Release date: May 23 2024
Publisher: Magpie
Pages: 288
Find it: Goodreads Waterstones
Source: I bought a copy of this online
Rating: 3/5 stars

Synopsis

Following a scandal at Vauxhall pleasure gardens, Camille is sent away to her reclusive godmother, who keeps a strict watch over her and her own sickly daughter, Lucy. Camille must stay away from everything she has known until the scandal is forgotten, keeping strictly to the small farmhouse in the woods. Away from the corsetry and curtsies of polite society, Camille finds herself surprisingly…free. She is also strangely drawn to Lucy, a pale, fragile girl who dreams of stars, but has never left the farm. Yet as Camille and Lucy grow close and cross forbidden boundaries, the fine balance of their woodland home begins to death stalks between the trees, claw-marks rake the doors and the moon rises to the song of a creature Camille has never heard before. Camille begins to realise her godmother was holding more than unladylike behaviour at bay…

Review

Moonstone is a YA fantasy story that follows a young woman called Camille who is sent to stay with her godmother following a scandal with a young man. Her godmother is a recluse and spends her days living in the forest and looking after her daughter Lucy who has a strange illness. As the two spend more time together Camille soon discovers there is much more to Lucy and her illness than meets the eye.

Moonstone is the YA debut of The Silent Companions author Laura Purcell. I have read a number of books from this author previously and given them all five stars so I was very intrigued by this one. Moonstone is very different from the gothic historical horrors I have come to expect from Purcell and while it did not grab me in the same way, this was still an enjoyable read. It was well paced and being just under 300 pages it was a pretty quick and engaging read. I did find the story somewhat predictable but that did not mean I was not intrigued to see how it all played out.

I liked Camille and Lucy as main characters and I thought Purcell did a good job of developing their relationship as they spent more time together. I thought the romance could have done with a little more development but overall I thought the story came to a satisfying conclusion. I absolutely love Purcell’s writing style and that definitely shone through in Moonstone. Whilst I didn’t fall in love with this one I am not necessarily the target audience so if you are someone who loves YA fantasy then Moonstone would definitely be your kind of book and I am of course very much looking forward to whatever Purcell writes next.