The Witch of Willow Hall

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own
2.5 stars

My thoughts are somewhat conflicted about this one.

From the synopsis I was expecting my witchy creepy stuff. And I will say, there is some great creepy scenes with some good imagery. Those scenes had me thoroughly interested and fit with all the other suspenseful books I've been reading. Yay Halloween season!

The thing is the story really favors the historical aspect with the period sensitive problems. I like historical romances and I like suspenseful stuff, but it felt like the two didn't always work together. The problems always seemed to eclipse the creepy stuff... which I thought would have been a much larger part of the book, thanks to the synopsis.

The characters weren't too bad, they were pretty real. I just never got around to liking anyone completely. The romances were pretty quick and I don't think they were fully flushed out. This might have been because it felt like the book was going in different directions.

Yet, I continued to be interested in what would happen– who would end up with who? what will happen to them all? Is she a witch or not?? It is a dark and gritty book for the most part with interesting scenes and I liked the flow of the writing.

Would I recommend this book? If you like historical books and want some suspense, totally. If you want a witch story, then no. I'll probably check out more of the authors work in the future.