A Curse Dark as Gold

I wanted to get the ball rolling on a discussion about our April book, since, you know, April is now over with. Wednesday afternoon I was curled up with the book, reading the last 75 pages or so while Callum napped. Matthew came in the room to tell me something and I said (or, rather, I'm pretty sure I snapped), "Please don't talk to me now." I was so engrossed in Bunce's book that the idea of anything pulling me out of the setting and back to reality was unacceptable. I thorougly enjoyed this book. Bunce's setting and characters drew me in and I felt like I was right there in their world. Sure, the middle seemed to drag on forever, and Charlotte's secrets and stubborness sometimes drove me nuts, but that didn't matter much. Usually I find myself sort of frustrated when there are a whole bunch of characters--like I often can't keep them separate, or find them so flat that they seem unnecessary--but Biddy Tom, Uncle Wheeler, Rosie, Randall, Harte, and the rest were so well-drawn and all contributed so much to the tale. This is another one of those titles that I only can gush about and don't really have anything specific to say beyond "it was great!" I think we're just good, as a book club, at picking really interesting, different titles, because I certainly don't generally love every single book I pick up. On a final note, I just want to say I love the cover. Even though I should know better, I definitely judge a book by its cover, all the time. Though this book was on my to-read list already, choosing it for the book club ensured I read it, whereas without the incentive to read it, I may never have gotten to it. I'm interested to know what others thought, especially people who tend to read more fairy tale retellings than I do.