Katrina returns home after years away, only to find herself facing the family she left behind—and the curse that has haunted the Blackthorn women for generations. Her return coincides with the year of the snakes, a rare and unsettling phenomenon when serpents seem to rise from everywhere.
The Blackthorn family is made up of extraordinary women, each gifted with their own kind of power. Some can charm, some craft potions, and others can sense emotions and thoughts. But despite their abilities, they’re all struggling with burdens of their own while trying to break free from the curse that binds them together.
Dark, atmospheric, and filled with family secrets, magic, and complicated relationships, this story pulled me in from the beginning. I especially enjoyed the way the different generations of women came together and how their strengths—and flaws—shaped the story.
This is definitely a darker read, but one I ended up really loving.
A terrible family curse threatens four generations of women in a spellbinding novel of haunting secrets, magic, and healing by the Edgar Award-nominated author of The Taken Ones.
After her husband's infidelity, devastated Katrine Blackthorn reluctantly returns to Faith Falls, Minnesota, to her family's Queen Anne mansion on the hill and the magic that binds them all.
Her grandmother Velda charms everyone she meets. Her mother, Ursula, is a brewer of potions who sees a threat around every corner. And there's her estranged sister, Jasmine, broken by something no one will name. With Katrine's return, all that the Blackthorns have feared seems to be manifesting. The snakes amassing with the spring thaw and the stranger who's rolled into town are just the first omens threatening the fragile peace the family is rebuilding.
Now Katrine must face the darkest secret of her lineage and rediscover her own magic if the Blackthorn women are to survive.
Revised edition: Previously published as The Catalain Book of Secrets, this edition of The Blackthorn Women includes editorial revisions.