I loved, loved, loved this story! I count The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfeld among my lifetime top ten favorite books, so I was excited but hesitant to read her latest release. How could it possibly live up to my expectations? Thankfully, Once Upon a River is different enough to avoid direct comparison to The Thirteenth Tale, but similar in that they both involve immersive, compelling stories within rich, vivid settings.
Once Upon a River reads like a fairy tale in which a little girl arrives in a small village under mysterious circumstances and turns the lives of its inhabitants upside down. You learn within the first few pages that girl drowns and is miraculously revived. Three families claim the girl as one of their own, and their stories are equally believable.
I didn’t want the story to end. Highly recommended.
Once Upon a River reads like a fairy tale in which a little girl arrives in a small village under mysterious circumstances and turns the lives of its inhabitants upside down. You learn within the first few pages that girl drowns and is miraculously revived. Three families claim the girl as one of their own, and their stories are equally believable.
I didn’t want the story to end. Highly recommended.