The Witch's Tree - Elena Collins

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Author: Elena Collins

Genre: Historical Fiction, Dual Timeline
Rating: 2.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: Outlier opinion alert! Would have worked better for me had it been faster and had I not read another book with a similar storyline. Too much of déjà vu!

Story Synopsis:
Present day, England. When her married lover dumps her, landscape artist and gallery co-owner Selena takes a break in Somerset valley. The cosy Sloe Cottage appeals to her artistic sensibilities. However, she soon starts feeling a strange vide from the past. What secrets is Sloe Cottage trying to whisper in her ears?
1682. Grace Cotter is mostly content with her lot in life, taking care of her old grandma and her sick father, and working as a milkmaid on a nearby farm. But when her eye falls on the farmer’s son Nathaniel, the troubles in her life begin. With rumours and gossip always abundant in a small village especially when it comes to single women, what lies in store for Grace?
The story comes to us in the third person perspectives of Selena and Grace.


Where the book worked for me:
😍 Loved, loved, loved the cover! Perfect for the story!

😍 I liked Grace. Her character was nicely developed and she seemed to fit into her historical era. Other than Grace, only Grace’s Gran has enough of a personality to make her stand out in the historical timeline.

😍 Many of the secondary characters in the contemporary timeline are quite appealing, with their varied interests and varied personalities. They aren’t as layered as I would have liked them to be, but still, they add value to the timeline.

😍 I liked the atmosphere. The blackthorn tree (which also appears on the book cover) serves as the perfect deliverer of spooks and creeps. This was one rare occasion where I enjoyed the contemporary timeline better than the historical one, simply because of the atmosphere.

😍 The descriptions of the places in Somerset are amazing. Made me wish I could go there for a peek!

😍 The historical research is good and this is evident from both the timelines. All aspects of the 17th century seem to be spot on.

😍 Unlike typical dual timeline stories, the character perspectives don’t change with the change of a chapter. Rather, many times, there is a shift from Grace to Selena (or vice versa) within the same chapter. But these are marked clearly. I liked this unusual approach of writing the dual perspective, though I am not sure how this would work with other readers.


Where the book could have worked better for me:
😢 It was sloooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! Took me ages to complete. I felt like a person climbing UP on the DOWN escalator – the percentage indicator wasn’t moving upward fast enough!

😢 There is a great deal of repetition in the writing, especially in the dialogues which sound quite unnatural at times. Like, if I were to tell my dad, “Next Sunday is Christmas day, the 25th of December, when our Lord was born into the world”, I am sure he would look at me as if I have lost my marbles. Even the scenes gets repetitive after a while. The book would have been much more impactful had it lost a hundred pages of such fillers.

😕 Selena is supposed to be 38 but acts nothing like her age. (Is 38 the new 28 of fiction, I wonder?) She seems very short-sighted at times.

😕 All the characters other than the ones I’ve mentioned so far are uni-dimensional caricatures. Flat, not layered, boring. David was the worst prig of all.

😕 Unlike what the tagline says, it is not timeslip!

😕 The book might have worked better with me if I hadn't read this kind of storyline before. Unfortunately it felt quite similar to The Visitor by Sara Sartagne. Of course, I am not saying that the story has been plagiarised. There are only SO many stories in the world after all. But as I had read the other book just a few months ago, I couldn’t enjoy this one as much as a lot of the plot was similar.


I might have been more forgiving of the problems had this been a debut writer. But the author’s note confirms that this is the pseudonym of a prolific romcom writer. As such, I can’t ignore what didn’t work for me. My high expectations because of that gorgeous cover didn’t help matters.

That said, you might like it better, as mine is pretty much an outlier opinion. Do read the other reviews before you make up your mind about this one.

My thanks to Boldwood Books and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Witch's Tree”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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