By Hayley Platt
Wildwood Whispers by Willa Reece is the author’s adult fantasy debut novel. Her previous works are published under the name Barbara J. Hancock and span many genres including romance and fantasy.
Wildwood Whispers is the story of Mel Smith, a young woman who grew up in the foster care system. She has one close friend, Sarah Ross, whom she met in one of the homes and stuck with until both were in their twenties. After Sarah’s sudden death, Mel is determined to return Sarah to her home town and is quickly drawn into the quirky and magical town of Morgan’s Gap, nestled in the Appalachian Mountains.
Coming in at just under 400 pages, this felt like a longer book that was on the slow side. The first part of the book is very heavy in description of people and scenery, which will appeal to many readers, but others will appreciate the uptick in the plot in the last third of the story. This book is definitely recommended to people who love to read about the woods and love to visualize the setting of a story as they move through the pages.
This was a true genre-spanning novel; parts of it were fantasy, romance, and mystery all rolled into one storyline. Overall, this mixing of genres was done well, but some aspects (the romance parts in particular) were very minor and could have either been embellished more or taken out and the story would have had the same effect.
There are a lot of characters who help pull the story together, many with minor roles. At the beginning it is difficult to keep them straight but as the story begins to pick up it becomes easier to keep track of who you need to keep track of.
One consistent topic in this book is the need to protect the environment and our connection with nature. Many readers will be able to relate to the storyline because of this aspect alone.
This book is recommended to readers who love magical realism and books covering multiple genres at a time. This would be a great book for a book club or discussion group, since every person who reads it will pick up on different aspects and come away with their own conclusions about Sarah and Mel’s story.
Thank you so much to Hachette Book Group Canada for the complimentary copy of Wildwood Whispers so that it could be impartially reviewed.