Joy_B

The cover doesn't do this book justice. This a book that begins in the 1967 Summer of Love and follows the consequences of free love and substance abuse. Three generations of stories unfold exploring the impact of addiction and lies and the struggles and rewards while moving towards sobriety.

Coming to grips with the past, forgiveness and forging a future are the main themes.
The belief that storytelling is healing was explored through out this text and as an avid reader I have to agree.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for this ARC in return for an honest review.


This is a great romp through Tudor history and a wonderful twist on witchy tales. Featuring real historical women shown as competent, adventurous and full of vengeful thoughts and plans.

The story centers around that infamous womanizer Henry the Eighth with his marvelous wives wreaking havoc. It takes the premise what if Anne Boleyn was really a witch and was able to survive the chopping block, join the Hellebore Society along with his previous wives to protect his future wives.

What would the world be like if powerful men were married to witches who steered them towards not conducting wars, funding libraries, schools and expanding the arts to promote cultural activity and medicinal knowledge.

Set in Tudor times the Hellebore Sisterhood was created by Marguerite de Navarre (French: Marguerite d'Angoulême, Marguerite d'Alençon; sister of the French King )
to support witches and promote and acknowledge the intellect of women through education and medicinal knowledge.

She in fact did create women's universities this book takes that real life fact and explores the boundaries of what witch's have to offer.

This book sucked me in from the very beginning and to know it was based on historical facts made it even more engaging. Each character was well rounded and engaging to get to know. Moral ambiguity will make for excellent book group discussions.

This story had me engaged from the very beginning, exploring what it means to be Asian in a white world. As we travel through the story we become increasingly exposed to the dreams and high standards and the work and sacrifice Elizabeth has made to achieve her goals. When she fails to get into Harvard she spirals out of control and uses her intellect in decidedly nefarious ways.

She spirals downward and eventually ends up in the hospital and reevaluated her behavior. The book closes in a way that made me look at how did I feel about this very flawed character. A wonderful way to end a book.