REVIEW: THE ESSEX SERPENT by Sarah Perry

Cora is recently widowed, and not nearly as sad as her society dictates she should be. She decamps London, with son Francis and friend Martha in tow, for rural Essex. There she can pursue her study of fossils and lost creatures. She also soon learns the villagers believe there is a monstrous creature lurking in the tidal shoals — just waiting to attack.

REVIEW: THE LIE TREE by Frances Hardinge

Faith is the daughter of a preeminent naturalist and reverend. Suddenly, she and her family are uprooted and move to a remote island off the coast of England. The Reverend Sunderly is supposedly there to assist in an excavation near some sea caves that might uncover new fossils. Faith begins to suspect there is something…