5 Stars

I’m so excited to now have a new favorite author in a genre I really never expected to have one in.

This story is told in two different timelines with two different characters, Margaret and Augusta. Margaret Harlowe is from a very wealthy family and is the only daughter with older brothers who are also successful and have found their way in the world. Margaret never feels like she has fit in with her family and has a very special connection with nature that gives her powers, powers that would get a woman shunned in her day and age.

One hundred and fifty years later Augusta is working as a tour guide in a jail but has just landed her dream job at Harlowe House. While working there Augusta starts to feel a very strong connection to Margaret and starts to have what she thinks are hallucinations, hallucinations where she is Margaret and is viewing everything through her eyes. Are they really hallucinations or are these works of magic?

This was my first book I’ve ever read by Hester Fox and I’m immediately smitten. Her writing style is amazing and kept my attention throughout the entire book which is pretty hard to do when historical fiction is thrown into the mix, it normally would bore me to tears but I could not put this book down. I’m known to love any story that has any inkling of witches thrown in but this was by far one of the best ones I’ve read.

I also wasn’t expecting there to be romance in this book but I was pleasantly surprised when there was and it wasn’t overly detailed. The romance flowed very nicely and I loved the two characters and how sweet they were.

Hester Fox also does a fantastic job of putting domestic abuse, rape, and eating disorders into her work but take that as a trigger warning if any of these topics are off limits for you. It is done so well though that I barely noticed them for the most part and it wasn’t a main focal point of the story.

I have now purchased every other book written by Hester Fox and I can’t wait to dig into those as well!

Many thanks to Harlequin Trade Publishing and Graydon House for the gifted copy for my honest review!