Fox, Hester

Those who enjoy a little history combined with woman protagonists and magic may appreciate this novel.

Fox excels at women’s fiction with a supernatural twist. This title has hues of gothic romance and horror, moving at a leisurely pace before exploding into furious action. Readers of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic and Sarah Penner’s The Lost Apothecary will be swept up in the story and find much to like.

The premise and gothic undertones of this latest from Fox (The Orphan of Cemetery Hill) make this an engrossing, if somewhat unevenly plotted read.