Katherine Howe – Rosepoint Publishing

**I am so delighted today to provide a review for you on National Book Lovers Day (I think you’re gonna love this one!) at my blog stop for The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs (The Physick Book 2) by Katherine Howe on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours.** Scroll down to enter your chance to win the Giveaway!

Book Details

The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs: A Novel
Occult Fiction
Henry Holt and Co. (June 25, 2019)
Hardcover: 352 pages
ISBN-10: 1250304865
ISBN-13: 978-1250304865
Kindle ASIN: B07HF3MDDH

Book Blurb

New York Times bestselling author Katherine Howe returns to the world of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane with a bewitching story of a New England history professor who must race against time to free her family from a curse.

Connie Goodwin is an expert on America’s fractured past with witchcraft. A young, tenure-track professor in Boston, she’s earned career success by studying the history of magic in colonial America—especially women’s home recipes and medicines—and by exposing society’s threats against women fluent in those skills. But beyond her studies, Connie harbors a secret: She is the direct descendant of a woman tried as a witch in Salem, an ancestor whose abilities were far more magical than the historical record shows.

When a hint from her mother and clues from her research lead Connie to the shocking realization that her partner’s life is in danger, she must race to solve the mystery behind a hundreds’-years-long deadly curse.

Flashing back through American history to the lives of certain supernaturally gifted women, The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs affectingly reveals not only the special bond that unites one particular matriarchal line, but also explores the many challenges to women’s survival across the decades—and the risks some women are forced to take to protect what they love most.

My Review

If I see a book regarding the historic trials of Salem, witch lore, or the study thereof, I’m there and this book went beyond just a simple fiction novel of the impression of witches. I’ve always found the subject fascinating, because…there is so much we don’t know that we don’t know and fortunately, this book sheds the light on many of those nuances.

Connie Goodwin is deeply embroiled in her role as a tenure-track professor at Northeastern University. She is so close, but she must, absolutely MUST, finish the book that she has under contract. She’s getting there. But there are her students and mid-terms to think about, one of whom Esperanza Molina (Zazi for short) has secured her special interest. At home is Sam Hartley, with whom she has apparently lived for ten years (as this is the second in the Physick series, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane debuting some time ago). I did not read the first but had no problem getting right into this one, dazzled by the world of academia and the crunch for advancement. Connie is thirty-four and trying to forestall everything else until she attains her tenure when she discovers she is pregnant.

She may have been so fully embroiled in her life at the university that she missed all the signs, but her mother picks it up instantly and throws a real wrinkle in her plans. She is aware she is a descendant of a witch tried in Salem (and found guilty) and her mother begins a campaign to safeguard her grandchild. Connie must choose between her child or Sam and she begins a manic journey to uncover the secret of the curse and find a way to stave off the centuries-old curse in a lengthy and detailed dive into family history.

I loved the accounts of the dissertation struggles and the history of the evolution of white magic, particularly in colonial New England, the research into her lineage using old, old records as well as a thoughtful dissection of the changes resulting from the Reformation of the Catholic church.

I enjoyed the Interludes that take us back to Easthorpe (Essex, England) in 1661 through the family fleeing to America and several succeeding generations. As Connie begins to unearth her history and narrow down her matriarchal ties, she finds an extremely important clue left behind by one and the race to the finish begins, introducing “recipes” with mysterious ingredients and incantations.

There are many points of interest that would make for a lively book club discussion and further research and kept an engaging set to the well-plotted novel. The author has an entertaining writing style and the postlude provides a notable postscript.

I received this digital download from the publisher through NetGalley for this blog tour and greatly appreciated the opportunity to read and review.

Giveaway

Sign up for your chance to win One of (3) Print Copies of The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs: A Novel by Katherine Howe U.S. only in this Rafflecopter giveaway

About the Author

Katherine Howe is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane and The House of Velvet and Glass, as well as the young adult novels, Conversion and The Appearance of Annie van Sinderen. She served as editor of The Penguin Book of Witches and her fiction has been translated into over twenty languages. Descended from three women who were tried for witchcraft in Salem, she and her family live in New England and New York City, where she is at work on her next novel.

Twitter: @katherinebhowe

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katherinebhowe

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