Review: The Dirt on Ninth Grave

Author: Darynda Jones
Series: Charley Davidson, #9
Published: January 12th 2016
Publisher: Piatkus
Length: 352 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: Amazon

In a small village in New York lives Jane Doe, a girl with no memory of who she is or where she came from. So when she is working at a diner and slowly begins to realize she can see dead people, she's more than a little taken aback. Stranger still are the people entering her life. They seem to know things about her. Things they hide with lies and half-truths. Soon, she senses something far darker. A force that wants to cause her harm, she is sure of it. Her saving grace comes in the form of a new friend she feels she can confide in and the fry cook, a devastatingly handsome man whose smile is breathtaking and touch is scalding. He stays close, and she almost feels safe with him around.

But no one can outrun their past, and the more lies that swirl around her—even from her new and trusted friends—the more disoriented she becomes, until she is confronted by a man who claims to have been sent to kill her. Sent by the darkest force in the universe. A force that absolutely will not stop until she is dead. Thankfully, she has a Rottweiler. But that doesn't help in her quest to find her identity and recover what she's lost. That will take all her courage and a touch of the power she feels flowing like electricity through her veins. She almost feels sorry for him. The devil in blue jeans. The disarming fry cook who lies with every breath he takes. She will get to the bottom of what he knows if it kills her. Or him. Either way.

If there's one thing Darynda Jones knows better than pretty much everyone else, it's how to keep a series fresh and exciting through more pages than one can count. Charley Davidson never gets old (no, really, she's more or less immortal), she never gets tired (supernatural beinh, duh), and she never gets bored… or boring, for that matter. There are very few series I love more at this point and I don't see that changing any time soon.

The Winter Witch Blog Tour Review

"If the Brontë sisters had penned magical realism, this would have been the result."- The Guardian

Hi everyone!

I'm thrilled beyond words to be part of this blog tour. Rarely do I find a book that wins me over so completely with the quality of prose, rich storytelling, a deeply atmospheric setting and unforgettable characters. Paula Brackston is a force to be reckoned with, my friends, with the potential to become a classic.

Please take the time to check out the book trailer. It will give you a great feel of the setting and the atmosphere.

Autor: Paula Brackston
Published: December 24th 2013
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Format: Paperback, 368 pgs
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository

In her small early nineteenth century Welsh town, there is no one quite like Morgana, who has not spoken since she was a young girl. Her silence is a mystery, as well as her magic. Concerned for her safety, her mother is anxious to see her married, and Cai Jenkins, a widower from the far hills, seems the best choice.

After her wedding, Morgana is heartbroken at leaving her mother, and wary of this man, whom she does not know, and who will take her away to begin a new life. But she soon falls in love with Cai’s farm and the wild mountains that surround it. Cai works to understand the beautiful, half-tamed creature he has chosen for a bride, and slowly, he begins to win Morgana’s affections. It’s not long, however, before her strangeness begins to be remarked upon in her new village. A dark force is at work there—a person who will stop at nothing to turn the townspeople against Morgana. Forced to defend her home, her man, and herself, Morgana must learn to harness her power, or she will lose everything.

The Winter Witch is the second witch-themed novel by Paula Brackston (her first was The Witches’ Daughter, published in 2009), but if you’re worried about them being connected, rest assured, they are both standalones. I myself haven’t read The Midnight’s Daughter, but that didn’t stop me from becoming fully immersed in Morgana and Cai’s story. If anything, I was pleased to know that I have more of Brackston’s magic waiting for me in the future, be it The Witch’s Daughter, or her upcoming novel, The Midnight Witch.

Although I read many fabulous books every year, rarely do I come across this level of quality in writing. Paula Blackstone writes boldly and confidently, and she’s done her homework well. Through her choice of words, her sentence structure and the elegance she infused in every sentence, she brought to life the unique setting and our two unforgettable characters. I am inclined to agree with The Guardian: The Winter Witch is worthy of being mentioned in the same sentence as the Brontë sisters.

Imagine the mountains of Wales in 1830. Life is fairly simple, people are devout and very supersticious, marriages are arranged and lives are cheap. People get born and die with very little fuss. Try to imagine the wonderful nature, the horses and other animals, rivers and wells. Truth be told, with Paula Brackston, you won’t have to try very hard – she offers it all so easily – all one has to do is relax and enjoy the atmosphere.

When you add to that the audacity it took to write a protagonist who doesn’t speak, you’ll realize that Brackston is an awe-inspiring author. Morgana doesn’t utter a single word in this novel, and yet she communicates so loudly with her new husband and their lovely housekeeper. Cai takes her silence for granted and doesn’t hold it against her, especially once he realizes how it came about, but the rest of his small town isn’t so accepting. Morgana is used to glances of derision from her neighbors, but Cai, unaccustomed to such treatment and fairly idealistic, doesn’t handle it very well.

For all his kindness and mild temper, Cai was frustratingly oblivious at times. I wished to see him fight more bravely for Morgana, even though he never truly turned his back on her. What he did to defend her was endearing, but at times painfully insufficient. Nevertheless, I found their romance extremely believable and Cai a gentle, wonderful character, with mind and heart open and ready to accept the strangeness and wild nature of a witch.

The plot here is fairly straightforward, with the villain clear from the very beginning. It’s not a mystery, but rather a story about the slow building of trust between two people who are essentially strangers, even if they are new spouses. There is something magical about their journey, an unidentifiable quality that makes The Winter Witch a truly outstanding read.

Please make sure to check out Paula Brackston's Facebook page, and if you're still unconvinced, here are the first two chapters of The Winter Witch.