Madly, Deeply (ARC Review)

Madly, Deeply | Erica Crouch

Published by: Patchwork Press, June 17th 2014

Genre: Gothic, Romance

Pages: 182

Format: Ebook

Source: Patchwork Press, via Netgalley

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea...

Annaleigh Wells and William Calloway had a love even the angels envied. It was as if the universe spun them toward one another, like the stars crafted their souls to fit perfectly together.

With a wedding on the horizon, fate had a change of heart. Whispered warnings from phantoms and morbid nightmares darkened every night—but even visions of the future couldn’t save Annaleigh.

Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s poem Annabel Lee, Crouch’s period romance Madly, Deeply tells the tale of love so great, it cannot be contained in just one life.

Madly, Deeply tells the story of Annaleigh and William, childhood sweethearts whose love is emotional, moving, and doomed. It's based on Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe and is as eerie and wondrously gothic as you'd expect.

I loved the atmosphere and the anticipatory tension Erica Crouch set up, how it built and built, the sense that something was very wrong. There's a great unease in this book, and it was that, coupled with the aching loveliness of the romance and the lyrical quality of the writing, that made this book something special.

I've been searching for a book like this for so long, and I'm very happy to have found Madly, Deeply. The story itself is sadness from beginning to end, the setting and world building subtle and vivid, and the characters so easy to love that you feel their pain along with them.

I didn't enjoy the end as much as the rest of the book. I found I was more invested in Annaleigh and William's relationship,  than in William's recovery ad acceptance. I was hoping, right up to the end, for a conventional happy ending, which was dumb on my part, especially since this book is based on Poe. But I enjoyed the story overall.

This book is a powerful love story sure to haunt every reader.

Characters ★★★☆☆

Setting/world building ★★★☆☆

Writing Style ★★★★☆