A review by literaryland_livin
Salt & Broom by Sharon Lynn Fisher

3.5

Jane Aire is finally being tasked with her first adventure as a healer. One that takes her far from her sheltered home and onto the cursed grounds of Thornfield Hall. Jane is met by not only haunted halls but also its reclusive master Edward Rochester. It becomes apparent that the manor’s threats are much more sinister than originally thought. And the more darkness Jane encounters the more she sees that her protective charms and herbs are far from enough to combat these evils.

Salt & Broom takes Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel and adds a witchy mix to it in this retelling. Admittedly, I’m a big lover of the original gothic tale that this book is inspired after so personally for me I had extremely high expectations. I enjoyed the added magically elements especially the twist of Jane being a witch who has to fight a curse, makeing this book a perfect fall reading addition. However while I enjoyed these fantastical additions it ultimately fell flat when it came to the following thru on some of the plots main aspects. One example of this is when we learn of Jane’s lineage and the role this plays on her magical abilities. We are given this hugely impactful detail yet it’s just briefly mentioned, leaving me wishing for more lore and information. The book also is told thur almost exclusively Jane’s POV with Edward only having a few chapters from his perspective, making the attraction between the two feel insta love with lack of any build up. If we had gotten more of Edward’s POV this would have added in showing the depth of his emotions/feelings towards Jane which could have helped in the strong insta love of it all. As far as retellings go this one definitely brought loads of fall reading vibes with its witchy and paranormal twists, however I had just hoped for a tad more with this one which lead to me just wishing to read the original Jane Eyre.