17-year-old Verity Boone expects a warm homecoming when she returns to Catawissa, Pennsylvania, in 1867, pledged to marry a man she has never met. Instead, she finds a father she barely knows and a future husband with whom she apparently has nothing in common. One truly horrifying surprise awaits her: the graves of her mother and aunt are enclosed in iron cages outside the local cemetery. Nobody in town will explain why, but Verity hears rumors of buried treasure and witchcraft. Perhaps the cages were built to keep grave robbers out . . . or to keep the women in. Determined to understand, Verity finds herself in a life-and-death struggle with people she trusted.
I'm a sucker for good historical fiction, and this is GOOD historical fiction. It's...atmospheric, in that it pulls you in to the setting because of the many layers to the story and the characters. It's hard to step away from and come back to "reality." The characters are well-defined and the relationships (even the love triangle) are so easily written that nothing doesn't make sense or work perfectly.
The historical side is important but not the entire driving force and not overly done. The paranormal side is important, but again...not the entire driving force (and not overly done). There's enough in the story to keep you enthralled and wanting more. The love triangle, while it added to the story, was a bit typical YA for me, but it worked for Verity.
It's not too too much any one genre or aspect to turn off the average reader (meaning, the ones who don't want any one specific genre).
What do you think??
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