Book Review: Madly, Deeply by Erica Crouch

Madly, Deeply - Erica Crouch

A copy of this novel was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

 

I love Erica’s writing. I don’t know how many times I have said that, and I’ll probably say it numerous times into the future, but I do. I freaking love it. I love the metaphors and the prose and the feel. I always find myself catching my breath at the beauty of her words. Which is why she is hands down one of my favourite authors.

 

I really liked Madly, Deeply. I loved that it was inspired by Poe, and that it truly kept to the gothic essence of his writing. It was beautiful.

 

The only thing that makes this a four balloon read and not a five (because seriously, this is a beautiful book – the story is gorgeous and so are the characters but I’ll get to them in a second) was the pacing. I understand that a lot of gothic novels are slowly paced, but the action-y (well, gothic action) bits were the best. The moments when my heart was racing or breaking – these were the parts I loved the best, and I felt like I had to wait a while before these came along. Most of the in between parts were scene setting, or emotion analyses, but I felt that they could have been dispersed a bit more widely.

 

But other than that, I adored this book.

 

From the moment Madly, Deeply starts, you ship Annaleigh and Will. They are adorable. And so in love and they have a history and it’s beautiful and everything is sweet and romantic and then BAM. You want a happily ever after for these two? *cue Erica laughing evilly* Yeah, well. Needless to say my heart was all ‘noooooooo’ (along the strain of Luke Skywalker). When the ship went down.

 

But then. BUT THEN! Plot twist! I won’t ruin it, but it’s beautiful and heartbreaking and asdfghjkl. I cannot even accurately describe the feels. Especially the fight scene between Anna and Will in the cabin. My heart was breaking piece by piece. I did not want to let go.

 

Whilst the majority of Madly, Deeply involves lakes formed from your own tears, the ending is kind of uplifting in a really darn sad way. Like ‘oh, okay. They’re being big people. They’re doing what they have to do. Excuse me while I cry rivers of sadness’ uplifting. Which, now that I think of it, isn’t really uplifting for me as a reader, but more uplifting for the characters, and what they will face next.

 

I would have absolutely loved Madly, Deeply to be a longer novel. I would have loved to read about Anna and Will as young teenagers falling in love, and getting to know each other, and dancing around their feelings. I think it would have been adorable.

 

What else can I say? The world is beautiful, the characters are vivid, the storyline is great. Madly, Deeply is a gorgeous read for anyone who is a fan of the paranormal, love that spans more than one lifetime, and gothic prose along the lines of Poe himself.

 

OH OH OH OH and when the cover made sense I just sat in awe. Like, seriously. ERICA, YOU ARE A GENIUS.

 

© 2014, Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity. All rights reserved.

Source: http://delicateeternity.com/2014/06/madly-deeply-by-erica-crouch