“Seventeen-year-old Edgar Poe counts down the days until he can escape his foster family―the wealthy Allans of Richmond, Virginia. He hungers for his upcoming life as a student at the prestigious new university, almost as much as he longs to marry his beloved Elmira Royster. However, on the brink of his departure, all his plans go awry when a macabre Muse named Lenore appears to him. Muses are frightful creatures that lead Artists down a path of ruin and disgrace, and no respectable person could possibly understand or accept them. But Lenore steps out of the shadows with one request: “Let them see me!”

I have loved most of Cat Winters books and was incredibly excited to see what she would do with a book about Edgar Allan Poe. This ended up being a bit disappointing to me. While it was a neat idea, it was honestly kind of boring. There is a lot of flowery language but not much of a story here.

Edgar Poe is constantly pulled between the demands of his art and the demands of his foster father. He desperately wants to attend University and his foster father has agreed to send him..for now. When Poe’s muse takes on human form she ends up causing a number of issues for him that lead him down a dark path.

I did enjoy the idea of an artist’s muse being a living/tangible thing; basically the human embodiment of their artistic talent. Lenore is all of Poe’s dark tendencies and urges wrapped into one disturbing girl. Eventually another muse shows up who fights with Lenore over Poe and this muse is the embodiment of Poe’s ability for satire.

Unfortunately this story was both too much and not enough for me. Having the second muse enter the scene was distracting and this second muse was just not very well developed (I can’t even remember his name). It was just too much and really defocused the story. I also felt like Lenore was not enough. She just wasn’t dark enough, committed enough, and didn’t feel passionate and developed enough. The whole thing ended up being a bit of a muddle.

If you look back at what actually happened in this book it’s really not all that much. It was fairly boring to read, the only bright spots being the poetry excerpts throughout. I also enjoyed the afterward that talked about Edgar Poe’s actual history.

Overall this was a disappointing read for me; it’s okay but feel very short of my expectations. The story is just too slow, boring, and a bit muddled. You don’t get a lot of story and the muses weren’t quite as intense as they should have been. This is one of the weaker Cat Winters books I have read. I started reading it with a huge amount of enthusiasm and by the end just wanted it to be over.

Early Review – The Raven’s Tale by Cat Winters (3/5 stars)

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