Eventide by Sarah Goodman

The Quick Cut: Two sisters find themselves orphaned when their father loses his mind after their mother dies. Chaos ensues as they are dropped in a new and strange town. A Real Review: We've all heard ghost stories, but have you ever believed them? There are always things that happen that we can't explain, but when they force you to deal with them, what do you do? This is the situation for sisters Verity and Lilah. Verity and Lilah find their lives radically changed when their mother dies and their father loses his mind shortly after. This leaves the sisters orphaned and on a train to a small town called Wheeler, Arkansas. When younger sister Lilah is adopted, Verity takes a job at a farm to stay close to her. Except Verity finds the stories about the woods disconcerting and feels that something is off here. Is she right? Or is something going wrong with her? This story attempts to combine historical fiction and paranormal mystery to create a tale. However, even though these elements do exist, the story and it's characters a bit flat. On the positive side, this one makes for a quick read if you'd like a story of that variety. I like to feel connected to the characters and I found it a struggle to connect to Verity's family. She's lost her entire family and I anticipated her losing herself in grief over it. Instead, I don't really see as much of a reaction as I expected. A quick read that feels one dimensional. My rating: 3 out of 5