Megge of Bury Down
By: Rebecca Kightlinger
Book Blurb:
Confused, unsure, and trying to avoid a twist of fate—a vow that she fears will lead to
murder—a young woman makes a decision that places her family in unimaginable danger.
A story intertwining destiny with reckoning, and tradition with dreams, the debut
coming-of-age novel Megge of Bury Down: Book One of the Bury Down Chronicles [Zumaya
Arcane], by Rebecca Kightlinger, radiates feelings of togetherness and protectiveness as seen
through the eyes of a young girl embroiled in a mystical struggle that threatens to tear her family
apart.
Set in thirteenth-century Cornwall, on a sheep farm in the shadow of Bury Down –
known for a thousand years as the land of the second sight – a healer has vowed to face flames
rather than fail in her one task in this life: to bring her young daughter to vow to protect The
Book of Seasons, an ancient grimoire whose power sustains the spirits of all their ancestors.
On the night of her vow-taking, wanting only to become a woman of Bury Down like her
mother and aunts, and drawn by an inexplicable yearning to possess her mother’s book, Megge
reaches for it. But when she touches its cover, it burns her fingers and she hears it whisper,
“Murderer.” Fearing that the book will make her harm those she loves, she rejects it and
renounces her birthright.
To what lengths will Megge’s mother go to help the child find the courage to take that
vow? And how far will Megge go to elude a terrifying destiny?
Excerpt:
Bury Down, Cornwall
November 15, 1275
Mother cast a wary glance back into the cottage, hesitating at the threshold for a long moment before swinging her cape over her shoulders and stalking down the path alone, hens and chicks scattering before her ruthless step.
“Morwen?” I tugged at the old bard’s woolen cloak.
Morwen knelt beside me and pulled up my hood, smiling as she tied the strings beneath my chin.
“’Tisn’t every day a daughter of Bury Down turns six. Watch close tonight, Megge. Learn from your mother now, child.”
We followed the path Mother had taken, and when we reached the pasture, Morwen raised her arm and swept her walking stick in a great arc as if tracing a rainbow over the herder’s hill in the distance.
“Look out there, Megge, to the east. To that high, gentle slope. Can you see the sheep grazing, heads down, their white fleece tinted pink with the setting sun?”
That low voice, constant as the hum of bees in the hedges, fixed each step forever in my mind as we climbed the herder’s hill. I can hear it even now, though my hair is as white as Morwen’s was that day.
“Now, cast your gaze to the summit, child, to Bury Down, once a hillfort of rock and timber, now but a low stone crown set crooked upon a great green head. Can you see the last of the setting sun, blood-red upon that granite ring?”
She fell silent as we climbed, and when we reached the top, she took a deep breath, opened the neck of her cloak, and exhaled into it.
“What are you doing, Morwen?”
“I’m keeping this ember alight.” Opening her cloak, she showed me a clay cup that held a chunk of turf.
“The wind would blow it out, but without a breath of air it would die.” She covered the cup with her cloak and held out her hand. “Come, Megge, we’ve fallen behind.”
Mother, having gone on ahead, was out of my sight, so I held tight to Morwen as the rising breeze became blustery and the sky and the stones went grey. Walking just outside the wide stone ring, we finally came to rocks no higher than Morwen’s knee.
“Come, Megge.” She helped me step over the wall and, for the first time, into Bury Down circle. A hillfort, she had said. Rock and timber.
But this was no fort. The hilltop was wild, one side covered with grasses laid flat by the
constant wind and the other taken up with oaks.
“This, once, was Murga’s grove,” Morwen whispered, pointing to the copse with her staff.
“She was the first of us. The first seer of Bury Down.”
I was about to ask why Mother always called it the healer’s grove when my eye was caught by a lone rowan standing just outside the grove, all its branches flung to one side as if it were trying to flee, its hands thrust out before it.
