28 | September | 2018 | Berit Talks Books

TGIF book lovers!

Today I am delighted to share with you my review for this magical book! Another fabulous group read with my BOOK BESTIES💕

Reading really is a team sport! So much more enjoyable when you do it with friends, I strongly recommend!

The Witch of Willow Hall by Hester Fox

My Thoughts

Beautiful, atmospheric, and haunting….. this was an exquisitely told debut…Hester Fox has wovin together this Gothic story of heartbreak and hope effortlessly…. as soon as I opened the cover of this book I found myself transported into the lives of the Montrose Family… finding myself in the middle of A scandal and the gloom and magic of Willow Hall….

This was not the story of a witch, but rather the story of Lydia Who just so happens to be a witch…. The witchcraft in this book was very under played and subtle, something I felt worked extremely well… Lydia was such a remarkable and charming character… Believe me I love hocus-pocus and spells as much as the next person, but I think that would have overshadowed the quiet beauty of Lydia… she just was one of those characters that reaches inside you and grabs a little piece of your heart…. you just feel everything she feels, because she is so authentic and worthy…. any book that can evoke feelings in me about a character, is an absolute bonus in my book!

Lydia, along with her parents and two sisters Catherine and Emeline leave Boston in the wake of a scandal…. Willow Hall is where they find refuge… but is the house haunted? There is definitely an eerie air of mystery about the place….

This truly was a story of family and The complexities within…. Catherine, Lydia’s older sister was a extremely colorful character…. she was definitely a worthy villain, the sister nobody wants to have… I was fortunate enough to have an author Q & A with Hester Fox… One of my questions was: who is your favorite character in this book? and her answer was Catherine, and I can see that she would be fun to write!

This truly was a magical book, not in the way of the supernatural, but in the way of storytelling…. there really is a little bit of everything in this book…. a little romance, A little witchcraft, a little taboo, a little haunting, A little tragedy, a little scandal…. A book with a beautiful ending that will leave you heartbroken and yet still hopeful!

Absolutely recommend to fans of Gothic historical fiction, who love character driven stories with a bit of a slow burn…

*** many thanks to Graydon House for my copy of this book ***

About the Book

Two centuries after the Salem witch trials, there’s still one witch left in Massachusetts. But she doesn’t even know it.

New Oldbury, 1821

In the wake of a scandal, the Montrose family and their three daughters—Catherine, Lydia, and Emeline—flee Boston for their new country home, Willow Hall.

The estate seems sleepy and idyllic. But a subtle menace creeps into the atmosphere, remnants of a dark history that call to Lydia, and to the youngest, Emeline.

All three daughters will be irrevocably changed by what follows, but none more than Lydia, who must draw on a power she never knew she possessed if she wants to protect those she loves. For Willow Hall’s secrets will rise, in the end…

“Hester Fox’s THE WITCH OF WILLOW HALL offers a fascinating location, a great plot with history and twists, and haracters that live and breathe. I love the novel, and will be looking forward to all new works by this talented author!” –Heather Graham, New York Times bestselling author

“Beautifully written, skillfully plotted, and filled with quiet terror, readers will devour this absorbing, Gothic tale of romance and suspense. Perfect for fans of Simone St James and Kate Morton.” — Anna Lee Huber, the national bestselling author of the historical Lady Darby Mysteries

“Beautifully written, with an intriguing plot full of suspense and mystery, The Witch of Willow Hall will cast a spell over every reader.” — Lisa Hall, author of Tell Me No Lies and Between You and Me

“I was entranced by this intriguing and spellbinding novel with its messages of love and loyalty and being true to who you really are. I hope Hester Fox goes on to write many more such novels–I for one will be buying them.” — Kathleen McGurl, author of The Girl from Ballymor

GET A COPY

Amazon

The Book Besties

Holly@Dressed to Read

Jennifer@Tarheel Reader

Mackenzie@PhDiva

Melisa@The BookCollective

Kendall

Book friends are the best friends! Berit☀️✨

Hope you’re having a wonderful Friday!

Today I have a fabulous book I get to share with you! Thanks to Kim for my invitation to the blog tour and to Carol Wyer for hooking me on another series!💛🎂

One hot summer’s afternoon, five-year-old Ava Sawyer went to a party. She never came home…

When five-year-old Ava Sawyer goes missing from a birthday party at a local garden centre, the police are bewildered by the lack of leads. That is until two years later, when Ava’s body is found and another little girl, Audrey Briggs, goes missing. Audrey also attended that party …

Leading the investigation is Detective Natalie Ward. A mother of two teenagers, this case chills her to the bone, and is a disturbing reminder of the last job she worked on. One that still keeps her awake at night…

Natalie soon discovers that Ava’s mother has some worrying gaps in her alibi and as she digs deeper, she’s sure Ava’s father is not telling the full story. And what did the owner of the garden centre Elsa see that day? Something that she’s not telling Natalie …

Just as Natalie is facing up to the grim possibility that Ava and Audrey were killed by someone close to home, another little girl from the party doesn’t come home from her ballet lesson. Can Natalie find a way to stop this killer before more innocent lives are taken?

Gripping, fast-paced and nail-bitingly tense, this book will keep you flying through the pages long into the night. Perfect for fans of Angela Marsons…

My Thoughts

A birthday party, a yellow dress, a missing child….

Carol Wyer sure can suck you into an investigation…. I truly am the ultimate armchair detective (even though I generally read on my couch or in my bed)… some authors do a better job than others in drawing you into the story, making you feel part of it, and I think miss Wyer does an exceptional job of this… there is just something about her characters that breaks down the Barrier between the reader and the book….

When you drop your child off at a birthday party, you never think you will return and find her to have gone missing… five-year-old Ava went missing from her friend Harriet birthday party at a garden center… two years later her body is found, another girl goes missing, and is found in a replica yellow dress…. is someone killing off the children that attended that fateful birthday party? And if so why? Or is the connection a local dance studio?

This is the first book in the DI Natalie Ward series…. The investigation into these missing children has Natalie navigating her way through both parent and playground politics…. and when a third girl goes missing there is a time crunch to Saul the case before another child is killed… with a town full of suspects this was not an easy task… Natalie and I must have changed our minds at least 10 times, and the ultimate culprit…. did not see that coming!

This book was perfectly paste and kept me engaged throughout… The character development was stellar and left me wanting to know these characters better…. Natalie is a wife and mother to two teenaged boys, and is having a bit of a hard time juggling family life and her career… it will be really interesting to see how this develops throughout the series, can Natalie have it all? Does something need to give? And if so what?

Recommend to those of you who enjoy a good police procedural with some fabulous characters and a fresh investigation style…

*** many thanks to Bookouture for my copy ***

About the Author

Carol Wyer garnered a loyal following as an author of romantic comedies, and won The People’s Book Prize Award for non-fiction (2015). In 2017 she stepped from comedy to the “dark side” and embarked on a series of thrillers, featuring the popular DI Robyn Carter, which earned her recognition as a crime writer.

The Staffordshire-based writer now has more crime novels in the pipeline, although she can still sometimes be found performing her stand-up comedy routine Laugh While You Still Have Teeth.

www.carolewyer.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorCarolEWyer

https://twitter.com/carolewyer