Unfortunately, the major characters and relationships fell flat for me. The sketches of the minor characters were witty and perceptive, though the frequent jumps in point-of-view that sketched these characters were off-putting. The descriptions of the setting were evocative and enjoyable. I liked this book enough to finish it but not more. If you enjoy gothic romances, you might want to give Anya Seton a try.
As a bit of interest, Seton includes Edgar Allen Poe as one of her characters, and I can attest that the vignette that includes him is very accurate, knowing a bit about his life myself. I could picture upstate New York in the 1850s, and the historical research that was needed to make the story true to its time. What I do love about Seton is her ability to describe her settings and re-create a time period to perfection. At no juncture did I feel there was really any mystery to unravel or any surprise plot twist, and Miranda behaved just as you would expect a gothic heroine to do, she fell for the charm and missed the obvious clues that all was not well at Dragonwyck. Where the plot goes from here is fairly predictable. Miranda is transported from her simple, work-a-day life to glamour, luxury and the charms of a cousin that she could little have imagined existing. Our story opens in 1854 with Miranda Wells, a farm girl, receiving an invitation from her mother’s wealthy cousin to come to the estate of Dragonwyck to be a sort of governess to his child. I have enjoyed reading her, but, for the most part, I think she is the kind of writer I would have loved for escapism when I was in my teens or twenties. I keep expecting to find another, but the three others of her novels I have read have not lived up to that expectation. I’m guessing this will be my last Anya Seton novel.
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