Ritu Nair
After the ending of Persuasion, Barrie’s and Eight’s relationship is on the rocks, because the latter felt she made decisions for him without consulting him, and for the first half of the book, their romantic development is about them working towards mending that rift, while the major arc of the storyline is about breaking the Colesworth curse. When Obadiah suggests a way that would break the magic of Watson and Beaufort heirs as well, Barrie has to decide how much she can trust him with the magic that binds her to protect it. Also, a lot of the first half is about bringing everyone in the know about it – Mary and her family, Pru, Seven, and Kate, as well as Berg, and Cassie’s family, and work together while also keeping things secret from the watchful eyes of the other archeologists and the sheriff’s team posted for security. What I did not like with this book is that for a finale, it took way too long to come to a point where they are moving forward. Two-thirds of the book just drags along while Barrie and Obadiah try to appease the spirits, and fail. Then its back to research and bringing someone else in – and it all feels pointless when the thing that breaks the curse is something that happens incidentally and Barrie learns from it to apply to the situation. The rest felt like filler material, even if going into the history of the land served to achieve the goal of depicting how facts and folklore mingle. It is dry, and even the romance feels stale by the end. Somewhere around the last quarter of the book, I was just skimming because it wasn’t getting this over with. There wasn’t a building up, wasn’t the excitement that a finale usually creates. All I can say that is it ends well enough?