Spiral Path – Katherine Eliska Kimbriel

“Spiral Path” is a sequel to “Night Calls” and “Kindred Rites” - both also excellent - but any of the three make good starting points; you can read and enjoy SP without having read the other two. (Once you do, you’ll probably go back and read the other two anyway.)

Alfreda is a young girl growing up in the Michigan Territory, somewhere around 1810. It’s not quite our 1810, but it’s close. (Think of it as our history, but with a bit more magic in the mix. The author’s excellent research into the life and manners of the time add a great deal to her books.) Alfreda herself has magical talents. They become hard to ignore as she begins to notice werewolves - and vampires - and things that go bump, not necessarily in the night - and she begins an apprenticeship to a midwife with her own special talents.

In “Spiral Path”, the apprenticeship is interrupted (supernatural politics) when Alfreda is sent to a boarding school near New York, to learn ritual magic. The story that follows has the same mix that makes the earlier books so much fun: The characters are rooted in their time; they do not have modern attitudes or manners. The magic and schooling are interesting, but they serve the story, and are not allowed to get in its way. And Alfreda herself is an engaging protagonist - extremely talented, but reserved, and not inclined to tell people what she’s thinking.

Very readable. Very re-readable.