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Summary
“Rosie Strange doesn’t believe in ghosts or witches or magic. No, not at all. It’s no surprise therefore when she inherits the ramshackle Essex Witch Museum, her first thought is to take the money and run.
Still, the museum exerts a curious pull over Rosie. There’s the eccentric academic who bustles in to demand she help in a hunt for old bones, those of the notorious Ursula Cadence, a witch long since put to death. And there’s curator Sam Stone, a man about whom Rosie can’t decide if he’s tiresomely annoying or extremely captivating. It all adds up to looking like her plans to sell the museum might need to be delayed, just for a while.
Finding herself and Sam embroiled in a most peculiar centuries-old mystery, Rosie is quickly expelled from her comfort zone, where to her horror, the secrets of the past come with their own real, and all too present, danger as a strange magic threatens to envelope them all.”
-From Amazon.com
Review
Beautiful cover!
This was a gift from my mum when she came back from the U.K. this year and I was immediately drawn in from the cover. Yes, I’m one of those who chooses books based off covers. Only because there are so many out there and whatever catches my attention by cover or name wins! I really liked that it was a simple cover, color wise, with this skull in the middle. But it did slightly mislead me in a way. It gave me a Mexican Day of the Dead kind of vibe. But that wasn’t what the book was about at all. I mean first off, it was set in Essex (U.K. for those of you who don’t know where that is).
Captivating story!
Now the story itself was interesting. It was simple, not too far out there. It was based around the witch trials that happened in the past and how someone came back to the present and all that kind of good stuff! It kept me captivated and curious as to what was going to happen next!
You got that feeling from the reading that you really were along for the journey. And I truly did feel like I was in Essex with the weather and all of that stuff!
Main character was slightly annoying.
Only thing that I didn’t like about the book was some of the characteristics of the main character, Rosie. She honestly was obnoxious as hell. She kept getting at the other protagonist, Sam, in the book. She was very stubborn and not open to what was going on and it really annoyed me sometimes how out of line and rude she was in the book. I’m not sure if that was the point of her, but she really did get on my nerves a few times and I just wanted to slap some sense into her. She always had that ‘Essex Girl’ kind of attitude, all the way up to the very end!
Overall a fantastic read.
However, annoying main character to the side, the book itself was fantastic. It was simple so not terribly full of action (except towards the end a bunch of stuff happened). But it didn’t detract from the book. I noticed that Sarah Perry, the author of The Essex Serpent, really enjoyed the book and that was also what made me want to read it too! I do recommend it as it’s a good read and I think it’s a fantastic gift for someone who is into those magical kind of books!
For all of that, I give it 4/5 teacups!
Happy Reading!
Purchase the book here at Barnes & Noble.
