I'm rating 4/5 crossings from this one!
"Worlds of Ink and Shadow" by Lena Coakley was a beautiful looking book that honestly really intimidated me. I am sadly one of the few people who haven't read many or any Bronte family books. I skimmed through "Wuthering Heights" in middle school and didn't give it a whole lot of thought at the time. May be doing a reread at some point because I feel like I could appreciate it more now, but I digress.
WIS had a really interesting plot line and the story moved through really well. By not knowing much about the Bronte sisters, I did have to stop midway and look up to see where all of this was coming from and was excited and amazed that a good bit of their true history had been woven into this fictional work.
Without giving too much away (I hope!) I do really love the idea of being able to literally step into a person's story and be amongst the characters as if they were real people. That idea has fascinated me for a long time so seeing it played out in WIS was really cool. Also the folklore type referencing with Old Tom got my attention having come from the ol' Southern USA were folklore and story telling is rampant.
All in all I really enjoyed this story and getting to learn snippets of history about such a famous literary family was really cool too. Thank you to OwlCrate for the opportunity to receive this book!
Synopsis:
"Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne. The Brontë siblings have always been close. After all, nothing can unite four siblings quite like life in an isolated parsonage on the moors. Their vivid imaginations lend them escape from their strict, spartan upbringing, actually transporting them into their created worlds: the glittering Verdopolis and the romantic and melancholy Gondal. But at what price? As Branwell begins to slip into madness and the sisters feel their real lives slipping away, they must weigh the cost of their powerful imaginations, even as their characters—the brooding Rogue and dashing Duke of Zamorna—refuse to let them go."