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Land Mysteries #3
Old As the Hills
What would you risk so others could live?
It is the early months of WWII and Rathna already has an idea of how bad it might get. If she can make the final connections she needs to create a new portal in a matter of weeks rather than years, she might just be able to get a few more people out of Germany's ever expanding grasp. But she's also been asked to take on a new apprentice. Rathna has no idea whether he'll be willing to help, if she can trust him, or if he can trust her enough to do what needs to be done.
Her husband Gabe has a challenge that will use every single one of his skills and then some. He's been charged by the Council to coordinate magical responses to the war, not only in Albion itself, but among the many esoteric and occult groups of Great Britain. His own apprentice is brilliant, in a different way than Gabe, but this project will ask everything of them both.
Together, Gabe and Rathna have built their lives to bend their passions, talents, and magics to making things better for the world around them, including their three growing children. Now their war work is going to separate them, certainly for months, possibly for much longer. As they tangle with ancient magics, seeking new ways forward, there are more unanswerable questions, tremendous risks, and a few glimmers of hope.
Old As The Hills follows Gabe and Rathna's adventures from the autumn of 1939 through the summer of 1940, a time of desperate plans to save lives and hold back invasion. It is full of ancient fae magic, the power of place, urgent witchcraft rituals, and unexpected encounters. The Land Mysteries series explores the Second World War in the magical community of Albion and is best read in order.
It is the early months of WWII and Rathna already has an idea of how bad it might get. If she can make the final connections she needs to create a new portal in a matter of weeks rather than years, she might just be able to get a few more people out of Germany's ever expanding grasp. But she's also been asked to take on a new apprentice. Rathna has no idea whether he'll be willing to help, if she can trust him, or if he can trust her enough to do what needs to be done.
Her husband Gabe has a challenge that will use every single one of his skills and then some. He's been charged by the Council to coordinate magical responses to the war, not only in Albion itself, but among the many esoteric and occult groups of Great Britain. His own apprentice is brilliant, in a different way than Gabe, but this project will ask everything of them both.
Together, Gabe and Rathna have built their lives to bend their passions, talents, and magics to making things better for the world around them, including their three growing children. Now their war work is going to separate them, certainly for months, possibly for much longer. As they tangle with ancient magics, seeking new ways forward, there are more unanswerable questions, tremendous risks, and a few glimmers of hope.
Old As The Hills follows Gabe and Rathna's adventures from the autumn of 1939 through the summer of 1940, a time of desperate plans to save lives and hold back invasion. It is full of ancient fae magic, the power of place, urgent witchcraft rituals, and unexpected encounters. The Land Mysteries series explores the Second World War in the magical community of Albion and is best read in order.
405 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 5, 2023
3 people are currently reading
21 people want to read
About the author
Celia Lake
47 books75 followersCelia Lake spends her days as a librarian in the Boston (MA) metro area, and her nights and weekends at home happily writing, reading, and researching.
Born and raised in Massachusetts to British parents, she naturally embraced British spelling, classic mysteries, and the Oxford comma before she learned there were any other options.
Born and raised in Massachusetts to British parents, she naturally embraced British spelling, classic mysteries, and the Oxford comma before she learned there were any other options.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 15, 2025
I enjoyed seeing more of what Gabe and Rathna are up to now that they've been married over 15 years, and now that WWII is fully underway. But I wish there had been more interaction between them. (Impossible, I know, since they are each involved in separate and important projects during the period covered in the book.) I treasured the times they were together, and worried about each of them as they put themselves in danger. I'm sure this is one I will reread several times. And I'm very much looking forward to the immediate sequel, Upon a Summer's Day, which comes out in mid-June, 2023.
Full review to come... eventually.
Challenges: Read for COYER Upside-Down Chapt. 2 (4 spaces on the board), and the May 2023 COYER Readathon (Catch Up/Finish a Series).
Full review to come... eventually.
Challenges: Read for COYER Upside-Down Chapt. 2 (4 spaces on the board), and the May 2023 COYER Readathon (Catch Up/Finish a Series).
June 28, 2023
Another excellent read!
I've pretty much read everything Lake has written and I’m always thrilled when a new one comes out (she’s prolific too, 4 or 5 books are scheduled for this year!). This one is the first of a duology that’s just been released.
