📖 Book Review ~ Fireflies in Winter by Eleanor Shearer

 

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10 February 2026

Thanks to the publisher for the copy of this book 

Nova Scotia 1796. Cora, an orphan newly arrived from Jamaica has never felt cold like this. In the depths of winter, everyone in her community huddles together in their homes to keep warm. So when she sees a shadow slipping through the trees, Cora thinks her eyes are deceiving her. Until she creeps out into the moonlight and finds the tracks in the snow.

Agnes is in hiding. On the run from her former life, she has learned what it takes to survive alone in the wilderness. But she can afford no mistakes. When she first spies the young woman in the woods, she is afraid. Yet Cora is fearless, and their paths are destined to cross.

Deep amongst the cedars, Cora and Agnes find a fragile place of safety. But when Agnes’s past closes in, they are confronted with the dangerous price of freedom—and of love…

📖 My Review..

Travelling from Jamaica in 1796 Cora is newly arrived in the Maroon community in Nova Scotia where she takes time to settle into this new way of life. It’s a place where the change of customs, the biting cold and the ever present fear of danger never really goes away. When Cora discovers another young black woman called Agnes living in the heart of the surrounding woodland a tentative friendship develops between them and which, over the course of the story, becomes something much more meaningful.

Running alongside the burgeoning relationship between Cora and Agnes is that of a trial which is taking place and as the story progresses, we get to know more about, and the reason why, one of the women is facing such a terrible ordeal. It becomes obvious that both young women are trying to escape from a traumatic past but it is not until all the jigsaw pieces of the puzzle come together that we realise just what is at stake for both Cora and Agnes.

So beautifully and imaginatively written, I felt the story coming alive, not just learning about a period of history of which I knew nothing but also experiencing new way of life alongside Cora and Agnes as they both strive to survive in a world which doesn’t understand either of them nor does it offer any sort of respite from old prejudices. Whilst Fireflies in Winter is an emotional and poignant love story, it also offers an insight into this difficult moment in black history.

🥣 Best Read with..Bone broth over a smoky fire..

About the Author

Eleanor Shearor is a mixed-race writer and the granddaughter of Windrush generation immigrants. She splits her time between London and Ramsgate. Her debut novel River Sing Me Home sold in 20 territories. It was named as one of Time magazine’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2023, was a finalist for the 2024 Dayton Literary Peace Prize Fiction Award, shortlisted for the Grand Prix des Lectrices ELLE 2025 in France and also shortlisted for the Prix Fragonard 2025 in France. It was a Good Morning America Book Club pick, and has been optioned for film by AL Films and BBC Films.

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