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Book Reviewed by:For fans of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, an inventive and romantic speculative novel about two women—a witch and an immortal demon—who make a Faustian bargain and are drawn into a cat-and-mouse chase across multiple lifetimes.
1592. Cybil Harding is a First Daughter. Cursed to bring disaster to those around her, she is trapped in a house with a mother paralyzed by grief and a father willing to sacrifice everything in pursuit of magic.
Miriam Richter is a creature of shadow. Forged by the dark arts many years ago, she is doomed to exist for eternity and destined to be alone—killing mortals and consuming their souls for sustenance. Everything changes when she meets Cybil, whose soul shines with a light so bright, she must claim it for herself. She offers a bargain: she will grant Cybil reincarnation in exchange for her soul.
Thus begins a dance across centuries as Miriam seeks Cybil in every lifetime to claim her prize. Cybil isn't inclined to play by the rules, but when it becomes clear that Miriam holds the key to breaking her family curse, Cybil finds that—for the first time in her many lives—she might have the upper hand. As they circle each other, drawn together inescapably as light and dark, the bond forged between them grows stronger. In their battle for dominance, only one of them can win—but perhaps they can't survive without each other.
Natasha Siegel has written an unexpected love story that feels both epic and deeply personal. Ambitious, gothic, and magical, As Many Souls as Stars is about the lengths we go to protect ourselves, our legacy, and those we love.
Excerpt
As Many Souls as Stars
Cybil Harding was born on Christmas Eve, 1576, under inauspicious stars. Her father had drawn the chart himself; it told him that his daughter was destined for an early death, that she would bring calamity to those she loved and those who loved her. But that was hardly surprising, after all. She was a First Daughter, and a First Daughter was always cursed.
It was clearly laid out in the family grimoire, passed down between generations of Harding witches and written in ink that was no longer blood but might once have been: the firstborn child of each Harding generation would be a witch. But if that witch was a girl, then the grimoire was very clear. No woman could bear the weight of such power. She would be tainted, her magic uncontrollable, bringing disaster to all those around her.
Some would call the Harding inheritance evil, even Satanic. The grimoire spoke of dealings with shadows, a dark bargain made in years forgotten that had traded pieces of each ...
The sexual tension is strong between the two main characters throughout the novel, and Siegel emphasizes their physical closeness and attraction in multiple key scenes... The story is a playful, charged cat-in-mouse game—while Miriam is ostensibly hunting Cybil/Esther/Rosamund down for her soul, and the Harding in each generation is ostensibly focused on breaking the curse, the characters often become distracted by their desire for one another...continued
Full Review
(633 words)
(Reviewed by Maria Katsulos).
S.T. Gibson, author of A Dowry of Blood
Dark longing waltzes hand-in-hand with historical elegance in this hypnotic gothic tale. Sunyi Dean, bestselling author of The Book Eaters
With lyrical writing and a poet's touch, Siegel delivers an epic story of deep loneliness, tormented love, and one woman's quest to set herself free--no matter how many lives she must be born into.
The history of witch hunting in Europe is broad and varies by locale and time period. However, one of the unifying factors across these different contexts is the Malleus Maleficarum—translated as the "Hammer of Witches"—a 1487 German handbook on witchcraft that inspired witch hunt movements for centuries after its publication. Written by Heinrich Kramer, a professor of theology and inquisitor in Austria who was given authority by Pope Innocent VIII to investigate and prosecute cases of sorcery, the Malleus Maleficarum includes descriptions of witches, condemnation of them, and legal procedures to be followed while conducting witch trials, including torture and burning at a stake (the traditional punishment for religious ...
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