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The Witch's Daughter

by Paula Brackston
Thomas Dunne Bks: St. Martin's. Jan. 2011. c.320p. ISBN 9780312621681. $24.99. F
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Brackston's third novel (after Lamp Black, Wolf Grey and Nutters, the latter written under pseudonym P.J. Davy) shows the author is still inexperienced as a writer. Flashing back and forth in time from 2007 to 1639, her historical romance is slow moving and stilted. Borrowing its main conceit from Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, Bess, later known as Elizabeth, spends much of the book telling her life's story to a young wannabe witch, apparently against her own better judgment. The language is strained, even in the present-day scenes; in the flashbacks it seems almost as if the period-piece dialog is entirely fabricated rather than researched.
VERDICT Public libraries should purchase this only if their patron base is extremely loyal to historical fiction/romance and not particular about the quality. [Library marketing.]
Reviewed by Stacey Rottiers Comfort, Dexter District Lib., MI , Dec 01, 2010
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