I have loved most of Cat Winters books and was incredibly excited to see what she would do with a book about Edgar Allan Poe. This ended up being a bit disappointing to me. While it was a neat idea, it was honestly kind of boring. There is a lot of flowery language but not much of a story here.

Edgar Poe is constantly pulled between the demands of his art and the demands of his foster father. He desperately wants to attend University and his foster father has agreed to send him..for now. When Poe’s muse takes on human form she ends up causing a number of issues for him that lead him down a dark path. I did enjoy the idea of an artist’s muse being a living/tangible thing; basically the human embodiment of their artistic talent. Lenore is all of Poe’s dark tendencies and urges wrapped into one disturbing girl. Eventually another muse shows up who fights with Lenore over Poe and this muse is the embodiment of Poe’s ability for satire.

Unfortunately this story was both too much and not enough for me. Having the second muse enter the scene was distracting and this second muse was just not very well developed (I can’t even remember his name). It was just too much and really defocused the story. I also felt like Lenore was not enough. She just wasn’t dark enough, committed enough, and didn’t feel passionate and developed enough. The whole thing ended up being a bit of a muddle. If you look back at what actually happened in this book it’s really not all that much. It was fairly boring to read, the only bright spots being the poetry excerpts throughout. I also enjoyed the afterward that talked about Edgar Poe’s actual history.

Overall this was a disappointing read for me; it’s okay but feel very short of my expectations. The story is just too slow, boring, and a bit muddled. You don’t get a lot of story and the muses weren’t quite as intense as they should have been. This is one of the weaker Cat Winters books I have read. I started reading it with a huge amount of enthusiasm and by the end just wanted it to be over.

I just could not get into this one. The writing style seemed like it might work for me, but after a while I found myself wanting to skip large chunks of text which I had to keep catching myself on. I didn't really feel like there was much pull to finish the story, and I honestly just felt a little...bored. I feel a bit bad about that, but hey, I read a lot, and some things just aren't my vibe. Unfortunately, this definitely wasn't my vibe.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel as a lover of Poe's work. I loved the juxtaposition of the muses world and the mortal world meeting. Seeing the beginnings of Edgar A. Poe's adult life and the ups and downs he went through were very interesting and the addition of watching the relationship unfold between muse and artist created an engaging plot. Perfect for the spooky season!

I love that this novel made Poe’s muse into a (somewhat) tangible person. This book was dark and atmospheric and unique.

When I read this one I was super excited about it. Loved the cover and the summary. Once I started reading though, my interest was somewhere in the middle. Honestly it's more average for me. Even now thinking about it, the book just didn't do anything for me.

Seventeen-year-old Edgar Allan Poe can't wait for the day he leaves home - and his foster father - for university. However, Edgar doesn't want to be away from his beloved foster mother and the girl he intends to marry.
Edgar's chance to escape Richmond is put into jeopardy when a horrifying Muse appears to him. He has been told that Muses are foul beings that lead people into disgrace. The Muse, who Edgar names Lenore, wants only one thing - to be seen.
Can Edgar keep Lenore hidden?
Will she ruin Edgar's one chance of attending university?

Going into The Raven's Tale, I didn't know much about Edgar Allan Poe and I hadn't read many of his poems, so I wasn't really sure what to expect.
I liked Edgar as a protagonist - I felt sorry for him at times, and wanted him to follow his dream of being a writer.
Lenore was an interesting character and I felt sorry for her too at times - she just wanted to be seen, but Edgar worried that her appearance would frighten people.
The plot was good overall, but nothing that happened surprised me particularly.
My favourite thing about this book was the concept of Muses. I really liked the idea of having one following you around and inspiring you.
The setting of the 1800s was also interesting.
The writing style was easy to follow, but I wasn't gripped.
Reading The Raven's Tale has made me want to find out more about Edgar Allan Poe. I didn't realise that he also wrote comedy pieces.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read.

