I was very intrigued by the blurb and I usually love a good gothic fantasy but this one was quite underwhelming for me.

This story starts off with Serin who had discovered a secret family manuscript which revealed the story of Wren who is assigned with protecting an enchanted pendant which changed her life. Serin was eager to know how Wren’s story played out but as she read on, strange things start to happen and she believed she could have unleashed a dormant dark force that could threaten her world.

The story started off very well and I was eager to continue but the plot moved very, very slow which made me lose interest halfway through. I didn’t feel anything for the characters as much as I’d hoped cause there was no depth for any of the characters.

The premise of this story is great! I just wished there were more excitement and development in the plot. Thank you Netgalley and Cranthorpe Millner Publishers for the arc.

I absolutely loved the sound of this, dark, gothicy and had a past and present timeline. Added to the fact that the Victorian era is my utter fave.

So we have Serin who finds a book in her Mum's attic written by her great grandmother about a Victorian girl, Wren, who is the protector of the London Stone and keeping it from the evil Corvus. Serin gets pulled in and it all goes off from there.

I didn't know anything about the London Stone so quickly went to google and found it to be utterly fascinating!

However the book was very, very slow, it took ages to get going and I did feel my attention waning quite a bit. It did pick up a bit but then there was the end. It just ended on somewhere I didn't think should be an end. It was a bit bizarre as it doesn't seem to be a series!

The writing was beautiful and I did love the fact that it was a line of females who had to protect the stone when normally it would be men!!!

I loved the concept, but really struggled with the pacing of this novel. I think I may give it another shot as an audiobook once I have access to it.

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I was really looking forward to reading this book and I am so disappointed. A gothic tale which started off really well then it just went off the boil. The story just kept on plodding along and then it ended. I am sure other reader and younger readers will enjoy it more just not for me. A very mediocre read.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for giving an honest review.

Soul of a Raven
by Catherine Bloor
Pub Date: 24 Jan 2023

When Serin discovers a hidden family manuscript, she has no idea what she has set in motion. The old pages reveal the bewildering tale of an ordinary Victorian girl, Wren, who is given an enchanting pendant that changes her life.

Serin reads all night, compelled to discover the fate of her ancestor. Will Wren fulfil her destiny to protect the cursed London Stone, like the witches before her? Or will the relentless raven man be her downfall? Will she lose everyone she ever loved? Will she lose herself?

As Serin reads Wren’s tale, strange things start to happen, and she begins to believe she may have unleashed dormant dark magic upon herself.

This is a gothic tale of magic and myth, family secrets, love and revenge. It is a tale of the extraordinary, hidden beneath ordinary Victorian lives.

Soul of a Raven is a unique book. The premise is intriguing. It centres around the legend of the London Stone and mixes Gothic with Druid history and a modern day setting too.

I really enjoyed the plot and the story of Wren and her destiny to watch over the stone and protect it from Corvus, the Raven man. I found it took rather a long time for the actual story to get going and I was pretty bored at the start of the novel. I feel like the novel could do with one more round of editing as the plot is wonderful, but there was too much focus on tell not show at points,.

I think this author has a lot of promise and I loved how this novel ended.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an ARC in return for an honest review.

It was a slow read. I enjoyed it but I had to put it down due to it being slow. I wish there was more of each character.

In 2020, Serin is clearing her mum’s attic when she comes across an old book, written by her grandmother, about a girl in Victorian England who has been given the task of defending London from evil. Corvus, half man half raven, was born in ancient times on an altar that has now become “The London Stone” and he wants it back. Wren, just like the dozens of women before her that were tasked with the same job must protect “The London Stone” because if it’s removed, London will fall and thousands of people will die. To aid her, she has a pendant in the form of hare. Created in ancient times, the hare has magical powers. Corvus will stop at nothing to fulfil what he sees as his destiny so will little Wren be up to the task?
Starting in ancient times with the Druids, there are brief mentions of other women who have the task of protecting the stone but the bulk of the story focuses on Wren who meets Corvus for the first time in the early part of the nineteenth century.
This is a gothic tale of myth and magic with a fair bit of revenge thrown in for good measure.
If I am honest, I almost gave up on this book and it wasn’t until I was 45% (I checked my kindle) of the way in that I finally started to care. Personally I found the writing over descriptive and what my English teacher used to call “flowery” meaning over the top and unnecessary. Also, again for me personally, I found that the lack of contractions, especially in speech, slowed the pace. I doubt very much that anyone in 2020 would say “do not,” and “cannot,” etc rather than don’t and can’t.
Many thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Soul of a Raven by Catherine Bloor, is an interesting, if a bit long-winded book.

In this book, we follow the line of a group of women (many named after birds -Jay, Wren, Piper, Serin).
These women have powers of some type or another and are guardians of magical necklaces designed to protect the London STone. The tale in the book is that as long as the London Stone is there, London will survive.

The author does a good job of identifying who is telling the story in the various chapters as the book jumps back and forth from present day. It was not at all clear to me that Jay was a woman until more than halfway through the book.

