ABL Review At-A-Glance
- Title: Widow of Pale Harbor
- My Rating: 3.5
- Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery
- Author: Hester Fox
- Format: Ebook ARC*
- Publication Date: September 17, 2019
Synopsis
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.
My Thoughts…
After reading Hester Fox’s first book, Witch of Willow Hall, I was excited to read Widow of Pale Harbor. I went in knowing what to expect from the tone and pace of the book but the story seemed very different.
The book moves at a slow but building pace filled with unanswered questions and intrigue. While WoWH featured a heroine with a known magical gift, WoPH has a mystical element based more on rumor and suspicion. With bits of Edgar Allen Poe’s hair-raising and creepy tales, the Widow of Pale Harbor was perfect to read as fall sets in and Halloween approaches.
I enjoyed the romance in this book immensely. I really wanted Gabriel and Sophronia to get together and the suspense union was perfectly paced. Both have a tragic back story that is explained in parts throughout the book, making their actions more and more understandable and relatable.
The only reason I gave this book 3.5 stars instead of 5 stars is the middle section. I found the beginning of the book and the end of the book engaging and compelling, but in the middle the story seemed to slow and get a little muddied. The romance overtook the mystery but didn’t really progress in a significant way. Just a little bit of editing would have helped make this story much more
Conclusion
If you enjoy mystery or crime novels, you should be reading Lauren Carr. She’s a great writer, with good stories and even better characters.
*Special thanks to Hester Fox, and Graydon House for a copy of Widow of Pale Harbor in exchange for an honest review.
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