1846
Pale Harbour, Maine

Sophronia Carver lives an isolated life in her home, Castle Carver, following the death of her husband Nathaniel four years previous. The inhabitants of Pale Harbour think that she's a witch and that she murdered his husband though there is absolutely no evidence to suggest so. Someone however has took to leaving odd gifts on her property like dead ravens and lit candles and now the gifts are appearing in the town. Is someone trying to frighten Sophronia or warn her?

After his wife's death Gabriel Stone takes up the position of minister of Pale Harbour in the hope that he can start over and escape the ghosts that haunt him. Unfortunately his guilt and self loathing will not dissipate and the strange incidents happening in the town only add to his sense of unease. Soon he finds his destiny entwined with Sophronia's but is she really what she portrays herself to be?

I read this book very quickly and enjoyed it immensely. The setting of the story is unsettling and wildly beautiful and the writer did a good job of describing it. I liked the characters throughout but there were a few occasions when I wanted to pull their female protagonist to one side and give her a good talking to. Overall, a good read.

Many thanks to HQ and NetGalley for providing a copy to me in exchange for my honest opinion.

I gave this book a 2.5 star rating. I was definitely in it for the “who done it” aspect.

The incidents that happen throughout the book were clever and fit with the story, however the way in which it was solved was frankly very unimpressing.

The two main characters are so besotted with each other, with the reverend constantly wanting to claim sophronia as his own that it made me sick - especially as sophronia made it clear that she likes being independent. Or so she thinks but really can’t be without her maid/friend helen at every turn. They never actually solved the mystery because of the fact they couldn’t take their eyes off each other.

Asa reader, I had an idea of who the culprit was for a bit and was glad to be right. But it was so infuriating that it was literally handed to the main characters on a plate.

And the reason for the incidents in the first place? Like is the culprit for real? I really can’t tell if a human can really be like that or if this is the author’s attempt at writing a convincing villain and failing.

The only thing that kept me reading was the fact that I just wanted to know who did it and why.

I’ve been wanting to read “The Widow of Pale Harbour” by Hester Fox for a while now after reading some good reviews. The premise sounded perfect for my taste in gothic historical fiction and the cover just compounded the sense of dark trepidation the mysterious story oozes.
“Maine, 1846. Desperate to escape the ghosts of his past, Gabriel Stone takes a position as a minister in the remote town of Pale Harbour, but not all is as it seems in the sleepy town. As soon as Gabriel arrives, he can’t escape the rumours about the mysterious Sophronia Carver, a young widow who lives in the eerie Castle Carver - whispers that she killed her husband, mutterings that she might even be a witch. But as strange, unsettling events escalate into murder, Gabriel finds himself falling under Sophy’s spell. As clues start to point to Sophy as the next victim, Gabriel realises he must find answers before anyone else turns up dead.”
I really enjoyed the traditional gothic feel to the story, a touch of superstition, witchcraft, suspicion and a clean romance all intertwined with the vivid imagination of Edgar Allan Poe’s evocative and eerie stories. I love tales that involve possible witches, haunting dark secrets and which keep you entertained and addicted from start to finish, so this was a perfect match for me. I do have to admit to having to research the word ‘transcendentalism’ due to my naivety and was quite surprised to learn its meaning, having never heard of it before. An ingenious idea to incorporate into a plot line.
The characters were well portrayed and perfect for the era the story was set in. Sophronia played an excellent widow with a dark and unsettling secret and along with her protective house servant and closest friend Helen, they had a deep rooted friendship I could well imagine.
The author comes from a background history of museum work and historical archaeology, so she is perfectly suited for writing ghostly gothic style stories. She has also written a previous novel, “The Witch at Willow Hall”, which I do hope to read soon.
A captivating story which would be the ultimate entertainment on halloween night, I enjoyed “The Widow of Pale Harbour” and hope, if gothic mysteries are your thing, that you do too!

4.5 stars

I'm not sure where I stand with this book. I admit I mostly enjoyed it, the plot intrigued me and I felt the characters were well written and mostly believable, but despite all of that I still felt like I was struggling through parts of the book and didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. As I said previously, the plot intrigued me and left me wanting more, but I think that maybe I was left wanting more than the book could give.

Unfortunately I did not get on with this book and therefore cannot rate it very highly. I really struggled to connect with the characters and storyline.

An interesting novel about the power of superstition and things that go bump in the night. A slight departure from my usual reading style and an enjoyable one.

Historical fiction at its spine. Chilling best. The author. Delivers us a a satisfying fulsome read that you will finish with a flourish

Thank you for the opportunity to read this but sadly it wasn’t for me. Bit too dark and skipped to get to the end.

