The Witch of Willow Hall: The Coming of Age of a Witch

Although I read a great many novels involving paranormal elements, I usually don't blog about them on Flying High Reviews even when they have female protagonists that could be considered strong. There are several reasons why I decided that this review belongs here.  One is that The Witch of Willow Hall is historical, another is that it's primarily a romance and finally October is the month of Halloween.  So I thought the readers of this blog might be interested in a seasonal historical romance about a witch.  I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher via Net Galley.

                          

   
 
I tend to be inclined to try out new writers.  Every year I find debut novels that show potential.  I hoped that The Witch of Willow Hall by Hester Fox would be one of them.

The best aspect of this novel is the protagonist's character growth.  Lydia is the middle daughter in a family with a heritage of witchcraft.  Despite taking place in 19th century Massachusetts, this initially seemed to have a great deal in common with the TV series Charmed about  three sisters who were witches from a long line of magical practitioners which takes place in a contemporary context.  Charmed just rebooted with a very current approach and a new set of sisters on the CW network.  There are some major differences between The Witch of Willow Hall and Charmed. In the book that is the subject of this review, there weren't three paranormally gifted sisters, and there was no one to train those who did have gifts. Lydia was pretty much on her own coming to grips with her powers, and the ghosts at Willow Hall.   This meant that she needed to become very strong and independent, and that's exactly the direction in which she evolved over the course of the narrative.

Since Hester Fox's book is a romance, it focused on the impact that being a witch had on Lydia's relationships--particularly her relationships with the men in her life, and the poisoned relationship with her elder sister Catherine who apparently had no powers, and perceived herself as being in competition with Lydia. It seemed to me that Catherine wasn't sufficiently developed, but Lydia herself and the man who emerged as the romantic hero more than made up for Catherine's deficiencies in character development.

I think it's possible that Hester Fox will write better books in the future, and that The Witch of Willow Hall certainly works for historical romance fans who are looking for a Halloween read.

Jessica by Laura DeLuca

I can't let Halloween come and go without curling up with a scary short story and this is the one that came to my attention this year. The blurb promised me a mysterious lady in white come back to exact revenge on the male race...or just one man? Hm... I had to read and find out more.
Poor Wilbur. :(

Wilbur is dateless and in college, on his way to a dance. He's shocked when a beautiful girl pays attention to him, dances with him, then asks him to walk with her... As they look over the lake, arms around each other, she begins to tell him a story.

In the 1890s, the college finally accepted women...but the male students weren't pleased to be outshone by females. After all, a woman's place was in the home. Out of three women, two ran away. They couldn't take it, but one woman could. She faced them, did better than them, studied hard, avoided trouble. She was going to be a doctor!

A fantastic feminist. I'd like to say that at this point, usually a character telling another character a story would  bother me, but it was actually done in a showing, not telling way, because I could see that college girl in my mind's eye sitting there studying hard, gazing at the lake...

And what happens next turns into a century of revenge.

Will she take pity on poor Wilbur? After all, he's mistreated to...

A short story with vivid descriptions and a intriguing back story. There was a spot in the beginning that made me laugh out loud and a a couple spots that made my spine tingle. Great combination.

My only quibble: I wish Wilbur had been a jerk instead of a mistreated outcast himself. Would have seemed more fitting to me. Four stars. This was given to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.