Black Candle Women by Diane Marie Brown

e-Audio, 12:13:26
Narrated by: Bahni Turpin 
Release Date: February 28, 2023
Published by: Harlequin Audio
Read from: February 20-22, 2023
Stand-alone
Source: Libro FM
TW: Death
For Readers Interested In: Family Dynamics, Racial/Ethnic Diversity, Family Diversity (Dad passed away) , Adult, General Fiction, Fantasy/Magic

     Generations of Montrose women—Augusta, Victoria, Willow—have lived together in their quaint two-story bungalow in California for years. They keep to themselves, never venture far from home, and their collection of tinctures and spells is an unspoken bond between them.
     But when seventeen-year-old Nickie Montrose brings home a boy for the first time, their quiet lives are thrown into disarray. For the other women have been withholding a secret from Nickie that will end her relationship before it’s even begun: the decades-old family curse that any person they fall in love with dies.
     For each member of the household, revealing this truth to Nickie also means reckoning with their own past choices and mistakes. And as new questions about long-held family beliefs emerge, the women are set on a collision course dating back to a voodoo shop in 1950s New Orleans’s French Quarter—where a hidden story in a mysterious book may just hold the answers they seek in life and in love… 

*MY THOUGHTS*

Listen I have a big habit of requesting with my eyes. And this one is no different. Because let me tell you, this cover is BEAUTIFUL! I’m talking I stopped what I was doing to request this. I knew it wasn’t going to happen since I don’t usually read adult, but I got lucky and snagged this on Libro FM.

Once I started reading the book, I didn’t know how to feel about it. I finished it in two days because I was so invested. The writing style was so good! Even the immediate changing of the different POVs didn’t bother me. The way she portrayed the family dynamics and the way she was able to give all of them a different personality. I thought it was really good.

Along with that I was more enraptured because I love the narrator. Bahni Turpin is one of my favorites and I loved that she was narrating it. To be honest, I think I liked it a little more because of the fact that she narrated it. The way she let her voice dip and change, and how she changed her voice for all the characters. It always makes it better for me.

But with that being said, I still waffled back and forth on what to rate this. Although I liked certain parts of it, I really thought it needed either more magic or needed the mafic done in a way where it was more explained or go more into depth on it. But this has none of that. And I couldn’t decide if I wanted to take off for that because I didn’t like it or if it just wasn’t what I was expecting. Like even from the synopsis I thought it was going to have hoo-doo and New Orleans vibes and stuff. But it had none of that either. It was very telly and not showy. And even when there was magic, it was always done perfect. And like, a girl that age who didn’t even believe the curse and magic was real, I just knew something was going to go wrong. But nothing happened. And I thought that was an easy something to add into the story. I just thought from the way the synopsis was told and the way the cover was it shouldn’t have read so much like general fiction.

I had no idea what to rate this. I repeat, I wanted to make sure I was rating this on how the book actually WAS and not my expectations of what I wanted for the book. So y’all give it a read and let me know what you all think about it!

Overall, I give this

Real rating is 3.5. On Goodreads I gave it 3.0

Take Me Away

Diverse Book Blogger. Diverse YA Librarian. Wonder Woman enthusiast. Bookish Blerd. "GryffinClaw" Geek extraordinaire. Pitbull mom. She/her linktr.ee/take_me_awayyy