I very much enjoyed this, I usually go for detective stories but when I read this books description it interested me.

Sophronia is a very well written character, and the story is interesting. Old fashioned but not to the point of it felt like a chore reading it. I liked the witchcraft elements of it, add in some murder and love and it makes for a brilliant read!

Having read Hester Fox's debut 'The Witch of Willow Hall', I was really curious to see what this was like. I wasn't disappointed. A well thought out read, I enjoyed it very much, and really can't wait to see what the author does next.

This book has it all, a gothic touch, romance and mystery what more does a book need for reading on a chilly winter night.
I Loved the characters and storyline with a twist of Poe interwoven between made this a fantastic read.
Can't wait to read more by Hester Fox.
Thank you netgalley.

I can sum up The Widow of Pale Harbour in one word....incredible!

The storytelling is dark, gothic and full of surprises! I read this on a dark winters day and it was perfect.

Highly recommended!

Gabriel Stone is a man with many secrets. The kind of secrets that can destroy the life he is intent on carving out for himself in the community of Pale Harbour. Perhaps that is why he connects instantly with Sophronia Carver - a woman with secrets.

She has become the target of malicious rumours and a concentrated effort to malign her character and to scare her. Is she a witch? Did she have something to do with her husband's demise? Is someone in her inner circle guilty of the worst betrayal?

Gabriel is surprised when rumours and reputation don't line up with his personal experience and encounters with Sophronia. What is it about this woman that evokes such negative reactions and has set someone on a murderous course of action?

Fox uses the works and myth of Poe to insert a macabre and gothic vibe to the story. Each moment of fear or horror is woven through the fabric of his work. Although this isn't a new angle per se, I liked the idea of a perpetrator who is influenced by the words of an author, but in a historical context, ergo not a modern era. Nowadays criminals are allegedly influenced by what they watch, read and play, which is a common theme to us. Taking that perspective on criminality, and perhaps even accountability, and creating the same kind of stepping stone was interesting.

It's mystery, murder and crime, a psychological thriller in a historical setting. Fox balances romances, fear and mystery meticulously to create a gripping read.

A strong start for 'The Widow of Pale Harbour' by Hester Fox, however the promise of the blurb faulted a little, for me, with the focus on romance for a substantial part of the book. There are Gothic elements and an intriguing addition of the macabre through the works of Edgar Allen Poe.
By reading this book on a bleak, wet and incredibly windy day helped the general atmosphere.
The setting is bleak, the village community judgemental and easily riled up in a 'witch' hunt based on rumour and gossip.
The principal characters are both recovering from trauma in their pasts and are seeking both peace and comfort. Gideon Stone arrives at Pale Harbour as their new minister, although there're are secrets behind his strict and upright demeanour. Soph on the other hand, has become an outcast in her village community and labelled witch-like and trouble. It is these two adrift and troubled souls that is the focus for the book and their coming together.
An historical mystery romance novel that's a nice read for a winter Sunday afternoon.

Set in Maine in the 1800s, this is a creepy tale of a man who moves to the small and isolated (fictional) village of Pale Harbor to be the new minister. His wife has just died and so he is lost and alone and hope the new move will restore his health and mind.
Well, that girl on the cover with the lamp more than sets the tone of the whole novel as that is not a happy place is it? There’s darkness, a sense of foreboding and plenty of gothic overtones to match. Sophronia Carver, a woman who lives in Pale Habor is blamed for all the bad things happening town.She has to be a witch as strange things are happening and there seems no other way to understand or explain them…

Now, take all that and mix in the stories of Edgar Allen Poe - WHAT a portent mix. Perhaps the most portent mix of anything to have not come out of a cauldron….

Gothic and chilling. Very atmospheric and a novel to read on a cold and windy winter night.


It becomes apparent that everything happening relates back to the stories of Edgar Allen Poe. I LOVED this aspect! In middle school, I was taught several of the works of Poe by an enthusiastic English teacher who loved is creepy stories.

