Lovely, Dark and Deep

It’s a beautiful day in autumn, and a little girl has gone missing…
She’s not the first.
Hannah Hendricks is the fourth child to disappear from the small town of Fallow Creek in the past two months. Search parties comb the woods and vigils are held, yet there is no trace of the missing children, as if they have vanished off the face of the earth.
Cassandra Reilly is certain there is magic involved, but few people trust the word of a witch, and fewer still want her help. As an outsider to the rest of the town, it seems there is little she can do – until Hannah’s parents arrive on her doorstep, begging for magical aid.
Cass is tired of doing nothing, but agreeing to help is more dangerous than she knows. Something evil is at work in Fallow Creek, and if she isn’t careful, she’ll lead it back to her own door…

Spooky season may be “technically” over but it’s never over in our hearts. If you want to continue the spooky season with your reading, this is the perfect book for it. It’s a slightly creepy fantasy novel that just released today! It’s got witches and fae and creepy monsters! And the author is one of my friends on Instagram, Claudia Cain (find her here: @cainbooks). She asked if people would like to review her book, and I said yes! My friendship with her doesn’t affect my review in any way.

I read this in one sitting, and I think that speaks to the strength of the pacing of this novel. The reveals happened at just the right time. Slowly enough to keep you intrigued, but fast enough to not lose readers and have people lose interest. Pacing can be a really hard thing to nail down, and I’m really impressed with Claudia’s ability in this regard.

The cast of characters was a good size, though I do wish the novel had been a bit longer so that we could get to know each character more. We spend the most time getting to know our main character Cass, and we learn a lot about her friend Will, but I’d really like to know more about her family. The ending is definitely a setup for a sequel (or more) and so I’m hoping we explore the siblings and Cass’ aunt in the next book. It would be great to see how the siblings interact with each other more as well. Especially Pen! Since she’s under 18, her family tried to keep her out of the action in this book for the most part. But what I saw of her, I loved. I’d read a book starring Pen!

I love a good novel featuring siblings, even if it didn’t have quite the depth I wanted. Having grown up with a brother, the tension and love feel so familiar and comforting to read about haha.

Claudia’s writing was beautiful and easy to read. It flowed really well! I also think she did a great job of with the creepiness factor and atmosphere. The tension was there, and definitely had me on edge, but didn’t scare me TOO much (which is because I’m baby).

Overall this was a fun read, and I’m looking forward to the next book! Because that very last page….rude LOL.

Here is the Amazon link, if you’d like to purchase the book!