my bare skin and wondered why my world denied me such a simple pleasure.

My fingers flew as I made the familiar knots in the thick thread. The voices in my head stopped complaining as I worked, and I felt my shoulders relax. Good. I knew I put myself into each thing I created, and I wanted to infuse this green lace with all the calm I could. Then I’d fasten pieces onto each dress I owned. Maybe over the next several days they could wash the image of these horrible invaders from my mind.

My Review

My Rating: 4 Stars
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I was granted complimentary access to She’s the One Who Won’t Behave by S. R. Cronin as part of my participation in a blog tour for this title with Goddess Fish Promotions, as I have been for each book in this series, and I would like to once again thank all involved in affording me this opportunity! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.

Each novel in this series is a companion novel covering the same period of time, but from the point of view of each sister in this particular family from eldest Ryalgar in She’s the One Who Thinks Too Much, all the way down to, so far, second-youngest Gypsum, here in She’s the One Who Won’t Behave. Their realm is in imminent peril. The Mongols are invading and the powers that control the kingdoms are willing to sacrifice outer communities in order to buy the central locations more time. As residents of one of those outer communities in the path of destruction, Gypsum and her sisters, along with everyone they’ve recruited to the cause, are staging their own efforts against the Mongol hoard themselves. The interesting and key part here is that each sister in this family possesses a unique, magical gift that, as it turns out, proves extremely useful in their plans.

I have been looking forward to reading Gypsum’s story ever since I figured out what format this series was going with and that we’d get an entire book from each sister. Why? The reczavy! They’ve been presented as this world’s version of Romani-type people and I have been SO intrigued by the little bits and pieces we’ve been fed about this little outcast society through the other books. But in this one? Gypsum has joined them! This one is almost entirely told from within the reczavy.

I did end up loving most things about these people and how they live. It’s mostly what I predicted based on the above-mentioned tid bits and my own hopes, and that was so satisfying. I love how sex-positive and LGBTQIA+ friendly the reczavy are, and just the continued positivity and representation in these books in general. The reczavy’s part to play in the disruption of the Mongol invasion also promised to be the most interesting and entertaining yet, and that absolutely did not disappoint!

With that said, I didn’t quite connect with Gypsum herself as much as I had hoped I would. My favourite sister is Sulphur from book three, followed closely by Olivine in book four, and compared to those two Gypsum was more of a Coral for me. Her story is important, the characters introduced with her are important, I loved the contribution to the world, but I didn’t so much connect with this sister.

As I mention in all of my reviews for this series, technically speaking you can read these books in any order. They’re companion novels covering the exact same time period and key events, and the characters do all cross paths and interweave. With that said, the first book does a lot of explaining about the world, the people groups, and the magic systems that aren’t re-explored as in-depth in the rest of the books, so that’s the most sensible starting point. I will also say that there is a very important secondary character in books two and three who plays very different life-altering roles in each title sister’s lives and I don’t think book two will have quite the same impact on your first read through if you read book three first. Beyond that, read these books in whatever order you please!

I’m eagerly awaiting the seventh installment, Iolite’s story, and curious about whether or not we’ll finally get a “what happens next” at the end or in an eighth book. Bring it on!

About the Author

Sherrie Cronin is the author of a collection of six speculative fiction novels known as 46. Ascending and is now in the process of publishing a historical fantasy series called The War Stories of the Seven Troublesome Sisters. A quick look at the synopses of her books makes it obvious she is fascinated by people achieving the astonishing by developing abilities they barely knew they had.

She’s made a lot of stops along the way to writing these novels. She’s lived in seven cities, visited forty-six countries, and worked as a waitress, technical writer, and geophysicist. Now she answers a hot-line. Along the way, she’s lost several cats but acquired a husband who still loves her and three kids who’ve grown up just fine, both despite how odd she is.

All her life she has wanted to either tell these kinds of stories or be Chief Science Officer on the Starship Enterprise. She now lives and writes in the mountains of Western North Carolina, where she admits to occasionally checking her phone for a message from Captain Picard, just in case.

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Giveaway Alert!

S. R. Cronin will be awarding a $20 Amazon or B&N gift card to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

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