On a cold winter night at the Swan—a pub known for its stories—a man carrying a dead, young girl bursts in. However, the girl thought dead wakes up and more than one family recognizes her as their own.
I read this back in December and enjoyed it. It had the perfect winter vibes to go along with the holiday season. Unfortunately, the book did not really stand out to me as anything but a decent read.
ONCE UPON A RIVER started out with the writing style and atmosphere of a dark fairytale, but the intrigue provided by that aspect of the book soon wore off as the pacing slowed significantly for the following 350 or so pages. While the mystery of the girl’s origin made me want to know how the story ended, there wasn’t anything else that provided the strongest pull for me to keep reading, especially given the detachment I felt from the characters.
Essentially, ONCE UPON A RIVER was a good, atmospheric book but lacked factors that would have kept me more engaged.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
I read this back in December and enjoyed it. It had the perfect winter vibes to go along with the holiday season. Unfortunately, the book did not really stand out to me as anything but a decent read.
ONCE UPON A RIVER started out with the writing style and atmosphere of a dark fairytale, but the intrigue provided by that aspect of the book soon wore off as the pacing slowed significantly for the following 350 or so pages. While the mystery of the girl’s origin made me want to know how the story ended, there wasn’t anything else that provided the strongest pull for me to keep reading, especially given the detachment I felt from the characters.
Essentially, ONCE UPON A RIVER was a good, atmospheric book but lacked factors that would have kept me more engaged.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5