I received a copy of this book for a fair and honest review. I have to say that I have been a fan of Poe's for a very long time. So when I came cross this book and it has him a teenage at the beginning of his creative phase I had to have it. The centers around Poe wanting to write the dark works he is known for and fighting against his family and muse to keep his sanity. He tries to escape all of that by going to college. The dark and creepy tale is perfect for any Poe fan and those discovering him for the very first time.

Like most poets, I greatly enjoy work by Edgar Allen Poe, so when I saw this ARC on NetGalley I knew I had to get it. 

While I was originally intrigued by the first chapter, I felt like everything went downhill from there. The world-building was seriously lacking, I never felt like the ideas of how Muses worked was explained well. It was just assumed we all knew what was happening. On top of that Lenore herself was the worst character, dramatic and whiny and had zero substance. She was ridiculous.   I hated that the story switched between Poe and Lenore. 

So it was about 30% into the book that I lost interest. Poe was going in circles and the plot was becoming repetitive and predictable. While I liked parts of Poe's character he felt stagnant and in the end I just didn't care for anything that was happening. 

I was very sad to be so harsh on this book, especially since I generally enjoy Cat Winter's books. In the end I gave The Raven's Tale 2 stars.

Author: Cat Winters | Published: April 16, 2019 by Amulet Books | Series: Standalone | Length: 368 pages | Genre: YA Fiction | Source: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Seventeen-year-old Edgar Poe counts down the days until he can escape his foster family—the wealthy Allans of Richmond, Virginia. He hungers for his upcoming life as a student at the prestigious new university, almost as much as he longs to marry his beloved Elmira Royster. However, on the brink of his departure, all his plans go awry when a macabre Muse named Lenore appears to him. Muses are frightful creatures that lead Artists down a path of ruin and disgrace, and no respectable person could possibly understand or accept them. But Lenore steps out of the shadows with one request: “Let them see me!”


Back in high school we had to read a few of Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories. Ever since then I have loved reading his work and now own a book of his collected works. Anyways, when I found out about this book I knew that I just had to pick it up and read it! I was fortunate enough to be accepted for a copy on Netgalley and then lo and behold I was sent a physical ARC as well.

This book was everything I had hoped it would be! I loved getting to read about Edgar in his younger years. The idea of the muses was a really cool one. It added such an awesome element to the story that kept you wondering what would happen to Edgar’s muse. Although I do wish we couod’ve seen muses from other characters. I think there was one, maybe two other characters with muses other than Edgar.

I also liked that the author added little snippets of his actual writing intermingled with her own take on his style. It really gave the story the feeling of Edgar starting to toss around ideas and edit and improvise his poems.

One thing I wished there was a little more of was romance. We see a hint of it with Sarah Elmira Royster, but other than that we don’t really see anymore. That romance ended up just being more frustrating to me than anything. I don’t really know too much of Edgar’s real life when he was a teenager and if he had any love interests at that point. But I wish there was a bit more romance in this book than there was.

I highly recommend this book if you love Edgar Allan Poe’s works or if you like dark and haunting books.

I gave this book 4/5 stars on Goodreads.

I adore Edgar Allan Poe and was thrilled I received a copy of this from Netgalley. I hope my tardiness in actually finishing this book and writing my review does not take away from how much I honestly loved this dark yet inspiring dramatization of the life of young Edgar Allan Poe. 

Usually, with Poe media, we get late twenties Poe, a man who was eulogized in the press by people who didn't like him so they painted him in an incredibly unflattering light. Sadly a light that still shines on his brilliant creator over a hundred years after his mysterious death.

I loved all the allegory of expressing art or leaning in and understanding what you want to create. I also love that Winters didn't try to shove Poe into just the dark gothic box he gets placed in so often. The book is filled with wordplay of well known Poe works-- The Raven in particular. This book explores Poe's early life, his home with the Allans and how his adopted family shaped everything about how he became. 

I loved the dual narrative. Edgar and his muse talking about the fire to create. With Edgar, we get more day to day traditional narrative, but with the muse, we get this beautiful poetic song so much like Poe's writing and I adored every moment of the story.  

