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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
An intriguing historical fiction novel.
I had a bit of a difficult time getting into this and distinguishing the characters. Part of this was also the dual time lines.
Otherwise I found this to be an intriguing take on Late Medieval/Early Renaissance Italy and the plague. The magic in The Stone Witch feels lived in, and less flashy displays of magic, but more practical everyday magic. This makes it believable, hardening back to the days of wise women and healers. The characters were well-done, and the plot twists were surprising.
Overall I felt this was a good read.
Thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this ARC!
I had a bit of a difficult time getting into this and distinguishing the characters. Part of this was also the dual time lines.
Otherwise I found this to be an intriguing take on Late Medieval/Early Renaissance Italy and the plague. The magic in The Stone Witch feels lived in, and less flashy displays of magic, but more practical everyday magic. This makes it believable, hardening back to the days of wise women and healers. The characters were well-done, and the plot twists were surprising.
Overall I felt this was a good read.
Thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this ARC!
challenging
dark
funny
informative
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit
adventurous
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
If you love historical fantasy with magical realism, then you'll likely love The Stone Witch of Florence. For me, its often a mixed bag; had there not been magic this would've be a harder read for me.
The characters are likable, the environment, and the travesty of the times felt very realistic (as far as my knowledge goes). I enjoyed the magic system involving the stones and really just wanted like 30% more of that.
Rasche's writing is effortless, though at times it feels a bit weighed down with too much detail, too much "telling."
A solid witchy/healer tale.
Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing | Park Row for the eARC!
The characters are likable, the environment, and the travesty of the times felt very realistic (as far as my knowledge goes). I enjoyed the magic system involving the stones and really just wanted like 30% more of that.
Rasche's writing is effortless, though at times it feels a bit weighed down with too much detail, too much "telling."
A solid witchy/healer tale.
Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing | Park Row for the eARC!
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
If you’re a crystal girlie- you need to read this book! It is a historical fiction with magic mixed in! Set in Florence, Italy you get transported to another time where crystals heal illnesses, but the world is ruled by the church who will accept no such blasphemy. I think the author did a great job weaving the story together to take us to a historical place with magic & the way she intertwined magic with the crystals was really well done.
adventurous
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Full of magic, witchcraft, and a woman demanding her voice is heard in a time when female voices were silenced.
This was such an interesting and unique story and played into so many of my personal interests, i.e. Florence, the plague, witchcraft & the occult, secretive & shady church stuff, the Late Middle Ages time period, and the power stones have or we perceive they have. We also have a wonderful main character in our “stone witch” Ginevra. This book did a great job at balancing historical facts while weaving in fantasy elements that somehow still felt like they legitimately could have happened. I’ve never been to Florence even though I’ve been obsessed with that city since elementary school. The world building in this book make it so vivid in my head and I’m able to go down a rabbit hole googling certain places or events or items mentioned throughout the story. This book sort of gives a mix of A Discovery of Witches vibes mixed with The DaVinci Code vibes (or, at least the very little I remember from that book, which I read 20ish years ago). Others might disagree with me, but the magic/occult stuff and churchiness rolled into the legit historical realism reminds me of those two books off the top of my head. I think this is a really great, atmospheric read or a great way to dip your toes into the fantasy genre if you’re hesitant to dive right in. I liked this book so much I bought it in hardcover and an additional kindle version. I hope we get many more books like this from Anne Rasche in the future!
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I was so intrigued by the premise, but the execution fell flat for me.
I had such a hard time getting invested in the story. It almost felt like I was reading a detailed outline, or that I was being told <i>about</i> the story rather than being immersed in it.
There was so many extra details that did nothing to drive the plot or story - it felt like the author wanted us to know how much research was done for this story. So we got detailed descriptions of architecture or clothing or food, but surprisingly little about the actual magic system except when it was directly relevant - which in turn made the ending much more predictable. (Although I'd rather the ending be predictable and actually make sense than it be a twist with no lead up, so there's that.)
The timeline bouncing was also very weird, and made the pacing that much more strange. Bouncing back to her origins didn't build any suspense about how she was sent away / we didn't learn anything extra from it because she also thought about those events in the later timeline.
The random POV's from Lucia and Piero thrown in when it was convenient for the plot was also a little jarring since we had been exclusively with Ginevra up until those two random chapters.
This is probably a problem related to the inability to immerse myself in the story, but the relationships all felt extremely one dimensional. Taddea and Ginevra were friends I guess? I was told they were,until they had their falling out. But then they made up, but then Taddea blamed her again I guess for some reason. I don't know why any of these things happened.
Lucia as an entire character felt more like a plot device than a person. Their friendship was just Ginevra explaining what she needed to do to her and by extension the audience.
Zenobia / that family storyline was such a roundabout way for her to accidentally discover the cure. The gravedigger coming out of nowhere to save them at the trial with his jokes...okay, sure?
I read and loved The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo, and this book did have a lot of similarities when it came to themes (religious persecution, the intertwining of magic and luck) I just wish it had been executed better.
I had such a hard time getting invested in the story. It almost felt like I was reading a detailed outline, or that I was being told <i>about</i> the story rather than being immersed in it.
There was so many extra details that did nothing to drive the plot or story - it felt like the author wanted us to know how much research was done for this story. So we got detailed descriptions of architecture or clothing or food, but surprisingly little about the actual magic system except when it was directly relevant - which in turn made the ending much more predictable. (Although I'd rather the ending be predictable and actually make sense than it be a twist with no lead up, so there's that.)
The timeline bouncing was also very weird, and made the pacing that much more strange. Bouncing back to her origins didn't build any suspense about how she was sent away / we didn't learn anything extra from it because she also thought about those events in the later timeline.
The random POV's from Lucia and Piero thrown in when it was convenient for the plot was also a little jarring since we had been exclusively with Ginevra up until those two random chapters.
This is probably a problem related to the inability to immerse myself in the story, but the relationships all felt extremely one dimensional. Taddea and Ginevra were friends I guess? I was told they were,
Lucia as an entire character felt more like a plot device than a person. Their friendship was just Ginevra explaining what she needed to do to her and by extension the audience.
I read and loved The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo, and this book did have a lot of similarities when it came to themes (religious persecution, the intertwining of magic and luck) I just wish it had been executed better.