Review Detail

You guys. I'm in love. With this story, the words, the characters, the setting. Yes, it's set in a woolen mill, so I was inclined to like it from the start, but one thing can't make me love a book this much, or make me giggle with delight when the romance starts. Also, how much do I love that cover! I know I said yesterday that it's gorgeous, but it is. Still! Her hands are trapped in gold thread!

A CURSE DARK AS GOLD is a) a fabulous title, and b) a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin, in which he is not just some straw-into-gold meanie, but a sympathetic character, even when he's frightening.

Charlotte Miller, who more or less inherits Stirwaters Mill when her father dies, is a smart, capable girl who knows how to run a business, and that the meager wages she pays her workers are the only thing keeping the town of Shearing from falling apart.

If only she could afford to pay all the debts her father left, too.

Which is where a man who can spin straw into gold comes in, isn't it?

This story had it all for me. Curses, amazing prose, yarn, romance (swoon--Mr. Woodstone!), mystery, history, magic, a real and developed cast of characters, great structure... (What? I find well-structured stories highly attractive.) (And, while it may or may not have been intentional, I kept thinking of Charlotte's Web with the heroine's name. The fairy tale girl is nameless, as far as I've seen. Intentional or not, I liked Charlotte. Known for what she weaves, keeping people safe and together... It was a nice--possibly imaginary--connection for me.)

I don't know how I missed this book when it originally came out in 2008. (You'd think certain friends who know my yarn habits might have mentioned it. AHEM.) In fact, I haven't seen this book get nearly the attention it deserves. So I want you to read it. Meanwhile, I'm going to buy everything else Elizabeth Bunce has ever written.

You know how sometimes when you read a book and love it so much you just want to run around the house hugging it?