There is only so much we can know about historical people. We only have receipts and second-hand accounts of how people were at age 16, 17, 18. We'll never truly know what Poe was like as a college student, but we can make assumptions, and I think this book paints a close to true life portrait Poe's time at the Univerity of Virginia. I love the idea of dueling muses and trying to figure out your place. Poe was so complicated, and I loved how Winters played the different parts of Poe against each other.

As we approach spooky season, I'm going to highly recommend this novel to my friends out there looking for something that's not scary, but still dark. This book is worth picking up and checking out if you're interested in Poe.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review, which has not altered my opinion of this book.

This story follows Edgar as he gets ready to leave his father's abusive home and go to live on his own in college. However, after accidentally summoning his muse and giving her a physical body, he realizes what many of us realize when we go out on our own for the first time: we have no idea what we are doing and just want to fit in. Spoiler: Lenore doesn't fit into his ideal life (not really a spoiler). So, he pushes her away, the problem is that a Muse is a physical being that others can see and she doesn't want to be ignored and is very set on not allowing that to occur and butts into Edgar's life as often as she can.

I was really quite disappointed with this book. I had heard that it is a magical realism origin story of Edgar Allen Poe, with a humanoid version of a muse he names Lenore. Totally sounds up my alley! However, I found myself to be struggling through much of it and really just wanted to smack both Edgar and Lenore on their respective heads and tell them to get a grip.

Honestly, this book had the potential to be awesome and dark and creepy and amazing, but all it managed to do for me was to be dark and creepy and confusing. Overall, I'm giving this 3.5 out of 5.

I wish I could’ve gotten into The Raven’s Tale because it sounds dark and lovely. Unfortunately, it’s just not for me. It’s much too historical and old-timey for me.

Was okay, not my favorite being an avid Poe fan. Will try reading again later. Super glad though she decided to create the story for other Poe fans, not many fiction works that include him as as she did.

So I went into this as a little bit of a fangirl of Poe's works and with fairly high expectations. Alas, while the story was interesting in parts, I just couldn't particularly connect with it.

On opening this novel, I was expecting a kind of romance between Poe and his muse Lenore. Instead I got a kind of whingy Poe, a fairly bland girlfriend in Elmira and Lenore being so ridiculously cryptic and needy that I initially wanted to close and DNF the book.

Around the 35-40% mark, this story stagnated hardcore and took a long while to pick up the pace again.

Although it was an adequate telling of a tale of Poe, it lacked the grit and polish that I had expected

I received this via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved it guys. This book was just what I wanted It to be. The world building was fun. The characters were very well flushed out. I loved the plot of this. I can not wait to read more by this author. I highly recommend this book.

Sad DNF at 42%. After a really interesting and excellent beginning, I think this has stagnated pretty hard – the stakes feel a bit low for the story being told. Edgar's romance with Sarah Elmira Royster and desire to stay at UVA are just not high enough stakes; knowing the history, I'm really struggling to get invested. I think this spends too much time introducing the characters, and the horror just isn’t terrifying enough to hold up the book.

The Raven's Tale plays with the idea of art as a rebellion something others attempt to suppress; one of the narrators is Lenore, Edgar Allan Poe's muse. The characterization of this book holds that the father has pushed his muse, Cassandra, into a fire, which is fascinating. The first 15% was really fantastic; I just think the ideas haven’t gone any further. Maybe those who like flat-out horror will find this one more compelling.

My Review: I will not be saying too much about this book because its one of those titles that if I say too much it will give things away. However, this is for those who love classics and Edgar Allen Poe! If those two are up your alley then you totally need to read this one!! Its dual POV and had a wonderful set of characters and setting. I loved it and could not put it down!! And that cover is just so GORGEOUS.

I loved the blurb of this book and was really excited to read it. Unfortunately, it archived before I could read it.

First of all, I loved the writing. It was beautiful and so close to Poe’s own. I thought the characters were thoughtful and well developed. And while I can usually get by slow plot, this was a bit meandering, thus the lower rating. I like Cat Winters and will read her again.

I'm a huge fan of Cat Winters. The Raven's Tale is Cat Winters re-imagining of the life of Edgar Poe. It was poetic, dark, and hard to put down:) Highly recommended.