Setanta and The Lady By The Water by J M Lane was the 37th book I read this year and another Indie book sent to me through the Indie spotlight post I did on Tiktok.
As I was struggling to support new/indie/ debut authors through ARCS etc because I’m not reading as much this year, I had this idea of a regular feature, where I shine a light on an indie/ small print etc authors through short and sweet ‘spotlights’ on my blog.
However, I did actually have a few of the authors kindly offer their books for review, no matter how long I needed to read them. So this is an Indie Spotlight that contains a review of the book!
Indie spotlight: J.M Lane
About J.M Lane:
John Lane is a storyteller from Sligo who grew up on the edge of Irish myth and sea wind. After surviving cancer, he knew it was time to chase the dream he’d carried since childhood—to write a tale worthy of the stories that shaped him. Setanta and the Lady by the Water is his debut novella: a haunting, hopeful reimagining of legend, love, and the ghosts we carry.
Where to follow J.M Lane
Setanta and The Lady By The Water – J M Lane
A dark Irish folktale for readers who believe legends never truly die.
When thirteen-year-old Setanta’s mother disappears without a trace, he’s forced to travel across a haunted, rain-soaked Ireland with a father who won’t speak of the past. But when the Lady by the Water appears—a banshee-like figure with eyes like stormlight and a voice that calls to the dead—Setanta begins to uncover a truth more ancient than any bedtime story.
As the line between myth and memory begins to blur, Setanta must face a hidden war between mortals and fae, confront the terrible power in his blood, and decide whether to run from his family’s curse… or embrace it.
For fans of Irish folklore, atmospheric fantasy, and emotional coming-of-age tales, Setanta and the Lady by the Water is a lyrical, mythic novella that lingers long after the last page.
My review
I don’t always enjoy folklore based stories but this one genuinely reeled me in. The reader is kept in the dark for a lot of the book as we see events from Setanta’s viewpoint and it is inter-woven with the folklore tale being told to us as Setanta when he was younger, both complimenting each other as the full picture comes out. It’s dark, mysterious and atmospheric, my first guess about who Setanta really is was completely wrong but not in a ‘the clues weren’t there’ kind of way, it was in a ‘I was cleverly mislead’ way, which is a lot to pack into 113 pages! It honestly reminded me of the kind of books I read at Uni when I did the subject of ‘Fantastic’ literature (not literally fantastic, it’s a made up literary genre that’s all about making things ‘other’).
This is book 1 and book 2 has just come out, so these books are definitely a nice short read to try dark, mythic Irish folklore as a genre!
Where to buy
The book is available to buy on Amazon here
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Antonia Bernardin 
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