This ravishing debut novel is a ghost story, spun with a romance, woven with a mystery, and shot through with fairytale. Charlotte Miller has always scoffed at talk of a curse on her family's woollen mill, which holds her beloved small town together. But after her father's death, the bad luck piles up: departing workers, impossible debts, an overbearing uncle. Then a stranger named Jack Spinner offers a tempting proposition: he can turn straw into gold thread, for the small price of her mother's ring. As Charlotte is drawn deeper into her bargains with Spinner-and a romance with the local banker-she must unravel the truth of the curse on the mill and save the community she's always called home.
[b:A Curse Dark as Gold|1743390|A Curse Dark as Gold|Elizabeth C. Bunce|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1286811706s/1743390.jpg|1741046] is one of the better written books I've read recently. The setting and time and culture of the 1700s in a society that believes heavily in superstition and the otherworldy is vividly evoked. Even secondary characters are well developed enough, though ages are hard to determine.
About two thirds of the way through I couldn't stand Charlotte Miller and was calling her things I could not repeat aloud. I get that the story had to progress to a certain point, but her obstinate choices drove me crazy, especially since she knew a different choice would be better and still she didn't do it. But I kept reading beyond that, because I knew it was a fairy tale so I trusted in a happy ending. And it was better than I would have guessed, so I liked that.