The book also ends very abruptly. It feels like it's missing a final chapter or two. Even if this is meant to be a set-up for a sequel, I was confused and checked more than twice to see if it really was the end.
A small annoyance was that there were no chapter bookmarks in my e-book. I had to be vigilant about using a bookmark, so I knew where to pick up. This may just be a pre-publication error that will be corrected.
I would not really recommend this book, but perhaps in later versions, it will be tweaked, which might benefit it from a readability perspective.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book, in exchange for my honest opinion and review.

I was hooked from the beginning with this book but found the dual timelines somewhat confusing like other readers have also mentioned. However, overall I really this book, the plot, and the characters.

I was excited to read this book as it has so many of the story lines I like. However, I had a very hard time getting into the book and tried a few times but ultimately did not finish. I may pick it up again in a few months.
Thank you to NetGalley for the advance read.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Cranthorpe Millner Publishers for providing me an arc for an honest review.*

I dnf'd this book in about 20%. I just didn't care for it. I guess the whole druid part of the book didn't impress me.

It was good and I enjoyed it immensely. It was very Gothic and there were secrets among the family and magic. I t wad a perfect book to read in the evening or a dark rainy day. Which is exactly what I did and it was so good.
I just reviewed Soul of a Raven by Catherine Bloor. #SoulofaRaven #NetGalley
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This book is told through multiple points of view, but primarily is through the eyes of Serin in present day England, and her ancestor Jay’s manuscript about her mothers life and how it entwined with the Raven Man, and their struggle over the fate of the London Stone. Previously I had never heard of the London Stone, but it is in fact a very real thing that historians have wondered about for a good long time. This book uses the theory that its true purpose was to protect the city of London; we also get a good dose of witchcraft and magic where witches young and old try to keep the stone safe from a being who was once just a shadow in the form of a raven and then became merged with a man on the London Stone itself. I personally love strange and obscure bits of history like the London Stone and the folklore that surrounds them, so this was right up my alley. It did feel a little slow at times but it was more like it was taxing to read (like book hangover in a good way?). Overall I thought this was a really creative story unlike anything else I’ve read before

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

Soul of a Raven was a book that was sitting on my Kindle shelf for weeks and took me some time to get into.

Once I started reading it, definitely hooks you at the beginning! So visceral. I wish that hook kept me throughout as intensely. This book is definitely for the reader who likes a gothic novel with a touch of gore. I'd give it 3.5/5 stars.

This book possesses the basic elements for a gripping story but in the end, could be resumed in one action, protecting the magical pendant inherited from the goddess.
Soul of a Raven follows many girls throughout generations who were given the task of protecting a magical stone from the elements but also a mysterious character born through a ritual sacrifice.
Not much happens beside the constant back and forth between Corvus, the magical being and Wren, the girl destined to protect the stone.
Few characters were added to the storyline which is too bad, it would have added a nice complexity to the story.

I would not recommend that book at all.

**Honest review for a NetGalley ARC**

I’m stuck between a 3 and a 4, let me tell you why…

The beginning of this books takes a while to get off the ground. Basically this book is an airplane trying to gain enough speed to overcome the gravity of Earth. It does so eventually but they had to build a longer runway for that to happen with this book.
I think I was stuck with all of the descriptions. It was a lot of telling instead of showing. Every single sentence in the beginning was trying to be overly descriptive and that was not exciting to read.
However, once we reached the meat and potatoes of the plot, a lot of things started making sense. I think I would have like this a lot more if I could have the time period I was in at the top of the book- granted idk what that would have looked like for a kindle book but I was constantly having to go back to the beginning of the chapter to see what time period I was in, as the story skips around with times as well as points of view.
This was a very interesting plot once we got there. I kind of like resurrection or life cycle books. The kind where the job or the powers or great loves are passed down through life cycles. I think that’s super cool. That is this book and I thought that, that particular aspect was a great addition to the story.
I will say I was kind of confused with the romance in this book as part of it were glimpses into the future that I thought were real life truths. So I was horribly confused on that front.
This book ends with a cliff hanger and I’m not sure how I feel about it. I feel like this could have been a stand alone book but I think the mechanics of the book would have had to change.
Finally, I think I’m still confused on the aspect of the stone. I might have to go back and reread it because it didn’t really give a “why” we care about this stone- we just know it needs to be protected at all costs and that it’s important- but we never really got to know the deeper why that the main villain in this story is obsessed with it. I feel like it is just because he died there a long time ago, but honestly I’m not certain.

So you can see why I’m a little confused on what to give this book as a rating. On one hand, the story is creative and melds different tropes. On the other, the structure of the book was inconsistent and choppy- it made for a difficult read.
Ehh.
Let’s go with a 3.

Soul of A Raven has an intriguing concept, a gripping opening, and a gothic vibe, so I expected more from this book; however, the plot becomes tedious and doesn't seem to fit with a timeline that confuses me as I read. But I enjoyed the writing style; and I'm looking forward to the author's next work!

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Soul of a Raven is a gothic fantasy novel about a woman who finds a book that tells the tale of a girl named Wren. She reads the book out loud to her mom and strange things happen. Wren's story is interesting and quite lonely. The atmosphere is really spot-on in this story as are the well-written characters. Overall I thought it was a great story and look forward to seeing where it goes next.

Good story and I enjoyed the writing style. However, I was confused at the present day timeline and how it really moved the story along.

Thank you netgalley and the publisher for an eARC of this title