Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Feb 2023
336 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
A Today Show #ReadWithJenna Book Club Pick
A warm and wry family drama with a magical twist about four generations of Black women living under one roof and the family curse that stems back to a Voodoo shop in 1950s New Orleans.
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.
Their surprise guest forces each woman to reckon with her own past choices and mistakes. And as new truths about the curse emerge, the family is 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…
"Brown deftly portrays an insular family of women in all of its complicated glory...The spiritual angle gives this powerful family drama a magical twist that will delight readers." - Booklist (starred review)
"For fans of intergenerational family dramas, this magical twist on the genre will prove refreshing." - Publishers Weekly
Propulsive and poignant, Black Candle Women concocts an intoxicating potion of warmth, wisdom, and wonder. I was completely and gladly under Ms. Brown's spell." - Ava DuVernay
"Richly imagined and elegantly told, with plenty of satisfying secrets, heartaches, and twists. Black Candle Women is a promising debut." - Sadeqa Johnson, international bestselling author of Yellow Wife and The House of Eve
"A spellbinding romp. This book will have you asking yourself, who amongst us isn't cursed? More importantly, how far would you go for a chance at love?" - Carolyn Huynh, author of GMA Book Club Pick The Fortunes of Jaded Women
"Written with warmth and an eye for detail, Diane Marie Brown's Black Candle Women explores the bonds of family and the magical power of belief to transform our lives." - Shaunna J. Edwards and Alyson Richman, authors of The Thread Collectors
"Black Candle Women is a bold and tender story about three generations of women each attempting to find their way amidst the gifts and curses they've inherited. This novel is a wondrous celebration of womanhood." - Cleyvis Natera, author of Neruda on the Park
This information about Black Candle Women was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Diane Marie Brown is a professor at Orange Coast College and a public health professional for the Long Beach Health Department. She has a BA and MPH from UCLA and a degree in fiction from USC's Master of Professional Writing Program. She grew up in Stockton and now lives in Long Beach, California, with her husband, their four daughters, and their dog, Brownie. Black Candle Women is her debut novel.
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