“An enjoyable read, strong on its portrayal of witch-hunting . . . [and] the tensions between medicine and healing, religion and superstition.” –Historical Novel Society The year 1660 is when it all changed . . . That’s when a witch-hunter comes to Clara Dahl’s seaside village in Norway. She’s horrified to discover how fast her neighbors and friends are to turn against each other. She … neighbors and friends are to turn against each other. She soon realizes her sleepy, little, picturesque corner of the world has been invaded by evil–and it has nothing to do with witchcraft.
As neighbor turns against neighbor, Clara finds herself drawn into the fray, forced to do what she can to protect her friends and loved ones. An educated and upstanding minister’s daughter, Clara speaks out against the witch-hunter’s unjust treatment of those accused of witchcraft. She sees how he plays the villagers, using their superstitions and religious beliefs to make good people accept horrible things.
When Clara’s best friend Bess is accused of being a witch, Clara must make an incredible sacrifice to save not only her friend, but the entire town–before it’s too late.
“For me, this story is much more about the strength and bond of female friendship, with the persecution of witches as a catalyst forcing them to band together.” —Quiet Fury Books
“This story really brings you back in time and pulls out so many emotions . . . Interesting and tragic.” —What’s Beyond Forks?
Follow more of Clara Dahl’s adventures in Trailing the Hunter!
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This story reminds me of the Salem Witch Trials in 1692-93. Where neighbours turned against neighbours and pointing their fingers at the person next to them.
All started by a witch Hunter named Agnus Hill looking to cause trouble among the town, speaking half truths and quoting verses from the Bible : 1 Samuel 15:23 “For rebellion is a sin if Witchcraft and the stubbornes is an iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast reflected the word of the Lord he hath also rejected thee from being King
Micah 5:12- And I will cut off thyne hand and thou shall not have no more soothsayers and this says nothing about jezebels!
I think this man just wanted to scare people and he certainly did a fine job of it.
However; I still enjoyed this book very much!!
Clara was a fine example of a minister’s daughter and her loving and caring ways for the town of Ross really made me admire her.
I think it was just the people’s way to get rid of the ones that were homeless, not well to do and the mentally unstable people in their midst.
Heidi has certainly captured the mood swings of these people very well and you could feel that their feel was very real.
I certainly did not like that witch Hunter Angus Hill. He really was a work in progress let me tell you and creepy. I even felt myself looking over my shoulder for him lol!
But for those people that were supposed to have known God’s word should have known better but a big but here’s the catch it’s called FEAR!! Fear can cause a great havoc and make people do things they normally don’t do even if it’s at the cost of other’s lives.
I also loved the author’s note at the end where she separates fact from fiction.
I learned a lot with that piece of information and I’m really glad that some authors do that because it shows us readers that they do their research well. And are able to turn it into a great book!!
I can’t wait to read the next one in this series!!
Y’all I can’t wait for you to pick up this good book!!
Sorry this review was so long Heidi but my heart was full and had to be let out!!!
I strongly recommend this book and anyone can read it!!
My thanks to the author for letting me read this book!! NO compensations were received. All opinions are my own.
I got the opportunity to read and review this book for free, so first of I would like to thank the Heidi Eljarbo for the opportunity. Even though my review might seem like I think otherwise, I am always grateful and flattered when an author contacts me, giving me their art and asks me for a review. The downside with it is that I hate having giving bad reviews, but I feel like I need to be honest. So here goes.
I really, really wish I had liked this book. The writing was very good and although history – especially Norwegian history – is not my forte, I could still tell that the author put a lot of work and effort into making this story accurate for the time it played out. I am always up for a strong female protagonist, fighting for women’s rights and equality in the community, and this story praised that well. What I especially enjoyed though, is how one of a kind this book was. It is not often I read books teaching me about another country’s history and I don’t usually find books that is based on true events from history. I mean, there probably are many books out there based on true stories, but what made this book stick out was how the author expertly taught the reader about Norwegian history and culture, almost without the reader even knowing, by making it into a fiction. I swear, if all my subjects in school were taught like that I probably had gotten straight A:s.
As much as I appreciate a unique and educational book, I could never fully get invested in the story. I felt like it took too long until the story got anywhere and it became slow paced because of that. The beginning takes place as an introduction to all the characters and environment which was not necessarily bad, but since it took such a big part of the book it did not progress the story much to what it was actually about; the witch hunt. The fact that the plot for finding and executing witches does not start until around 50 % (kindle), is a sign that the introduction is too long. I think that was the major reason for why it took me so much time to finish this story and, although I really wish it wasn’t, to read it to the end was a struggle. I sort of lost the will and excitement to care about the plot and characters in the beginning, which in turn made me unable to invest myself in the story when things finally started to happen. It’s too bad really, since I think it would have made me like this book much more and invest more emotion into it, if the introduction was shortened down.
Seeing the reviews on amazon however, I can see that it is a liked book. So maybe it is just me not being a fan of the writing style and genre. I don’t know. What I do know for sure is, even though I didn’t like the book as I would have hoped, the author certainly knows how to write.