Everyone with any Tufa blood in them.īronwyn Hyatt is a pureblood Tufa who left Cloud County because she was a wild rebellious child who drove her parents crazy and had a reputation throughout the county. They just all come back to Cloud County sooner or later. They pay bills and watch TV and worry about the economy like everyone else, they aren't ignorant of the outside world. There are all the usual tropes about reclusive, secretive hillbilly clans here, but as the Tufa keep telling outsiders, there is nothing special about them. 'Swarthy' and dark-haired, they can pass for white, black, or Indian, and are none of the above. The Tufa are a mysterious, reclusive clan that lives in Cloud County and supposedly have since the first Europeans arrived. The Hum and the Shiver is an American fantasy novel, the kind that takes Old World fairy tales and puts them in a very American setting, in this case, the Smoky Mountains. That's probably why it's more frequently shelved as 'Urban Fantasy' rather than 'Paranormal Romance,' even though there is not much 'urban' in the hollers of Cloud County, Appalachia. In fact I kept double-checking the author's bio, since 'Alex' seemed like an obvious tell for a female author trying to hide her gender, but no, Alex Bledsoe is a man. I liked these books, but I've gotta say the first one, at least, was totally a Paranormal Romance as written by a dude. With death stalking her family, will she ever again join in the song of her people and let it lift her onto the night winds? Worse yet, Bronwyn has lost touch with herself and with the music that was once a part of her life. Cryptic omens warn of impending tragedy, while a restless “haint” has followed her home from the war. Private Bronwyn Hyatt, a true daughter of the Tufa, has returned from Iraq, wounded in body and spirit, but her troubles are far from over. But there are clues in their music, hidden in the songs they have passed down for generations. Dark-haired and enigmatic, they live quietly in the hills and valleys of Cloud County, their origins lost to history. When the first Europeans came to the Smoky Mountains, the Tufa were already there. No one knows where the Tufa came from or how they ended up in the mountains of east Tennessee.

The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe