Tuesday 2 July 2024

Moonstone by Laura Purcell

Synopsis:

From award-winning bestseller Laura Purcell comes her YA debut, MOONSTONE, a sparkling, chilling gothic romance with real bite… Following a scandal at Vauxhall pleasure gardens, Camille is sent away to her reclusive godmother, who keeps a strict watch over her and her own sickly daughter, Lucy.

Camille must stay away from everything she has known until the scandal is forgotten, keeping strictly to the small farmhouse in the woods. Away from the corsetry and curtsies of polite society, Camille finds herself surprisingly…free. She is also strangely drawn to Lucy, a pale, fragile girl who dreams of stars, but has never left the farm.

Yet as Camille and Lucy grow close and cross forbidden boundaries, the fine balance of their woodland home begins to death stalks between the trees, claw-marks rake the doors and the moon rises to the song of a creature Camille has never heard before. Camille begins to realise her godmother was holding more than unladylike behaviour at bay… 

Review:

Reading this as an adult I can see the simplicity of the story, however, thinking about reading this as a young adult, which this is targeted too, I would have loved it.

The pace goes between slow and fast as the story progresses. The ‘secret’ seems quite obvious from the start, but the development of the story is presented really well. I enjoyed this book even as an adult. It’s a bit of an escapism into a world of YA fantasy.

I liked Camille as the main character, she had her human flaws like naivety, but she was brave, head strong and not afraid to get stuck in. She was also kind and understanding and I felt she questioned things for all the right reasons. Lucy was clearly trapped in a very sad world her mother Rowena and Bridget created for her to keep her safe and Camille became the one bright star in the darkness.

I would certainly recommend this to any budding young adult reader, who would like to delve into mystical creatures fantasy genre, it’s a great start into this world and a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Thank you to Netgalley for this book.

Rating: 5/5

Available from:

Amazon UK

No comments:

Post a Comment