Having read The Thirteenth Tale, I was excited to read Once Upon A River. I liked how how Diane Setterfield started the Tale at an inn somewhere on the Thames River on a dark winter night where storytelling rules. My thoughts were lots of interesting characters. A man is saved from the rising river, and a little girl died and is an outbuilding. The inn is a perfect vehicle to have characters arrive to carry on the Tale. The story then seems to drag for me. Too much mysticism? I just could not identify or feel close to the characters. I started and stopped reading this story..thinking I would get more involved in the story. It just didn’t happen for me. It is a book I might come back to and try again in the future.