Anwen ponders the sounds of picks and shovels.  It is too late in the season for planting.  What can they hope to achieve here in Kernow.  

 Murga, who is sitting on a log, appears in the dusky murk as a slight, lump of a woman.  Anwen knows Murga’s voice; a dream has brought her to this place.  Danger appears, Murga is held at a stake, a woman carrying a torch approaches.

The time is now 1275 in Bury Down, Cornwall, the time has come for Megge who is just turning six to take up The Book of Seasons, it is her mother’s ancient book of Knowledge regarding the physical world.  In the spring Megge’s cousin Brighida too will be six, she will take up The Book of Time.  Mother has walked ahead, Morwen assists the little girl over the rock barrier and down into the Bury Down Circle.

It will be the obligation for one of the girls to shield these sacred books and to guide them from one life into the next.  Megge heard  the book call her name, and then as she reached toward it, uttered a single word, murderer.  Megge is too frightened to open the tome.

From this inauguration; the account moves on to 1280, it is May 1, Brighida’s tenth natal day, and, in addition, it is a festivity day in the village.  Megge stands apart watching as Brighida in the company of other girls of the village, dance around the maypole to a tune played by a piper. 

The merriments continue when, nearing dusk Megge finds an injured woman and aids her mother as mother completes healing for the friend and neighbor who has been grievously gored by a boar.   If Megge will only open her mother’s book; Megge too will become a healer.

Megge learns instead to trim the sheep. Market day and Megge brings a sack of wool she has herself sheared; she receives her first coin as payment.  And, again helps her mother as she tends to the now festering wound caused by the boar. Megge has what her cousin calls a moment in spirit.  It is a memory perhaps of another time.

One more opportunity to aid her mother with healing comes when the carter conveys his son Harold in the back of his cart to the cottage.  Harold has an arrow protruding though his leg. 

Mother fashions before then presenting an amulet for Megge, it is designed to bring Megge courage. 

The time is now Nov 16  1282  CE  Megge is now 13, she learns the circumstances surrounding the birth of her mother and aunt claris, learns that her mother was not given a name, and sadly says goodby forever to her adored Morwen dead from age and ill health and Aleydis who has died from grief.

The Spring 1283  Megge is now herder and is not a healer, and, she will become a weaver.  The loom is repaired and Summer 1284 Megge is learning to weave. The village Blackfriars have a new abbot, he is hunting and burning heretics.  Healers have been classed as heretics, only the clergy may heal.

Troublesome times have come to Bury Down.  

Megge of Bury Down, is a tale concerning the facing up to difficult actualities of reflection, heart-searching, and accepting the reality of the decision. 

Megge at age six was too terrified to open her mother's book after she heard the sinister murder seemingly by the tome and at age eleven, all she can do is observe as her cousin, Brighida, seemingly is everything Megge is not. 

She feels something of an outcast, even among those of her own family, nonetheless she continues to shrink from having to open The Book of Seasons. 

The innovative narrative gives the reader a glimpse of how life in the 1200s might have taken place as Megge copes with social mores, ignorance and misconceptions of the time. 

The writer offers a story line filled with twists and turns, secrets and misconceptions of the villagers coupled with wariness and anxiety rooted in both religious and ethereal. 

The peculiar abhorrence the villagers exhibit toward Jenifer Pennick and her mother, along with the radical persecution of church leaders, are delineated by the author through delicate distinction found in the choice of words and worry always present, all presented, as seen by Megge through her own naivete, distress, and inexperience. 

Megge’s guardians, Mother, Aunt Claris, Aleydis and Morwen, often seem to be strangely at odds regarding how much and what to tell her about the book and her duty regarding it based on her somewhat complicated family history. “Margaret it is time for you to take up your book.”

Megge of Bury Down jam-packed with the matrilineal history of enigmas passed down by complex, loving women, offers readers a little historical flavor, touch by magic and misunderstanding.

Writer Kightlinger offers a nicely rounded group of carefully crafted character personalities.  Dramatic tension present assures readers will continue turning the pages of this dynamic chronicle in which the coming of age of Megge of Bury Down clarifies through the perceptive writing of Kightlinger. 

What an interesting Read, happy to recommend Megge of Bury Down vol 1 of The Bury Down Chronicles for strong readers in upper middle grades, high school and adult readers who enjoy the fantasy genre.  Book is a good choice for school and public libraries as well as for gifting a special niece or other reader of historical fiction.

I received a copy of the book from the publisher for review.

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   Reviewed by: MOLLY REVIEWS  BOOKS    molly martin    

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 AMAZON  About the Author

 Rebecca Kightlinger holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast MFA program.

Her debut novel, Megge of Bury Down, Book One of the historical fantasy series The Bury Down Chronicles, is slated for release by Zumaya Publications on February 1, 2018.

A member of the National Book Critics Circle, Kightlinger is a book reviewer for the Historical Novels Review, a submissions reader for the New England Review, and a reader and copy editor for the Stonecoast Review.

In her twenty years of medical practice as an obstetrician-gynecologist, Kightlinger was privileged to care for the women of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Guyana. A lifetime Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, she is also a member of the American Association for the History of Medicine and studies ancient medicine, medieval midwifery, and the manuscripts and arts of the mystical healer.

Kightlinger lives in northwestern Pennsylvania with her husband, three comical dogs, three elegant cats, and a charming little rooster named Ollie.