Irina isn’t the sort to be put off by the little fact that what she wants to do is probably impossible. In the course of A Steep and Savage Path, by JJA1 Harwood, she does several impossible things in order to save her sister’s life. She doesn’t have a lot of choice in what appears to be nineteenth-century Romania. There are no doctors in her village; there are no cities nearby that might have doctors either. The only person who has a clue about healing tells Irina that, to restore her sister, is to journey to the land of the dead and retrieve her sister’s soul. Oh, and that she’ll need a vampire to guide her.
Harwood introduces us to her protagonist in one of the most dramatic scenes I’ve ever seen. We meet Irina as she stands next to an empty grave and in the process of being married to a vampire that has been terrorizing a nameless village for months. This village clearly doesn’t have anyone as sensible as the witch in Irina’s home village, so their plan goes something like: marry a woman to the vampire, vampire somehow disappears? Irina’s own plan—to trade her blood for passage to the land of the dead—is only slightly more practical. Irina has her doubts, especially when a very hungry Stefan appears.
I think it’s Irina’s practically and stubbornness that helps her deal with the impossible. It certainly helps her cut a deal with Stefan even when it’s clear that he can overpower her. As mismatched as they are, Irina and Stefan make a good team once they find a gate to the land of the dead and tackle its challenges. The land of the dead that Harwood conjures up has elements of Hades and other pre-Christian underworlds, which kept me guessing the entire time about what might happen to Irina and Stefan next. Not only do they have to make their way through doors meant to separate souls into various afterlives, they also have to avoid overly inquisitive dead folks who might sound the alarm before Irina can find her sister.
Not only was I hooked by Irina and Stefan’s adventures among the dead, I was moved by their growing relationship. Stefan is very prickly at first. Unlike Irina, Stefan is more than willing to write things off as impossible (even if he is an actual vampire). Time and proximity work their magic on him and, before long, it’s clear that Stefan has started to care about Irina as more than his next meal. I very much enjoyed the scenes when a dashing (dead) soldier starts to flirt with Irina, only for a possessive Stefan to barrel in to break things up. The emotional journey of the characters builds to a climax that hit me right in the heart.
Readers who are looking for a unique, lower-stakes romantasy, will find a lot to love in A Steep and Savage Path.
- I have no idea what the correct capitalization or punctuation is for Harwood. I’m going with the version I’ve seen most, thought I have also seen Jja. If anyone knows what’s correct, please let me know. ↩︎