Book Riot Read Harder Challenge 2017: Read a book that is set more than 5000 miles from your location. I loved this adult fairytale set in medieval northern Russia: its vivid setting, its deep winters, its sibling bonds, and its fiercely independent protagonist, Vasya. When your time and place offer two choices to women -- marry or join a convent -- what do you do if you cannot fit either? Vasya's magical abilities and "second sight" also brand her as a witch during the spread of Orthodox Christianity. The battle of old and new values was fascinating, and the story swept me along and had me wiping tears at the climax. I'm so excited to hear that this is the beginning of a series (although it can stand on its own as well). It had elements of some of my all-time favorites, Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Tender Morsels, and The Girl Who Drank the Moon. 
 It was only after I reached the end that I realized this book had a glossary, although I understood almost everything via context. I googled izba (a wooden house), sarafan (a piece of clothing like a pinafore), and most intriguingly, sleeping on the oven (the Russian oven was so large that children could hide in it, and families would sleep on top of it to keep warm during the winter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian...).