She’s The One Who Cares Too Much – 4 Star Book Review

Welcome to one of the March 8th stops on the review tour for She’s The One Who Cares Too Much by S. R. Cronin, organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for 7 other reviews and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post.

You might also be interested in checking out my review stop from the tour for book one. I’m very much looking forward to continuing review tour features with this series as the books continue to come out!

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About the Book

She’s the One Who Cares Too Much
War Stories of the Seven Troublesome Sisters Book Two
by S. R. Cronin

Published 12 February 2021
Cinnabar Press

Genre: Historical Fantasy
Page Count: 226
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!

Coral, the second of seven sisters, has been hiding her affair with the perfect man until her older sister can get her life together. But the perfect man is getting impatient and now she’s gotten pregnant. Coral decides it’s time to consider her own happiness.

But what does she want? The perfect husband turns out to be less than ideal. She adores the small children she teaches but the idea of being a mother fills her with joy. Meanwhile, her homeland is gripped by fear of a Mongol invasion and she can’t stop crying about everything now that she’s with child.

Then a friend suggests the ever-caring Coral possesses a power well beyond what she or anyone else imagines. Does she? And why is the idea so appealing?

When Coral’s big sister loses faith in the army and decides to craft a way to use magic to save Ilari from the Mongols, she decides Coral’s formidable talent is what the realm needs. Can Coral raise a baby, placate an absent military husband who thinks he’s stopping the invasion, and help her sister save her homeland?

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Excerpt

I looked around and saw six of the other seven teachers. Where was Sakina? Had word not gotten to her? Oh dear, perhaps she’d been in the outhouse.

Sakina was my closest friend at the school, but even if she hadn’t been, I’d have felt responsible, given I was the one to sound the alarm. So I reminded everyone to remain silent, then left to find her. Yes, I was afraid of being caught outside when the thieves arrived, but what could I do?

I found Sakina by the school door, hands on her hips, exasperated as she tried to get the attention of two older students who were too busy calling each other names to listen to her.

What? These two picked now to have a spat? I was not about to let this sort of nonsense put anyone in danger.

“You!” I barked it to the girl as I stepped in between the two squabblers and put my face inches from hers. “Sit down and calm down. Do. It. Now.” She sat.

I turned to the other and let my eyes bore into his. “Stop talking. Walk into the barn and do not open your mouth.”  He glared at me, but he did as he was told.

My tone softened as I turned to Sakina. “You sure have your hands full with these two. Go, get to the barn with him. I’ll bring this other one.”

Once there was enough distance between the two students, I grabbed the girl by the wrist, gave her a look that said don’t say a word, and led her to the barn door. The man who’d first apprised me of the danger was waiting to close it behind me. Odd, I know, but I suddenly realized what an attractive man he was. To my surprise, he gave me a nod and smile of admiration.

“That was well done, teacher Coral. My name is Davor. Once we repel these brigands, perhaps you and I could share some wine.”

Really?

My Review

My Rating: 4 Stars
Consider liking my review on Goodreads.

I read She’s the One Who Thinks Too Much for a blog tour with Goddess Fish Promotions and eagerly signed up for the second book’s review tour as soon as it was announced, but just to make sure I got the opportunity I also requested it on NetGalley and was approved. Thank you to all involved in affording me this opportunity from both sources! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.

She’s the One Who Cares Too Much is the second book in the War Stories of the Seven Troublesome Sisters series by S. R. Cronin, and it follows the story of the second-born sister Coral. This book is fairly well self-contained and if any readers interested in the series gain access to this one first I do think it’s readable on its own. There’s a lot of world-building done in book one that isn’t repeated that might leave gaps in establishing who the velka are, why this particular family has a rocky history with the velka, and the nuances of the relationship between Ryalgar and Prince Nevik. Beyond that, however, there’s enough done to make the world here make sense, and there’s a whole lot of world-building around the luskies introduced. We also have all of the tidbits about farther reaches of the realm thanks to Coral’s connection with a high ranking military officer.

I’m going to admit here that I didn’t read the synopsis too closely before diving into this book, and also the title convention for the series made it obvious this book would be following a different sister, I hadn’t realized this would be a true companion novel. I’m not opposed to companion novels, and the world Cronin has built with the looming war threatening it demands the deep dive companion novels can offer. With that said, book one ends abruptly at the beginning of said war …and so does this one. We’ve built deeper connections with familiar characters and met new ones, we have a deeper understanding of how the luskies fit into the velka’s plans, and I dare say I enjoyed Coral more as a POV character than Ryalgar, but at the end of the day we haven’t got anywhere in terms of progress past the first book. Now that I know what to expect from these books I won’t be disappointed with the abrupt ending at the same point in books 3-7 (I expect we’re getting one per sister?) but that doesn’t change my experience reading this one, and I do hope that once we’ve had a set-up for each sister we’ll finally fight the war.

I highly recommend both books and future books in this series to all lovers of historical fiction with a flair of fantasy/magic and strong, complicated women, with the caveat that you go into it understanding that these are companion novels cover the same timeline that can be read in any order. It’ll be some time and several books yet before we find out what happens “next,” but for now we can enjoy what was happening “meanwhile.” I will definitely jump on She’s the One Who Gets in Fights when the opportunity comes knocking.

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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Tour Schedule & Giveaway

S. R. Cronin will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

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