Title: The Fifth Petal
Author: Brunonia Barry
Series Status: Standalone
# of pages: 437
My rating: 3/5 stars
The New York Times bestselling author of The Lace Reader returns to Salem with this spellbinding new thriller, a complex brew of suspense, seduction and murder.
When a teenage boy dies suspiciously on Halloween night, Salem’s chief of police, John Rafferty wonders if there is a connection between his death and Salem’s most notorious cold case, a triple homicide dubbed “The Goddess Murders,” in which three young women, all descended from accused Salem witches, were slashed on Halloween night in 1989. He finds unexpected help in Callie Cahill, the daughter of one of the victims newly returned to town. Neither believes that the main suspect, Rose Whelan, respected local historian, is guilty of murder or witchcraft.
But exonerating Rose might mean crossing paths with a dangerous force. Were the women victims of an all-too-human vengeance, or was the devil raised in Salem that night? And if they cannot discover what truly happened, will evil rise again?
* I received a free copy in exchange for a honest review *
So I have just realized that this book was indeed a companion to another story but from what I’ve gathered you don’t actually need to have read the first book to read this one. While I say it is unnecessary to read the first one I think that I would have benefitted and preferred that since I didn’t completely love this story.
I really loved the history behind this story and I loved getting to learn more about these witches and how differently Salem is treated in this story. It was interesting to read about and makes me want to learn more about Salem history then just the little pieces we get in this story.
Another thing I liked were the characters, they were really easy to connect to and I found that they had a way about them that made them great to be connected to from the start. I think having Callie as the main character was a great choice because of all the opportunities it presented the story with.
While I really enjoyed this story there was just something about it that felt off and made it hard for me to keep my interest in the story. I figured something all about witches would surely keep me captivated but I found myself getting bored at points. I think perhaps this was because of the pacing because there were definitely some moments that felt slower to me or didn’t match the pacing of the rest of the story.
Overall I enjoyed the story but I think I will probably not read the companion story since this one was hard to hold my interest.
* I received a free copy through Blogging for Books in exchange for a honest review *
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