I was expecting a mysterious gothic masterpiece and what I actually got was a historical romance with some mystery thrown in.
Nothing wrong with that at all but I felt the blurb here was a tad misleading.
So Sophronia Carver is a young widow who lives in Carver castle in the town of Pale harbor.
The entire town thinks her a murderer and a witch.
Gabriel is the new minister practising transcendentalism he has moved for a fresh start after the death of his wife in childbirth.
When these two meet they forge a strong connection further amplified by Gabriel's protectiveness towards the young widow.
This is also has a budding romance a slow burn one, the whole story is quite clean in nature with one intimate scene and a couple of kisses.
So strange things are afoot in Pale Harbor and the whole town is pointing the finger in Sophy's direction, after all, she is the local witch according to the town gossips.
But it's not long before events escalate and it becomes clear that Sophy is the main target of this vendetta of hatred.
With a dwindling suspect pool, Sophy even suspects her long-time devoted maid Helen.
Helen despite her spells and charms claims only to have her mistresses best interests at heart and the more she tries to drive a wedge between Sophy and Gabriel the more she unintentionally pushes them together.
So I did find this to be a tad slow and plodding and it never really got off the ground for me hence my final rating.
So I had a few issues with this I think one of the main ones was I never really took to Sophy herself I found her to be quite self-absorbed and I disliked the way she treated Helen even referring to her as pathetic in conversation with Gabriel.
Helen was a bloody nightmare at times but Sophy has allowed and enabled this behaviour and the woman was only trying to look after Sophy in the only way she knew how.
I also thought Gabriel's pedestal that he had put his dead wife on needed a sharp kick to the foundations.
When I learned her past actions towards her husband it just made Gabriel look like a complete and utter doormat, not understanding and decent like I think the author intended just please walk all over me.
Also, people here made the dumbest choices they deserved to be murdered in my opinion Sophy was a complete moron in that regard she did everything you are not supposed to and in real life, she definitely would have been a gonna.
The prose itself here was lovely I'll say that but the rest for me fell flat and the ultimate mystery left me completely cold.
The writing itself here was fine but as I said earlier this was a bit of a miss for me which is a shame as I wanted so much to like this more than I did.
If you like the cleaner historical gothic romances this one might be a fit for you.
I voluntary reviewed a copy of The Widow of Pale Harbor.

I wasn't sure about this book at first as it's quite a slow start, but I soon found the story haunting and beautifully written. It's not as fast paced as other murder mystery stories, buy that's made up for in the way the story is told, in the characterisation and in the detail. Overall, a really good and clever read.

I received this through netgalley.

wow! I read this in one sitting and I loved every page. im so so pleased with the plot, it kept me hooked. Sophronia and Gabriel were such fascinating characters and Fox skilfully threaded their stories together at the perfect pace to keep me hooked and interested. The setting of New England was so atmospheric, it definitely helped reading this over coffee whilst tucked up in bed! The ending topped everything off for me, leaving my heart content. This is my first 5 star review of a book on Net Galley and I am SO excited read Fox's other book, as well as other future books to come!

5 Words: Isolation, romance, belonging, belief, mystery.

When I first started reading The Widow of Pale Harbour by Hester Fox I was expecting full on witch vibes and magic and a dark story. And while the story was certainly dark, it wasn't as witchy as I hoped so I was a little disappointed. But it was still an excellent and atmospheric read.

The story is pretty dark, the setting is grim, the characters pretty entrancing. It's a chilling tale that gets quite dark.

I think out of the two main perspectives, I preferred Sophronia's the most. I enjoyed the voice of her narrative. Although I was quite relieved when her name was shorted to Sophy as her full name is a bit of a mouthful.

There is a romance in the story that I was a bit wary of at first, but I thought it was really understandable in how it progresses given what the characters had been through. There was such urgency to it, and it helped a lot in driving the pace of the story. I liked watching it develop.

The Widow of Pale Harbour is an excellent read, especially for this time of year. I loved the way the setting almost came alive on the page. I will definitely read the author's debut Witch of Willow Hall.

After reading The Witch of Willow Hall last year, I was desperate to get my hands on The Widow of Pale Harbour. Witchy books, especially at this time of the year, are like a drug to me.

Like the her first book, The Widow of Pale Harbor is hauntingly addictive. Hester Fox has an incredible way of drawing you into her locations, making you feel like you're right there witnessing what's happening in the characters' lives.

This book is definitely not a roller coaster, but I was prepared. The Witch of Willow hall was slow but steeped in mystery, and this book is no different. Don't be fooled by the slow start, you might think you have the plot figured out, but I can almost guarantee you'll be wrong. If you allow yourself to get lost in the atmosphere of this book and you'll really enjoy the experience.

I found Sophronia (or Sophy as she's called) to be such a wonderful character. She was hated and maligned by the townspeople but remained a kind and graceful soul. A perfect match for the grieving minister, Gabriel. It was a joy to watch the two characters develop as the story progressed.

If you're a fan of Edgar Allan Poe, then you'll love this book as the mysteries scattered throughout are directly related to his poems and they add another delightfully creepy layer to the book.

Murder, mystery and romance, The Widow of Pale Harbour is everything you could possibly want in a book at this time of the year. Put on the fire and get comfy because once you start it you won't be able to put it down!