Published synopsis:
Willow Jane has a secret. She's in love with the Boogeyman. He comes to her in her dreams. Lately he's been speaking to her while she's awake. She doesn't know why he comes to her, or how it is that she loves him. She's never even seen him.Until now.
She's accepted crazy. She's accepted isolation—heck, she's even welcomed it.She'll do anything to be with him.
But now Betts Willoughby is on to her. The mysterious wife of the village butcher watches her. She knows things. She believes things—things that are even crazier than Willow.
The truth is going to come out. A truth that has long been forgotten. A truth that was concealed in a manuscript in the 12th century. An impossible truth. A dangerous truth that will blow Willow's secret wide open—leaving her scrambling to save the only man she could ever love.
Review:
Willow Jane knew that she was different from everyone else. Since she was a child, her parents have worried for her sanity, and so has she. But crazy or not, Willow has always known without a doubt that she loved the man that came to her in her dreams. Now an adult, it’s time to figure out the truth about who he is.Moving to a small cottage in England, she is suddenly amongst people who may be crazier than she is. Can she trust anyone in the village with her secrets? How do the Willoughby’s, the village butcher and his wife who have taken her under their wing, fit into the world of her dreams? And then there’s the mysterious gardener who no one seems to see but her. Will the answers she seeks put her in danger of losing more than her sanity?In a Celandine World, Catherine Thorpe challenges some of human kind’s most basic religious beliefs. What if the religious leaders of the world have been intentionally misleading people? What if they hid the truth in order to further their own power? This fear is as old as religion itself. Once the pagan religions that worshipped and respected the earth and its people were wiped out, religion often brought with it battles of power as witnessed by the history of the Romans and Christians, the Christians and the Jews and Muslims, the Holy Crusades, and even the battle between science and religion. The list goes on and on. Catherine Thorpe does an excellent job in her book of arguing the point of view of her characters and making the reader feel the truth of their beliefs.
I will be honest and say that I only truly began to enjoy the book about two thirds of the way through. Catherine Thorpe is an excellent writer and is able to paint a clear picture of details and the internal turmoil of her characters. But what was difficult for me during the first two thirds of the book was that the majority of the writing was focused almost exclusively on describing these things, to the point where I almost did not continue to read the book as it was not moving forward in plot. No matter how well written, too much detail can be as detrimental to a book as too little. The same can be said for creating mystery. A reader’s curiosity and interest can waver if the plot does not move along at a steady pace. How much is too much or too little information will always be based on personal opinion, but in mine, I feel the book would have been better served with the ‘less is more’ philosophy in detail and a healthier dose of progress in the earlier parts of the book.
That being said, once the book finally started to come together and the pace picked up, I was glad I kept reading. The characters became much more engaging and the story kept me turning the pages way after my bedtime to finish the book.If the first two thirds of the book had been written as the last third, not finishing the book would never have crossed my mind.
I give the book three stars.
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