Read If: you like orphan stories, you're interested in light witchery.
This year I let myself indulge in some middle grade/YA books, and I'm happy I did. They gave me a reprieve from some of the pandemic stress, as well as just general stressors, and I love sinking into a relatively simple story now and then and just getting lost.
I love the overall idea of this book and think it stands out, but the story didn't quite pull together for me.
An orphan suddenly finds out she's the heir to a well-off family's fortune; but when she arrives, the family is missing and their "friend" has taken over the house. There's witchcraft involved, but our main character doesn't really see much of it at all. She just cleans, stays in her cold room, and fumes about being left out.
It took a while to truly pick up and languished on the main character just being annoyed that she's left in this giant house she supposedly inherited as another woman, who we only get glimpses of, does sketchy stuff. Not knowing what any of that sketchy stuff is, there's more confusion than an "oh no/ah ha!" moment when the plot takes a sudden turn.
A light read with a sense of adventure, but definitely confusing at times due to lack of a cohesive plot.
