hen Jarred Jovansson leaves his home in the desert of Ashqalêth, it is with two goals: to seek wealth and to find the father who abandoned him at the age of 10. Instead he finds love in the marshes of Slievmordhu: One sight of the young marshwoman Lilith is enough to make him forsake travel, fortune and even the quest for his lost sire.
But soon troubles envelop the lovers. Lilith already has a suitor—a jealous one—and as an outsider Jarred has no obvious place in the tightly woven community of the marsh. What's more, the mystery of his parentage is not one to be lightly abandoned: The vanished father has left Jarred with a mysterious talisman that protects him from all forms of harm.
The most serious argument against the couple's marriage, though, is a curse that lies on Lilith's side of the union. Not only do the people who marry into her clan tend to die young, but the marshwoman's grandfather and her mother have both recently fallen prey to insanity. Lilith has come to realize that the symptoms of madness take hold only after the cursed man or woman has married and brought children into the world. By allowing the birth of another doomed generation before bringing down the madness on Lilith's family, the curse has maintained itself over several lifetimes.
In order to remain safe and sane, Lilith knows she must give up both marriage and motherhood, but it is already too late: She loves Jarred as strongly as he loves her.
Romance in a haunted world
Author Cecilia Dart-Thornton opens her new trilogy, the Crowthistle Chronicles, on a mournful note with The Iron Tree. Despite cleverness, the power of the talisman and their many high hopes, it is clear that Lilith and Jarred are destined to meet a bad end as soon as they start a family. Once their daughter Jewel is born, all that remains is for readers to watch the tragedy unfold.
The world of Tir is an intriguing place, so filled with spooks and apparitions that it is hard to believe any land is left for mere humans to live on. Drowners lure children into deep waters, while skeletal apparitions yank men off their horses and spirits send floods against impertinent villagers who try to dam up the streams. The magical ecosystem is one that forces humans to live in harmony with it, and the profusion of mystical entities lends an appealing strangeness to this setting: Its magic is omnipresent, dangerous and largely beyond human control.
This thoroughly enchanted world, with its wraiths and its rituals, makes a vivid backdrop for the romance of its two principal characters. That said, readers preferring a bit of adventure mixed in with the love story may find The Iron Tree's pace too slow to be truly exciting—the author's prose tends to slow even battles to a crawl, burying the suspense in a torrent of lavish sensual detail.
Cecilia Dart-Thornton has created a uniquely beautiful world in The Iron Tree, in other words, but this is not enough to compensate for the slenderness of the plot and the wordiness of her writing style.
