Author: Paige Crutcher
Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Publication Date: September 2021
Genre: Fantasy / Women’s Fiction
Buy the Book: Amazon | BN | Audible
Description: A deeper magic. A stronger curse. A family lost...and found.
Persephone May has been alone her entire life. Abandoned as an infant and dragged through the foster care system, she wants nothing more than to belong somewhere. To someone. However, Persephone is as strange as she is lonely. Unexplainable things happen when she’s around―changes in weather, inanimate objects taking flight―and those who seek to bring her into their family quickly cast her out. To cope, she never gets attached, never makes friends. And she certainly never dates. Working odd jobs and always keeping her suitcases half-packed, Persephone is used to moving around, leaving one town for another when curiosity over her eccentric behavior inevitably draws unwanted attention.
After an accidental and very public display of power, Persephone knows it’s time to move on once again. It’s lucky, then, when she receives an email from the one friend she’s managed to keep, inviting her to the elusive Wile Isle. The timing couldn’t be more perfect. However, upon arrival, Persephone quickly discovers that Wile is no ordinary island. In fact, it just might hold the very things she’s been searching for her entire life.
Answers. Family. Home.
And some things she did not want. Like 100-year-old curses and an even older family feud. With the clock running out, love might be the magic that saves them all.
My Thoughts: I very much enjoyed this debut novel by Paige Crutcher that introduces the reader to a young woman who just wants to belong and fit in somewhere, to find her people. Persephone is a witch and has had to learn the hard way to keep most parts of herself isolated from others as unusual and sometimes scary things happen when Persephone allows anyone to get close to her. While working at a coffee shop where a nearly disastrous and deadly event occurs, Persephone realizes her time there is at an end and it is time, once again, to move on. Persephone is used to moving on as she has bounced from foster family to foster family her entire life. Persephone accepts an invitation from a friend to come visit her at Wile Isle off the coast of North Carolina. When Persephone arrives, she realizes that she isn’t the only one with unusual gifts and learns that she is the key to breaking a curse that has torn her family apart. I did find it a little odd how quickly Persephone adapts to this news with a sense of full acceptance.
This story was really interesting and I was intrigued at the role Persephone plays in the island’s history. Meeting her cousins Hyacinth and Moira should have been just what Persephone was searching for, but it brought more questions and the revelation of more secrets. Additional characters Ariel and her sister Ellison were interesting as it gave me the feeling that there was much more to the island’s history that Persephone was told and I had a sense of not knowing who could be trusted.
I loved the magical world building that Crutcher creates in this story, not only the island but otherworldly locations, like the Library of the Lost that Persephone finds herself able to cross through worlds to enter. There, she meets the intriguing librarian, Dorian, who has plenty of his own secrets but is integral to Persephone’s success with breaking the curse.
My Final Verdict: The story moves at an exceptional pace and the audiobook narration performed by Saskia Maarleveld was captivating. I am looking forward to reading more of this author’s work. I highly recommend this book to readers who gravitate to paranormal themes. Readers who also relish the fantasy genre will find this story enjoyable.
Thank you to the publisher, Macmillan Audio, who provided an advance reader copy of this audiobook via NetGalley.
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