Gabe, one of my favorite of her characters and a good example of an adult with ADHD who has developed good coping skills, and Rathna, his Bengali born wife each have roles to play in understanding the magic happenings of WWII from the perspective of Albion, a magical Britain. They each want to do their part, but for Rathna that means going into danger.
One of the things I love about these cozy historical fantasy books is that they are filled with good, kind, competent people working together and doing their best to help make things better. Villains are often offstage or just misguided which keeps the books cozy even when the stakes are high. This one doesn’t have a traditional romance, although many of her books do, but it was great fun to see Gabe and Rathna as an older married couple. Rathna has close ties with the Jewish community in Britain and I enjoyed seeing some of the Jewish traditions she adopted. It’s also not quite as cozy as some of the other books, as the stakes are a bit higher and there’s a bit more tension.
The historical research is, as usual, thorough and fascinating and I love many of the characters, several of whom recur through the different series. I highly recommend Celia Lake’s books for historical cozy fantasy lovers, but this wouldn’t be a good place to start. Gabe and Rathna's romance is told in an earlier book, The Fossil Door, which would be a fine first book in this world.
I've pretty much read everything Lake has written and I’m always thrilled when a new one comes out (she’s prolific too, 4 or 5 books are scheduled for this year!). This one is the first of a duology that’s just been released.
Gabe, one of my favorite of her characters and a good example of an adult with ADHD who has developed good coping skills, and Rathna, his Bengali born wife each have roles to play in understanding the magic happenings of WWII from the perspective of Albion, a magical Britain. They each want to do their part, but for Rathna that means going into danger.
One of the things I love about these cozy historical fantasy books is that they are filled with good, kind, competent people working together and doing their best to help make things better. Villains are often offstage or just misguided which keeps the books cozy even when the stakes are high. This one doesn’t have a traditional romance, although many of her books do, but it was great fun to see Gabe and Rathna as an older married couple. Rathna has close ties with the Jewish community in Britain and I enjoyed seeing some of the Jewish traditions she adopted. It’s also not quite as cozy as some of the other books, as the stakes are a bit higher and there’s a bit more tension.
The historical research is, as usual, thorough and fascinating and I love many of the characters, several of whom recur through the different series. I highly recommend Celia Lake’s books for historical cozy fantasy lovers, but this wouldn’t be a good place to start. Gabe and Rathna's romance is told in an earlier book, The Fossil Door, which would be a fine first book in this world.
November 7, 2024
I’m currently (November 2024) rereading some of Celia Lake’s books, set in a Britain where those with magic live somewhat separately but interlaced with the non-magical community (yes, it’s a wizarding world — with good and consistent world-building), mostly from about 1900 to the end of WWII. Her characters, often not neurotypical, act with integrity for the good of their communities and the world. The main characters in Old As the Hills (who we first met at adults in The Fossil Door) are Gabe, son of a landed family and one of the people who fix magical problems, and his wife Rathna, daughter of South Asian immigrants and brought up in a London Jewish community, who tends the portals for traveling long distances instantaneously — as they work on setting up defenses for the British Isles and rescuing vulnerable people from Europe at the beginning of WWII.
June 20, 2023
Absolutely excellent although you will need to read, at a minimum, Fossil Door and Best Foot Forward if you want to follow what's going on here. As Celia Lake branches out from cozy romances to historical fiction, her writing and plotting have only gotten stronger. Utterly adored this book and cannot wait for the sequel to drop.
December 26, 2023
I found this a little slower going than some of her other novels but there's something about the competence and genuine goodness of these characters that is particularly appealing (Gabriel and Rathna are particular favorites of mine).
June 15, 2023
Compelling story about competence and care. Many kinds of relationships, responsibilities, obligations, decisions, bargains, changes of information, and being human in a changing world.
(The story is not done, but I was satisfied with where it paused and did not feel like it was a cliffhanger.)
(The story is not done, but I was satisfied with where it paused and did not feel like it was a cliffhanger.)
October 2, 2023
In 1938, as the Nazi Blitzkreig pends, Albion Portal Keeper Rathna goes to the continent to attempt to construct a new type of portal to evacuate potential victims.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews