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| Cover copied from Bookshop.org |
As we come to the end of September we draw closer to All Hallow's Eve. This time of year, I love to read and watch things that involve supernatural, spooky stuff whether it be ghosts, witches, or those pesky vampires. I've already reviewed a book about a ghost. So, for this week, I'm focusing on witches.
Along with being very well researched in terms of some of what happened during the real-life Salem Witch Trials, Whispers of the Pale Witch by S.A. Sizemore also carries on the theme of the month around change. In the novel, several characters experience changes. Some involve changes that are physical, such as moving to a new place to start fresh and learn more about one's own heritage. Others involve changes or new beginnings after self-destructive patterns place loved ones in jeopardy. This novel is more than just a thrill ride of suspense and facing down dark magic. It delves into themes of coming into one's own, learning to trust one's own heart to another, and facing secrets or wrongdoings in one's past and accepting responsibility for them. Issues surrounding mental illness and abuse are also tackled.
All of this while also giving us a truly scary villain willing to do whatever it takes to get vengeance on their enemies. It begins on page one with the Pale Witch digging in a cemetery. From there we are invited into a world that is mystical, spooky and full of intrigue and danger. The setting plays into this in as well. It was so vividly portrayed that I felt like I was discovering Salem Massachusetts right along with one of the main characters, Kylie Beckett, who has just moved there. I've never been there before, but after reading this novel I feel like I've traveled there virtually. And don't even get me started on the mysteries and secrets that are revealed bit by bit as Kylie, Elizabeth, and other secondary characters in the novel, all of whom are witches, struggle to understand what happened to one of the scions of their community.
Even though this was a book well over three hundred pages in length, I had no trouble speeding through it. It was a true page-turner that I tried not to read too much late at night. However, I will admit that I am a real weenie when it comes to anything too scary and while there are some very tense moments near the end of this book, I didn't have a problem finishing it. It does delve into some dark stuff, there is murder, violence, and crooked-path style magic that takes place in the story. So, if any of those things might be triggering to you, then be aware of that going in. But if you like edge-of-your seat thrillers that keep you wondering who is even likely to survive to the end, and you enjoy novels that weave together history and magic as part of the plot, then I think you'll truly love Whispers of the Pale Witch by S. A. Sizemore.
As for my next reads and reviews for October, I will be discussing more stories that involve magic and possibly a little mayhem. Two of the books that I'll be reading for October deal with magical library's. The other book that I'm considering reviewing for October involves cryptids and is set in the Appalachian mountains of Pennsylvania. Below are book covers and blurbs for each. Stay tuned to see which one I feature first in October. Each of the covers and blurbs were copied from Bookshop.org. with the exception of The Haunted Librarian. The book cover and blurb for it were both provided by the publisher.
It’s a dark and stormy night…and Amelia Bates is caught in the rain. Life hasn’t always been kind to her, and being a ghostseer certainly doesn’t make things any easier.
Glowing warmly through the autumnal downpour is her safest haven: the library. Amelia, the newly hired librarian, has always relished the comfort of curling up with a novel, vastly preferring it to the company of humans (alive or ghostly).
But Amelia is shocked to discover the building is full of more than quiet stories and warm cups of tea. There are curious, talkative patrons, a shy, bespectacled head librarian who makes her heart skip a beat, and three quirky spirits causing paranormal havoc that endangers the future of the library.
To help the ghosts and save the building, Amelia will have to gather all her bravery and wits, because learning to trust others might just be the first step to a happily ever after she only thought was possible in books.
Emrys Swift is so dead. One hundred and fifty seven years worth of dead, to be exact. He’s a Revenant, nightcursed, destined to be stuck being seventeen forever. Hidden away, he spends his infinite days as an undead librarian of witchlore at the NeverEnd library–until a new Revenant arrives and magical artifacts start going missing, jeopardizing his beloved home.
Emrys’s mortal enemy and annoyingly attractive shapeshifter Aubrey Vale is determined to solve the mystery–with Emrys’s help. Suddenly Emrys and Aubrey are magically bonded together on a quest into the dark and frost-bitten world of night-kin. But as Emrys and Aubrey interrogate ghosts and face drowning by mermaids, deathly creatures aren’t the only spectres haunting them. With the ghoulish Night Hunt chasing them down, can they outrun the secrets of Emrys’ death and Aubrey’s life? And if they can save NeverEnd’s future, can they have a future together?
Hauntingly gorgeous and tender, Emma Hinds’ Nightcurse is both a Gothic mystery and an enemies-to-lovers romance about navigating life and love in the face of death.
Rae Bennett, a morally ambiguous college student raised by the local ax throwing gym, is doing her best to assimilate into adulthood after a tumultuous upbringing set her back in every way. Then, Fox Winter crashes into her life on an ice float in the creek. He's a frozen corpse when she finds him, only to violently wake and take off into the woods before she can figure out what's really going on.
She finds him again two weeks later when her sister goes missing at the rustic wedding venue run by the Winter family. Dragging Fox back into her life against his will, Rae enlists him to aid in the search for her sister. He has only one rule for their tentative new relationship-don't go into the woods-which she flouts liberally to get to the bottom of things. With a reluctant Fox in tow, she discovers the darkest parts of the forest full of centuries old legends and dangerous secrets surrounding his family.
In the dead of winter, a twisted tradition unfurls with supernatural shifters and their arranged marriages to kidnapped humans-her sister being one of them. Rae fights to rescue her sister before the tradition is complete, all while warring with a traitorous heart that begins to fall for one of the Winter villains. Somewhere along the way, she starts fighting for more than just her sister, hoping to rescue the man she loves, as well.
But in the end, she may only be able to save one of them.
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