The Witch’s Daughter, Paula Brackston

This reminded me quite a bit of Chocolat in the opening, but with a less personable main character. I didn’t mind that so much, as I’ve been told this is a witch story where there really are dark powers, shades of grey, etc, etc. Once I got to the storytelling part, too, that was tolerable historical fiction, though not anything really surprising. (For a similar story about plague, for example, there’s Year of Wonders, by Geraldine Brooks.)

In the end, it just fizzled out for me. Which is unfortunate, since I also had The Winter Witch to read, and was hoping for things from the Welsh setting (although a little put off that the characters were called Cai and Morgana, but no, they weren’t that Cai and Morgana and nor did they seem to have any connection — why would you do that?). The writing is okay, but not brilliant; the plot is okay, but not brilliant. The characters were… not really doing anything for me, particularly not Gideon. When a character is pretty much introduced via a rape scene, you can pretty much guarantee I’m not going to get on with him.

Not a story that worked out for me, in any case. Ben Babcock’s review on Goodreads sums up the promise and the disappointment of this book really well.

Rating: 2/5