A review by emilyrainsford
The Binding Season by Claudia Cain

dark mysterious tense

5.0

 The Binding Season by Claudia Cain is the third book in the Fallow Creek series and the author describes it as a “fantasy thriller with horror leanings”, which I think is pretty accurate. It’s like rural urban witches meets House of Hollow, plus throw some fae in for good measure.

The first book in the series is Lovely, Dark and Deep which was a ✨5 star read✨ for me (which is rare for me, 5 stars are special!) and I think it is criminally underrated. If urban fantasy with mild horror and creepy forest vibes make you go “gimme!”, I REQUIRE you to pick this series up. They do need to be read in order.

I didn’t love the second book in the series quittteeeee as much but The Binding Season had everything I loved about the first one and more 😍 It’s one of those books that somehow manages to turn plants and flowers into the creepy-crawliest, most horrifying things and honestly I don’t know if I’ll ever look at nature quite the same way and I’m here for it. It’s pretty dark with some body horror so be warned - but there’s also a fae sweetheart called Merich that you WILL fall in love with.

The seeds have been firmly planted (heyyyyyy 🌿) for this series to continue and I couldn’t be happier to read as many of these books as the author can write! 
(this review is taken straight from my free newsletter, find it at coffeebooksmagic.substack.com )