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My rating: 5 of 5 stars
New year reading actually began with this ghost story but since life, as such was a menace, took a break and resumed it later.
There’s reason why after reading The Witch Of Willow Hall, Hester Fox moved into the auto-buy authors list for me. I simply loved that book for its all perfect story-telling. Honestly, I was worried about The Widow Of Pale Harbor, thinking that my high expectation would spell disaster but THANK YOU Hester Fox for producing another sure-fire winner which combines equal parts mystery, intrigue, gothic and romance keeping the fan-girl in me happy.
Gabriel Stone is on a journey to save himself. Believing himself to be the reason for his wife’s death and guilt-ridden for not being the man she had hoped him to be, Gabriel only wishes to start anew in Pale Harbor. What he never expected is the claustrophobic and small-town mindset of all the people and how their superstitious beliefs have made a woman’s life living hell. Sophronia Carver is no witch but the the town believes her so and she’s doomed to reside in her castle without stepping a foot across its threshold.
There’s mischief underfoot in the small town as someone is hell-bent on using the dark stories of Edgar Allen Poe and instilling terror and frightening one and all as Sophronia becomes the perpetrator’s target.
The eerie atmospheric feel to the story was simply outstanding and the romance between Gabe and Sophy captivating. Tom as Gabe’s friend added the lightness to the dark and brooding story. The friendship between Gabe and Tom really lifts the spirits, there’s a sweet and loving touch to their relationship. It was however Helen’s character that I loved immensely. The use of spells and the severity in her approach to everything conveyed the frightening and sinister atmosphere to Castle Carver.
If you are a fan of gothic mysteries with lovely romance, then go ahead and just grab this book with both hands. You’re surely not going to be disappointed.
A town gripped by fear. A woman accused of witchcraft. Who can save Pale Harbor from itself?
Maine, 1846. Gabriel Stone is desperate to escape the ghosts that haunt him in Massachusetts after his wife’s death, so he moves to Maine, taking a position as a minister in the remote village of Pale Harbor.
But not all is as it seems in the sleepy town. Strange, unsettling things have been happening, and the townspeople claim that only one person can be responsible: Sophronia Carver, a reclusive widow who lives with a spinster maid in the eerie Castle Carver. Sophronia must be a witch, and she almost certainly killed her husband.
As the incidents escalate, one thing becomes clear: they are the work of a twisted person inspired by the wildly popular stories of Mr. Edgar Allan Poe. And Gabriel must find answers, or Pale Harbor will suffer a fate worthy of Poe’s darkest tales.
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I enjoyed the review but I won’t be reading this one. I read Poe when I was quite young and I still haven’t recovered!!
Yup, but this is really a mild one compared to Poe’s works. Thank u😊