spellbook of katrina van tassel

The Spellbook of Katrina Van Tassel: A Story of Sleepy Hollow may be the first book by Alyssa Palombo, but I guess I can check that. nope, she wrote a few other things before this  Maybe she’s too young to remember the Tim Burton movie "Sleepy Hollow" from 1999 with Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane and Christina Ricci as Katrina Van Tassel but she is certainly aware of Washington Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" from 1820, and she's a big fan. I don't recall the Tim Burton movie that well, but it came out in 1999, and I'm guessing she was a kid then. "Sleepy Hollow" was more of a murder mystery with spooky ghost tie-ins, a la Scooby Doo.

The spellbook in the title is just about the only place you'll find a spellbook in this novel. I get the creeping suspicion that someone (editor, publisher ?) suggested the title, or at least that part of it. Van Tassel does keep a diary, and I guess she may have scribbled the ingredients for an herbal tincture that her friend, the healer, gave her, but I'm not sure that makes it a spellbook. Certainly not enough of a spellbook to name a novel after. oooo, maybe this is the spellbook? nope

Otherwise, this book was okay. I thought Palombo may have been a little more detailed during the sex scenes--which showed up a little more frequently--than she needed to, which gives the whole story an little bit an Historical Romance* vibe. Van Tassel is a strong female lead, and does what she needs to do to stick up for herself in a time and place where women aren't typically given the opportunity to stand up for themselves. Palombo set this book in Sleepy Hollow, of course, but at an earlier time period that other interpretations. Washington refuses to run for a second term, and John Adams takes over as the second president during this story arc of this novel.

 

* See my note about 'bodice ripper' romance novels and the associated footnotes and links on this recent post.