“Morwen…” I could barely breathe. “This tree…”
Morwen glanced at the rowan. “There’s always been a rowan here, Megge. Ever since Murga’s day, nearly a thousand years ago. One tree dies and another springs up to take its place, all its branches blown sideways by the ceaseless wind.” She squeezed my hand and led me past the sentry tree and into the oaks. “Come along now, lass, the others are waiting.”
Deeper and deeper we trudged until the forest floor, spongy with fallen leaves, began to smell of truffles and rot. Morwen took a deep breath.
“Can you taste the sweet night air? Can you feel the soft earth give beneath your feet?” When the sky had gone dark and the air cold and damp, she squeezed my hand. “Your aunts will have made everything ready.
Tell me, Megge, are you very brave?”
About the Author:
Rebecca Kightlinger is a novelist, a book critic for Historical Novels Review, a fiction-
submissions reader for New England Review and Stonecoast Review, and a copy editor for
Stonecoast Review.
Born in Erie, PA, Kightlinger practiced medicine for nineteen years. For six of those
years, she served on a Remote Area Medical volunteer team diagnosing and treating cervical cancer in Amerindian women living in the rainforests and savannas of rural Guyana.
In 2010, Kightlinger suffered an injury that permanently damaged her wrist, forcing her to leave medical practice and pursue a new direction in life.
Earning an MFA from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast MFA program and a copyediting certificate from UCSD, she turned her Masters thesis into her debut novel. Kightlinger and her husband reside in northwestern Pennsylvania.
Connect with Rebecca Kightlinger on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Learn more about
Megge of Bury Down at www.burydownchronicles.com.
Megge of Bury Down: Book One of the Bury Down Chronicles is available for purchase in
paperback and e-book via Amazon and all major booksellers.
My Review:
Rating:
**I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.**
I must start by saying that the synopsis was absolutely captivating and had me instantly interesting in reading this book. A coming-of-age story set back in the thirteenth century, the time of the Salem Witch Trials; I was truly memorized with the idea of where this story could take us. I couldn't wait to get my hands on it.
Megge of Bury Down, follows a young girl through the years has she struggles to come to terms with her duties to her family. Megge is the daughter of a healer and on her sixth birthday she is presented with a family heirloom that she is to protect and learn from; The Book of Seasons, however after a bit of a scare Megge decided to forsake her duties and turn her back on her family traditions.
This book was beautifully written, Rebecca Kightlinger does a phenomenal job weaving together such marvelous story. The first few chapters were a bit slow and it took me some time to truly delve into the story. However after a few chapters I jumped right into the story and felt captivated by the events unfolding before me. A mysterious man appears in town and Megge's destiny is finally catching up with her.
We get to watch Megge grow from a child into a young adult struggling to understand the importance a family traditions. While she loves her family and wants nothing more than to be accepted into the fold of the women's of Bury Down but she can't bring herself to open The Book of Seasons.
She struggles with who she is: a healer, a weaver, or a herder. She learns many trades throughout her years however she never really takes her role as a healer seriously until tragedy hits close to home. It's only then that she finds the courage needed to learn more about The Book of Seasons.
I feel as though many can see themselves in Megge; the struggle in finding your place in the world, many can relate to that. Feeling the need to please your family, yet finding comfort in the things that make you unique.
I enjoyed the twist on this coming-of-age novel, set in the thirteenth century when people struggled with the idea of healers; individuals that did not treat wounds or illness in the traditional sense. It brought forth a new perspective to this type of genre. It shows that even children centuries before struggled with finding a place in the world and learning to be who they are. And defying their mothers wishes.
Even with the slow start, I must say this was a truly captivating story and after a few chapters it really begins to pick up. The mystery behind Megge, her destiny and many the secrets that everyone has kept from her. It has you craving more until you can't put the book down. The need to know what is to come for Megge and her family has you sitting on the edge of your seat. And who is this strange man that has wandered into town accusing Megge's family of witchcraft?
I would highly recommend reading this book. It is a great story and so well written you feel transported through time. Rebecca Kightlinger is a phenomenal author and I look forward to reading more of her work.
Published by: K
