Epeolatry Book Review: Draakensky by Paula Cappa

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Title: Draakensky
Author: Paula Cappa
Genre: Fantasy, Magical Realism
Publisher: Crystal Lake Publishing
Date: 27th September, 2024
Synopsis: The Chief of Police discovers an elderly woman dead in the Mianus River. There is a ghost who resides here and flings its words through the spinning air. River magic too, streams across Draakensky Windmill estate, conjuring a secret in Bedford, New York.
Sketch artist Charlotte Knight arrives on Draakensky to a bright opportunity. She is hired to illustrate the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke under the direction of Jaa Morland, the recluse spinster of Draakensky. Jaa, a believer in ghosts, instructs Charlotte to ‘draw the ghosts.’
From the first night, Charlotte hears the watery voice of Draakensky’s ghost speak to her. Sinister dark eyes watch at the window. Fear mounts when a strange man stalks her through the village cemetery and shops. When a wicked force of nature strikes Charlotte, warning her to flee Draakensky, she is shaken to the bone.
Needing solid ground, Charlotte meets the local restaurant owner, Marc Sexton, who knows the ghostly Otherworld and the magickal practices from his Celtic ancestry; he sports a silver wolf amulet at his neck. Their romance takes Charlotte into a piercing adventure through darkness and doubt, passion and aching love.
As dark magick accelerates on Draakensky, Charlotte is driven into realms of owl magick, witchcraft, and necromancy. She battles her own fear of ghosts and wrestles with how to trust Marc Sexton, a man with hidden realities.
If magick is destiny, then Charlotte must survive the world of ghosts or surrender to a more powerful source in this literary tale of mystery, sorcery, and love.
Here’s my secret – I’m a believer in magic. Even if I possess none, I’ve always wished for magic to pour from my hands, or heart, and hoping I’d receive an invitation to Hogwarts. I’ve often found myself immersed in books or shows with the theme of witches and magic. Like Anne Rice’s The Witching Hour or Deborah Harkness’ A Discovery of Witches. I grew up with Sabrina the Teenage Witch, the original version, and now the newer, darker Sabrina Netflix series. Think of what you could accomplish with magic. Who wouldn’t want to bend and meld the elements, write spells, and mix tinctures and teas? You could fix a broken bone. Perform a miracle. Take away someone’s fear. Or, on the flip side, you could ensnare your crushes’ heart without a thought of their free will. Paralyze your enemies. Fix the lottery in your favor. There’s good and evil in magic, and this book is no exception.
There is darkness at the beginning, a foreboding which I relished. I was intrigued and filled with allure reading about the ghost of Draakensky and the old woman in the windmill house. I was ready to consume Cappa’s work while learning about the parallels of Charlotte’s ghost witch experiences.
Anytime the story veered toward the author’s ghosts, the sister’s relationship, and the antagonist’s story, I wanted to keep reading. Honestly, there wasn’t enough of this plotline for me.
The book boasts romance, which has a Red Riding Hood feel. And while it was okay, I couldn’t sink my teeth into the coupling. It didn’t feel real enough. The meet-cute was too ordinary, and the chemistry was lacking between the two. I hoped for a hypnotic, unstoppable, unhinged pairing in this ghost-filled, magical world.
From here, unfortunately, I had a hard time connecting emotionally to Charlotte’s character. At the beginning of the book, there is an unclear sense of what Charlotte wants. It’s there, but it’s murky and watered down. There’s potential for understanding Charlotte deeper if Cappa had capitalized and explored further into what this character desired and why it should matter. Without getting my head around what the main character yearned for and connected with, I often questioned her actions and motivation throughout the story.
There were no sparks, no emotion, nothing got under my skin with Charlotte. She did not jump off the page for me, and there are no defining traits besides her career choice of sketching. I didn’t know what she stood for. Maybe if there had been more passion behind the why of her career. Some deep-seated reason she must sketch, as if it were sustenance that fed her soul? But we don’t learn why it’s important to her until the middle of the book, and even then, there are only two sentences that the main character is non-committal about.
Charlotte goes through a lot of strife and turmoil at Draakensky. I mean A LOT. She endures many otherworldly, magical, out-of-place things that aren’t typical. And some scary. I had chills at one point when reading a scene involving the ghost of Draakensky and Charlotte. I would never sleep in that house again if I’d been the main character after that experience. But not Charlotte; she sticks around like someone who’s been told it’s the last call but is too intoxicated to find the door.
So many times, I wondered about the stakes for Charlotte. Why does she HAVE to stay to finish this project? Because she could have easily gone back to her life in Chicago. One stray possibility I’m clinging to is – Charolotte might have been slightly bewitched, and it was more of a compulsion to stay and sketch. If so, I wish it were clearer because I would like this type of conflict. At this point, Charlotte’s desires become more transparent, and I find some understanding in her decisions.
I did like the idea of elemental, animal, and creative magic. But it was also a letdown at times. There was a lot of hinting at magic with certain characters, like my eyes were playing tricks on me. Do they have powers or not? And we don’t find out until the end of the book. It’s possible we needed more understanding of each character’s motivation and reasoning for withholding information.
I wish I had more positive things to say about this book, but what I disliked about this book outweighed the finer points for me.
/5