Early Review – The Haunting of Hecate Cavendish (Hecate Cavendish, Book 1) by Paula Brackston (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Length: 352 pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Release Date: July 23, 2024
ASIN: B0CGRXGC4S
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Hecate Cavendish series
Source: eGalley from NetGalley
Rating: 3/5 stars
“England, 1881. Hereford cathedral stands sentinel over the city, keeping its secrets, holding long forgotten souls in its stony embrace. Hecate Cavendish speeds through the cobbled streets on her bicycle, skirts hitched daringly high, heading for her new life as Assistant Librarian. But this is no ordinary collection of books. The cathedral houses an ancient chained library, wisdom guarded for centuries, mysteries and stories locked onto its worn, humble shelves. The most prized artifact, however, is the medieval world map which hangs next to Hecate’s desk. Little does she know how much the curious people and mythical creatures depicted on it will come to mean to her. Nor does she suspect that there are lost souls waiting for her in the haunted cathedral. Some will become her dearest friends. Some will seek her help in finding peace. Others will put her in great peril, and, as she quickly learns, threaten the lives of everyone she loves.”
Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Hecate Cavendish series. I got this on ebook through Netgalley to review.
Thoughts: DNF. Got about 15% of the way through this one and just couldn’t keep reading it. It is beautifully written, but soooo boring. I had been wanting to read a book by Brackston for some time. I had “The Winter Witch” and “The Silver Witch” on my list to read but kept putting off reading them. I was excited to see this come up for review on NetGalley and grabbed a copy of it after reading the synopsis…which sounded right up my alley. I don’t know if this book is similar to the others Brackston has written when it comes to pacing, but if it is, then Brackston just isn’t the author for me. I prefer a faster pace and more action in my novels.
At 15% of the way in, we had seen Hecate go to work at the library twice and watch some cows with her brother. The writing flows beautifully, but is very dense, and nothing happens! I keep finding myself coming up with anything to do rather than sitting down to read this…even folding the laundry seemed like a treat compared to struggling through this.
I do think Hecate has potential as a character. She has a lot of the characteristics that I love in a heroine; independent, smart, striving against convention. I have nothing against her as a character and think some of the other characters introduced were intriguing as well. However, the characters were just completely weighed down by the lack of story and the dense language surrounding them.
Maybe at some point, when I am in a more patient mood and want to read some beautiful meandering writing, I will pick this up again. I am giving it 3 stars because I feel like I didn’t get far enough in to provide fully informed feedback. However, I do feel that I had strong enough feelings about this that I do need to review what I did read.
My Summary (3/5): Overall this was really slow but beautifully written. I think a lot of the characters had promise, but the story was so boring and moved so slowly that I dreaded sitting down to read this. Reading is a fun escape for me and a way to entertain myself in my downtime…so sticking with a novel like this when I am actively disliking it (and am not learning something from it) is just not a thing I have time to do. This also put me off of Brackston as an author; I am not sure if her other novels are this slow, but I probably won’t be picking any of them up any time soon because I am just not a fan of this slow deliberate style.
