The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill

Miller (the Unraveled Kingdom series) takes readers to the turn-of-the-20th-century Midwest for this flawed but atmospheric standalone historical fantasy. Sisters Alaine and Delphine have been raised on their grandfather’s tale of how a fairy encounter gained him the family farm, and on their grandmother’s lore of how to make small, safe, everyday bargains with unseen fae. Alaine is devoted to the farm, while Delphine marries a man from the city. Both paths have their bumps, and as the sisters’ struggles slowly build, so too does their willingness to break their grandmother’s rules and make increasingly dangerous deals with the fae. There’s a touch of Faust to the plot, and a bit of Frozen, too. The storytelling has a YA vibe in its simplified conflicts and improbabilities: if the farm is threatened by foreclosure, for instance, where is cash coming from for silk dresses and watercolor paints? In a purely historical novel, the glossed-over detail and lack of grit would be fatal, but the fairies are the point here, and Miller conjures them fully at last alongside a thoughtful meditation on sisterhood and priorities. It’s not revelatory, but it has its charms. Agent: Jessica Sinsheimer, Context Literacy Agency. (Apr.)